Literature lies!

Straw man. English teachers don’t suggest fiction is the equal of fact in any immediate sense. Fiction is an entirely different way of perceiving and experiencing the world – incomparable, not equal.

I too liked the comment story, but it’s also misleading (unless the English teacher was really, really bad). Middle school English literature gets you to analyze texts by considering the position of the author, the position of the reader, the text itself, and the context of those actors/objects/subjects. ‘What does Lord of the Flies teach us about human nature’ is a science-mode question, albeit a terrible and misplaced one.

Is the parent sure that the reported question and the inclusion of the book in middle school was not intended to address issues of teen peer pressure, bullying, etc. in single sex private school or among adolescent boys–ie. to elicit consideration of similarities & differences between the culture depicted in the book & that of the school & its boys to men? When I was taught it in a regular coed publicly supported school, the English class system how/whether people from different cultures would all react the same was a focus–do boys always pick on the weak? Do americans always root for the underdog? Would girls have done that? Did this ever happen? Would this ever happen? Was the author a nearsighted wimp or a bully?
Incredible anecdote since most English teachers are more likely to err on the side of stressing cultural relativism & ethnic relevance than “human nature”(unless they are explaining Greek drama & the concept of “hubris,” which of course would be explained as part of a particular world view, not a truth about human nature.

It is the reader who considers the “position of the author, the position of the reader, the text itself, and the context of those actors/objects/subjects.”

Proving that ‘literature lies’ by showing implied historical inaccuracies in one piece of literature is a pretty low standard of proof. Does literature have zero value? No place in understanding more about the human experience and the world we live in? Correspondingly, how ‘bound by reality’ is the production of science?

And have you really never learnt anything from reading literature?

Hmmm–so this anecdote is one alleged incident generalized & offered as truth about what goes on in current education & what is right & wrong about education in general(without even specififying if it’s an elite private secular school , Catholic School, coed or single-sex, how long the particular teacher has been teaching, whether the author checked the curriculum to see if the alleged response relected the currriculum, whether the author spoke to the teacher to make sure it was not a socratic question. Yes, overgeneralizing is rampant.
Maybe he wrote in the recent about how often bloggers, commentators, friends, talking heads, and anybody else trying to make a cultural/social/moral/political point uses a non/pre/post literate form like a movie, TV show, video game or video as EVIDENCE of actual behavior rather than a prefabricated “neuroeconomically” tested marketing vehicle and/or collaborative artistic venture. This certainly didn’t start with Avatar!! Start to notice how often people use non-literary fictional characters as examples, of how real people did, should or will behave. It is these more pervasive, powerful, and widespread fictions that adults as well as young students are in more danger of incorporating uncritically into their world view, especially since it is shared(publicity/marketing blitz from Halloween costumes to soundtracks to action figures ) & multisensory.