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[Furtuka]

I'm still feeling weirded out that a few days ago I managed to write a paper for a literature class based entirely on a piece of symbolism/metaphor I managed to put together using the large amounts of obscure trivia related to the history of the transformers franchise floating around in my head. AND AS FAR AS I CAN TELL IT FIT PERFECTLY.

[Flying Dice]

Dude, 75% of literary academic work is making shit up. As long as you can build a reasoned argument supporting it, you won't be dismissed out-of-hand. And if you're talking to one of the idiots that worships at the altar of universally valid personal interpretations literally anything will fly, even if it blatantly contradicts factual knowledge and you can't support it with anything more than "But that's what I think it means and I've been taught that I'm always right no matter what sort of nonsensical garbage I say!".

[Furtuka]

Well it was a manga class to be exact, but the part I'm weirded out by was that I never expected that knowledge to actually be useful

[Flying Dice]

Heh, that's one of the true secrets of the humanities: all knowledge is useful. Even if the only use it ever serves is making you look insightful for a few minutes in an irrelevant little chunk of your life.

Honestly, I'd expect less bullshit (albeit of a different sort) from classes dealing with things that aren't traditional capital-L Literature, mostly because there isn't the accumulated detritus of centuries of past interpretation coloring bloody everything.

[Bohandas]

Dude, 75% of literary academic work is making shit up. As long as you can build a reasoned argument supporting it, you won't be dismissed out-of-hand. And if you're talking to one of the idiots that worships at the altar of universally valid personal interpretations literally anything will fly, even if it blatantly contradicts factual knowledge and you can't support it with anything more than "But that's what I think it means and I've been taught that I'm always right no matter what sort of nonsensical garbage I say!".

I'd like to see somebody try to argue that Plan 9 From Outer Space is a metaphor for the Iraq War. Everything about it fits, except for the fact that Plan 9 predates the war by 40 years.

[Lord Shonus]

Dude, 75% of literary academic work is making shit up. As long as you can build a reasoned argument supporting it, you won't be dismissed out-of-hand. And if you're talking to one of the idiots that worships at the altar of universally valid personal interpretations literally anything will fly, even if it blatantly contradicts factual knowledge and you can't support it with anything more than "But that's what I think it means and I've been taught that I'm always right no matter what sort of nonsensical garbage I say!".

I'd like to see somebody try to argue that Plan 9 From Outer Space is a metaphor for the Iraq War. Everything about it fits, except for the fact that Plan 9 predates the war by 40 years.

That never stopped people from trying to claim that Lord Of The Rings was an allegory for Hitler, WWII, and the atomic bomb, never mind that the framework of the story was set down in the thirties, and it was mostly finished by 1942. 99.99% of all "symbolism" in literature analysis is bunk anyway.

[Arx]

My Firefox is glitching out and superimposing tabs on each other. Reading technical papers about using vetiver as a phytoremediator with FD's avatar next to them was briefly confusing. I present a brief snippet of my thought process:

"Where the heck is FD posting about this? I'm pretty sure I'd remember a thread like that."

[Flying Dice]

How strange, I can't recall publishing any work regarding the treatment of heavy metal soil contamination. 

[XXXXYYYY]

Dude, 75% of literary academic work is making shit up. As long as you can build a reasoned argument supporting it, you won't be dismissed out-of-hand. And if you're talking to one of the idiots that worships at the altar of universally valid personal interpretations literally anything will fly, even if it blatantly contradicts factual knowledge and you can't support it with anything more than "But that's what I think it means and I've been taught that I'm always right no matter what sort of nonsensical garbage I say!".

I'd like to see somebody try to argue that Plan 9 From Outer Space is a metaphor for the Iraq War. Everything about it fits, except for the fact that Plan 9 predates the war by 40 years.

No man, you got it backwards. The Iraq war is a metaphor for Plan 9, obviously. It all fits!

[penguinofhonor]

.

[Darvi]

Turns out the Illuminati only manipulate world politics to make references to bad movies.

TBH that sounds exactly like my MO.

[Xantalos]

Dude, an billion% of literary academic work is making shit up. As long as you can build a reasoned argument supporting it, you won't be dismissed out-of-hand. And if you're talking to one of the idiots that worships at the altar of universally valid personal interpretations literally anything will fly, even if it blatantly contradicts factual knowledge and you can't support it with anything more than "But that's what I think it means and I've been taught that I'm always right no matter what sort of nonsensical garbage I say!".

FTFY

[Helgoland]

Dude, 75% of literary academic work is making shit up. As long as you can build a reasoned argument supporting it, you won't be dismissed out-of-hand. And if you're talking to one of the idiots that worships at the altar of universally valid personal interpretations literally anything will fly, even if it blatantly contradicts factual knowledge and you can't support it with anything more than "But that's what I think it means and I've been taught that I'm always right no matter what sort of nonsensical garbage I say!".

I'd like to see somebody try to argue that Plan 9 From Outer Space is a metaphor for the Iraq War. Everything about it fits, except for the fact that Plan 9 predates the war by 40 years.

That never stopped people from trying to claim that Lord Of The Rings was an allegory for Hitler, WWII, and the atomic bomb, never mind that the framework of the story was set down in the thirties, and it was mostly finished by 1942. 99.99% of all "symbolism" in literature analysis is bunk anyway.

I think it's more like 'Hey, I've seen this trope before!' Just that they don't want to admit that they've effectively been beaten at their job by a website  with scummy management.

[i2amroy]

That never stopped people from trying to claim that Lord Of The Rings was an allegory for Hitler, WWII, and the atomic bomb, never mind that the framework of the story was set down in the thirties, and it was mostly finished by 1942. 99.99% of all "symbolism" in literature analysis is bunk anyway.

That's because The Lord of the Ring does hold a lot of connection with Tolkein's experiences in WWI, and despite their many differences, there were a lot of similarities between WWI and WWII. It's a fairly easy mistake to make as a person who knows a lot more about WWII than WWI.

[Levi]

Don't steal honey from bees Florida man.   We shouldn't have to tell you these things Florida man.