Pineapple Express: Someone Is Wrong on the Internet?

Gradine · 2026-02-19T20:56:18+0000

overgeeked said:
Or they do have liberal arts degrees but recognize this kind of analysis is pure nonsense. It's mostly guess work and projection on the part of the reader and a means to fill time in class and fill space in a paper.

Critical analysis is projection on the part of the reader. That's the point. All art is interactive

overgeeked · 2026-02-19T21:01:24+0000

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
College criticism courses ask whether the details are important. Contrary to the memes, they don't insist they are.

Every lit class I was in assumed they were. So much so we had to argue about them for hours and write long, pointless papers on them. At no point was, "No, these details aren't important," an option while remaining in the class and earning credits for various literature-related degrees.

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
If they're paying to go to college and the professor is insisting that every choice has an inherent meaning, rather than asking whether it does, they should get their money back.

Yeah, not sure anyone will get their student loans forgiven over that.

Whizbang Dustyboots · 2026-02-19T21:05:14+0000

overgeeked said:
Every lit class I was in assumed they were. So much so we had to argue about them for hours and write long, pointless papers on them. At no point was, "No, these details aren't important," an option while remaining in the class and earning credits for various literature-related degrees.

What was your major?

Ryujin · 2026-02-19T21:25:36+0000

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
"The author liked the people whose names they used" doesn't really hold water, given what we know about who authors include in the story.

But looking at the names you used, I would be able to accurately make some assumptions about who was in your high school, what era you wrote the story in, etc.

Even if you don't mean to, you are including additional meaning in your writing with the choices you make.

Some people would think that one of my author friends REALLY doesn't like me, when they get to the part where "I" am killed off

Ryujin · 2026-02-19T21:33:29+0000

overgeeked said:
Every lit class I was in assumed they were. So much so we had to argue about them for hours and write long, pointless papers on them. At no point was, "No, these details aren't important," an option while remaining in the class and earning credits for various literature-related degrees.

Yeah, not sure anyone will get their student loans forgiven over that.

"A man may break a word with you, sir, and words are but wind." - "The Comedy of Errors" by William Shakespeare.

Professor - "Here we see Shakespeare espousing that mere words are meaningless."
Shakespeare - "Think I'll drop a fart joke here. That always gets them laughing

"

overgeeked · 2026-02-19T21:39:41+0000

Whizbang Dustyboots said:
What was your major?

Which time? I have two bachelor’s degrees and two master’s degrees. All of which are literature and book related.

How about you?

Whizbang Dustyboots · 2026-02-19T21:55:44+0000

Ryujin said:
Some people would think that one of my author friends REALLY doesn't like me, when they get to the part where "I" am killed off

Yeah, I have a friend who has become a prolific author and kills people he knows off constantly. Either he hates everyone he knows or he needs a naming dictionary.

Richards · 2026-02-19T21:55:59+0000

Ryujin said:
At least I got to rewatch "The Prisoner" in that class. it was a good example of being stuck in an interpretation, with the final episode.

Instructor: He was insane all the time and it was all in his head.
Me: It was the psychedelic '60s. Number 6 seeing his own face means that Number 6 was really Number 1.

(I think that mine is also, rather surprisingly, the common interpretation.)

There's also the last lines during the intro:

No. 6: "Who are you?"

No. 2: "The new Number Two."

No 6: "Who is Number One?"

No. 2: "You are Number Six."

No 6: "I am not a number! I am a free man!"

No. 2: (laughs)

Guess what one little comma (or brief pause) does to the script?

No. 6: "Who are you?"

No. 2: "The new Number Two."

No 6: "Who is Number One?"

No. 2: "You are, Number Six."

Johnathan

el-remmen · 2026-02-19T21:57:01+0000

Gradine said:
All art is interactive

I always liked using the term "intersubjective."

Whizbang Dustyboots · 2026-02-19T21:57:07+0000

overgeeked said:
Which time? I have two bachelor’s degrees and two master’s degrees. All of which are literature and book related.

How about you?

Double major in English and Communications.

I wasn't going to a particularly fancy school, but outside of freshman and sophomore English classes that my AP score let me mostly skip (I think I had to do one semester of sophomore English), no one was making declarations that everything in literature had meaning, just we were supposed to interrogate the text and see if there was meaning.

Pineapple Express: Someone Is Wrong on the Internet?

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