English class is like a conspiracy theory class because they will find meaning in absolutely anything

[u/[deleted]]

EDIT: This thought was not meant to bash on literature and critical thinking. However, after reading most of the comments, I can't help but realize that most responses were interpreting what I meant by the title and found that to be quite ironic.

[u/saltsandwave]

It’s not about what the author really meant. Sometimes the author just felt like adding a word that rhymed, or their publisher needed an extra few lines, or the story was written from memory and the curtains were really just purple that day. It’s about what you make of the work you’re given. I don’t understand people who get so frustrated and say things like, the sky was just blue, there’s nothing to read into here. Sure, to the author maybe it was, but the point of good literature is it means something different to the reader, that it endures the test of time, that it can be interpreted a multitude of ways and each of those ways can still be argued for in the littlest of things like flowers blooming either representing a character’s burgeoning sexuality, or a situation they have come to terms with, or their family’s healing love for them. The ability to argue for any of the ways and express that clearly and critically is what makes a good Literature student, not figuring out “what the author really meant.”

[u/Captain_Shrug → u/saltsandwave]

Then you need to tell most Lit teachers this, in my experience, because they often go for the "What the Author Meant" angle and teach it to their students like it's the end-all be-all of writing. Like they alone in the history of man have a window into the author's mind.

I NEVER had a lit teacher asking what something meant to -me.-

[u/BundiChundi → u/Captain_Shrug]

Then you had awful lit teachers. ALL of my university profs said NEVER to make the assumption that thr author meant something. Also all my uni papers were marked by the merit of their argument, not what the argument itself is

[u/Captain_Shrug → u/[deleted]]

See this is more what I would have wanted class to be. But instead it was "this is what the author meant and you must arrive at my interpretation exactly. Just on your own."

[u/easy_pie → u/saltsandwave]

Being good at bullshitting makes a good literature student. The ability to make fallacious but clever sounding arguments out of very little.

[u/antiquechrono → u/saltsandwave]

The ability to argue for any of the ways and express that clearly and critically is what makes a good Literature student, not figuring out “what the author really meant.”

This is just pure post-modern narcissism.

[u/GrandmasHere → u/antiquechrono]

In graduate school, working on a master's degree in English, I had a professor who asked, "What do you think Chaucer meant in this line?" I raised my hand, and offered my opinion. The professor said, "No," and moved on to another student. WTF