Am Frustrated; Rant Follows

I'm reading essays, and one of my students wrote that he now hates the story we've been working on and everyone who writes about it as if it were true instead of just a story.

I don't know what to say. I know that not all of my students will share my love of fiction, but not even understanding why people fucking read! Of course it didn't really happen, but to just ignore something that is so embedded into our cultural narrative that it affects the way we relate to eachother on the basis of it being fiction is insane! But what can I expect from people who believe that TV and movies are JUST entertainment and that commercials are JUST selling soda and perfume. Passive little bastards, doing what they're told and accepting what's handed to them without questioning anything. Hate the story, fine. I take no issue with that. Undermine my chosen career, not fine. Undermine the value of thinking critically, not fine. Why the hell are you in college? And reading! Why don't they read? I bet he only reads non-fiction. "What's the use of stories that aren't even true?" Well, Khattam-Shud, why do you listen to music, why do you watch movies? Maybe if you read, you might know the answer to that question. Fiction enriches our lives - it gives us hope and possibility (something I believe those essays you read EXPLICTLY STATED). And people who write about said fiction recognize the power that it holds and why it's important to us. Fiction is a way to communicate ideas in (hopefully) engaging ways. Fiction is what holds us together by giving us a way to communicate with eachother, you little prick.

I mean, his big reasearch paper is about music and how one patricular musician changed the world. How is changing the world through music different from fiction? I could care less about his chosen musician, but I understand his commitment to the topic, value his interest and dedication, and encourage him to explore this idea (it is more specific than "change the world" - I'm just protecting identities here). I would NEVER belittle his interest.

Obviously I've heard this particular refrain before, or it would not have set me off like this. The biggest challenge of teaching writing is teaching students who hate reading and writing. How can I teach them technique and process when I first have convince them that what I'm teaching is worth while? I mean I chose the un-named story and accompaning essays from our textbook because I thought it might be fun for them to write about something interesting and look at something familiar that they probably have taken for granted in a new light instead of writing about the same crap they always write about while we work through the processes they'll need for their "big" papers. But at least this one student (I'm sure there are others who weren't brave enough to tell me that they "hate" - direct quote there - the story now) continues to take the story for granted and now, because of my insistance that he THINK, hates it!

Am. so. frustrated. Did not proofread.

Oh, and the quoted question and reference to Khattam-Shud is from Salman Rushdie's Haroun and the Sea of Stories.