I am going to be annoying about this like I was with that foucault tweet and say this trope is actually a really nice representation of how strongly one tends to project oneself into novels as a teenager and how much emotional value and personal development that can give you https://twitter.com/spinubzilla/status/1258582735498723328

like I understand obviously that this tweet and the comments on it are joking but it is a little sad to see because I feel like this kind of joke can minimize how genuinely important fiction is

like ... you go through so much stuff as a teenager that I feel like pretty much ANY fiction you read is going to relate to _some_ kind of “central conflict” in your life

regardless of whether that fiction is something like Percy Jackson or one of “The Classics” like [cont]

The Great Gatsby or something like The Metamorphasis or Oscar Wao

like ... practically the whole point of fiction is that it has value for you despite you not being in Literally The Same Situation as what’s going on

huge shoutout to english teachers too
like probably two of the most formative works of fiction I’ve read are Dubliners and The Things They Carried, neither of which I would have read or gotten as much value from if not for reading/discussing them in a high school english class

u kno it’s a high tier english class when you’re hiding the fact that you’re almost crying during discussion

ok tedtalk done have a good saturday evening