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How did your English class discussions go?

Back in high school most of the book discussions were exclusively about explaining it to students who couldn't understand the material (included (parts of) The Oddesy, Anthem by Ayn Rand, The Cask of Amontillado and Telltale Heart, A Streetcar Named Desire, To Kill a Mockingbird, some satire of Victorian social standards that I can't remember the name of, and probably more I can't remember)

We also had to read A Separate Peace during the Summer and when classes started we had a week to discuss it and turn in a report on it.

I hated it, everyone else probably hated it, and the only thing discussed was how the two main characters were totes gay for each other (actually true). Then the next year we read The Great Gatsby, and discussion over it was relegated to talking about how the two main characters were totes gay for each other (also true)

To Kill a Mockingbird was pulled from the curriculum the year after my class read it b/c a student complained about the N word

So what were your school lit discussions like? Surface-level repetition of plot points or high-brow elucidating dialogues?

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awful until some teacher forced us to read this at some point

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Read_Literature_Like_a_Professor

then it was kinda fun seeing what metaphors you could regurgitate into existence. at least on your own

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Do you remember anything legitimately useful from the book or was it an instructional guide on how to be a pseudointellectual

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kind of a mix? i remember it being sort of like a cheat sheet for common literary tropes

like, "hey, if a main character gets dunked in a river and comes back up, that might be a reference to baptism or moral cleansing. but not always."

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