when Diane says to Thornton "whoever did write it doesn't know the first thing about Kurt Vonnegut".. she could tell he didn't write the paper himself.. but what was being implied with that follow-up? was the paper factually inaccurate? if so, did Kurt intentionally give Thornton bad information? did it not jive with what professors teach their students about his novels..?
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Well I think it's a kind of a jab at academic types who claim to understand great works of literature, but in reality their analysis says more about them than about the author.
"He's not the Messiah. He's a very naughty boy! Now, piss off!" - Free speech forever! :)
As the other guy said, it's a jab at academia and academics in general. The fact that Vonnegut wrote the paper and her thinking that the person who wrote it doesn't know anything about him means that she is one of those types who thinks she knows what the author is saying when she actually doesn't.
Another example of this is the movie Finding Forrester. The teacher played by F. Murray Abraham wrote a book about some of the greatest writers of the time and one of the people he writes about is Sean Connery's title character. Connery then reveals that he got just about everything wrong.
I thought it was a variation on the scene from Annie Hall with Marshall McCluhan, but then you never know how far back a joke like this goes, and I wouldn't be shocked to learn there are earlier examples.
shareGood write up. That line of dialogue is the most profound statement in Back To School, IMO.
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I believe this is sort of an academia "in" joke. Kurt Vonnegut wrote the paper. He interpreted his own work. Frequently, the way the writer (or artist) sees their own work, and the message it contains, is very different from how a third party or academician might see it.
I don't think Vonnegut was trying to trip up Thornton. I think he probably wrote a serious essay about his work.
But Diane was already miffed at Thornton, and she didn't know Vonnegut wrote the paper, and it probably didn't jibe with her own interpretations of Vonnegut's work. Remember when she is tutoring Thornton, and they are reading "The Second Coming" by Yeats, and Thornton reads the last line, "And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?" Thornton tells her "rough beast" reminds him of his ex-wife, and Diane says, "That's one interpretation... not the RIGHT one...." So you can see that she does have ideas about "right" and "wrong" ways to interpret literature.
I think had Diane realized Vonnegut wrote the paper, she would have taken it more seriously and it would have been very eye-opening for her. But she didn't know that, and dismissed it.