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[Tawa]

Heh. That's why I love literature essays. I can usually fudge my way through them with sesquipedalian loquaciousness and by repeatedly milking a couple of "super symbolic" lines for material.

[TheBiggerFish]

Weird thing is, I didn't like it at first, but having to read the book over and over for my papers in english class made me eventually grow to absolutely love it.

It doesn't help that school is absolutely hell bent at making you hate books at all costs!

Between having idiotic topics "Who is the main character of this book" (ohh my... two main characters? UNHEARD OF!), Insanely stupid descriptions of books, and just flat out overanalyzing of books to the point where you could look at a sentence and probably pull out the bible.

Aaaaargh this much this.

Heh. That's why I love literature essays. I can usually fudge my way through them with sesquipedalian loquaciousness and by repeatedly milking a couple of "super symbolic" lines for material.

And I cope with marked verbosity.

[BlitzDungeoneer]

Weird thing is, I didn't like it at first, but having to read the book over and over for my papers in english class made me eventually grow to absolutely love it.

It doesn't help that school is absolutely hell bent at making you hate books at all costs!

Between having idiotic topics "Who is the main character of this book" (ohh my... two main characters? UNHEARD OF!), Insanely stupid descriptions of books, and just flat out overanalyzing of books to the point where you could look at a sentence and probably pull out the bible.

Well. Irish school seems fairly different to... Whatever school you went to. Canadian, I think? I may vaguely remember some mention of you living in Canada but I could be wrong.

[Jopax]

It also depends heavily on a teacher. Like, my sister had one who basically encouraged them to write whatever they thought about the book and discuss it, even tho it sometimes turned to taking the piss by the students.

I on the other hand had a completely ridgid angry little blonde wig dwarf who insisted that there was only one interpretation of any given work, mostly ones she'd read somewhere by some highly educated folks. To go against this was to call bad grades upon yourself. Meanwhile the most trite and literal interpretations would pass with flying colours, so long as she could find them similar or same to her own views on the matter.

[TD1]

Yea. In a lot of my poetry analysis, the teacher simply wrote beside some of my assertions "wrong."

I mean, it was my interpretation of a very interpretative text. How could I be wrong?

[hector13]

Yea. In a lot of my poetry analysis, the teacher simply wrote beside some of my assertions "wrong."

I mean, it was my interpretation of a very interpretative text. How could I be wrong?

It didn't match the grading criteria.

Edit: meant to add some nonsense about a relative act not matching an absolute (as in right or wrong) grading method, but forgot. Well done me.

[BlitzDungeoneer]

Heh.
Say what you will about my previous English teacher(and many of my classmates would no doubt say many... unflattering things right now) he at least let us interpret things, to a point. Would ask us why we thought that and whatnot and he'd acknowledge that both(or possibly more) interpretations were 'right' provided we could prove so with bits of the text and what they seemed to imply.

[TheBiggerFish]

Yea. In a lot of my poetry analysis, the teacher simply wrote beside some of my assertions "wrong."

I mean, it was my interpretation of a very interpretative text. How could I be wrong?

It didn't match the grading criteria.

Edit: meant to add some nonsense about a relative act not matching an absolute (as in right or wrong) grading method, but forgot. Well done me.

Your original answer was much more in spirit with the problematic judgments.
;P

[TD1]

Sorry, I kant follow you.

[hector13]

Yea. In a lot of my poetry analysis, the teacher simply wrote beside some of my assertions "wrong."

I mean, it was my interpretation of a very interpretative text. How could I be wrong?

It didn't match the grading criteria.

Edit: meant to add some nonsense about a relative act not matching an absolute (as in right or wrong) grading method, but forgot. Well done me.

Your original answer was much more in spirit with the problematic judgments.
;P

I was just going to leave it, but it felt more pedantic than I meant it to be, rather than a dry comment about poor teachers/the problem with English classes in general.

I utterly loathed English classes when I was at school. I went from quite happily reading a great deal of things as a child to not really reading anything for fun during my five years in secondary school.

Now I annoy my wife by insisting on physical copies of books instead of investing in an e-reader

[BlackFlyme]

I never had too much trouble in English. One of my best classes throughout grade school.

Interpretive questions with only one right answer have always been bullshit though. My marketing class in college had a lot of those, among other issues I had with the class and the teacher. Especially once Maslow's Hierarchy was introduced. Every answer was self-actualized.

What are tornado-proof, extra durable shingles? Security as you are investing in property protection? NO! It's self-actualized, because they are expensive, and only self-actualized people have spare money. Party goods advertised as helping you strengthen friendships? Reaffirming the need for love and belonging? No! Self-actualized, as those who buy party goods already have friends, while those who need to strengthen their need for love and belonging have no friends.

[miauw62]

Not buying the cheapest food in the store = self-actualization?

[Neonivek]

Honestly I am half tempted to write an essay on "Cado's Journey" that Threetoe made... in 'Highschool English class' style.

So I'd be talking about how impossibly deep the story is and how outstretching universal its themes are.

[Aklyon]

You're missing other dumb questions, like 'what is the main character'

[Neonivek]

You're missing other dumb questions, like 'what is the main character'

What is odd is after having a lot more experience with fiction since highschool I can definitively say that

Who the main character of a story 'doesn't matter'... the main character is simply the character who has the most attention put on them or who has the plot center on them.

It doesn't serve critical analysis to actually know who the main character is... so long as you understand the relationship each character has with the plot. In fact it is better to think of everyone as the main character of their own isolated stories within a piece of fiction.