Re: My English teacher believes Tolkien has no literary merit....
No, she was pretty clear in that she believed they had no literary merit herself. I've also heard several stories of people who have used sci-fi or fantasy novels on the AP test and still gotten 4s or 5s. Even if she did mean they simply wouldn't be considered to have literary merit by the AP graders (of which she is one, BTW), then she's still wrong.
I would also like to point out how one of the first things she told us about essays was that we should focus more on the overall meaning than small things like super correct punctuation (she was more in the perspective of grading an essay than writing one). She heavily stressed that overall meaning is the most important part of the essay, but it seems that, to her, choice of novel would be more important...
/me shrugs and walks away
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