I know! They go out of their way to ignore the screamingly obvious but, oh my god, did you notice that leaf?

ahhh yes! i often used to sit in class thinking, “i am not going to devote an entire essay on something so miniscule and unimportant when there are much bigger points to address which have much depth and value and are ACTUALLY RELEVANT TO THE NARRATIVE” hahaha

like seventy thousand of my lectures have been on whether it should matter what the author intended, and whether the beauty of reading is just to pick up everything yourself. i believe the latter, regardless of how stupid it is :)

i quite like the latter as well, and it works well with the idea of thinking critically. like John Green explained recently, an author spends much more time working on a book than we ever do studying it, so certain things are essential and important, but literally everything is open to interpretation. still annoys me when certain teachers nitpick at certain things, ahaha :)