A Separate Peace

As we have seen previously, Eric Saunders had a command of the English language that was...well, let's say...idiosyncratic. As one might expect, he, like Chuck D, also contributed to the disintegration of lit-crit with his own series of unique insights into the minds of the twentieth century's most lauded novelists.

Here, Saunders tackles the gnostic, controversial symbolism of John Knowles's A Separate Peace. He begins by explaining the parallels between one of the main characters and the tree that is the setting for some of the book's most profound scenes. Then...he goes off-message, culminating in a rant that offered a shocking new interpretation of the protagonist's psychochemical makeup.

There is a raging debate among Saunders scholars as to whether his referring to tenth-grade English teacher George Sedgwick as "Mr. Sledgwick" was unintentional. Please keep in mind that he handed this piece of paper in to said teacher, though it was never actually graded. We may never know the truth on this matter.