Blind spots

[kitanzi]

Wow... I guess I'm a bit of a snob and I just never thought about it - certainly not what I usually think of myself as. I was just talking to a co-worker about last night's Academy Awards, and the fact that RotK tied Titanic for number of nominations. She commented that everyone knew how Titanic ended, and I replied that everyone really knew how the Lord of the Rings trilogy turned out, too.

She turned around and said, "So does he really destroy that ring, or what? No, never mind, I didn't see it yet, don't spoil me."

I was surprised at the completeness of my surprise. I guess it's just a blind spot.

Comments

[surrdave.livejournal.com]

I imagine we'd be horrified to know how many people were surprised by the sinking.

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

Probably just about everyone on the ship, in fact. *grin and duck*

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

You're not a *snob*, you're just from a different culture than she is. :)

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

Evidently, though that particular blind spot still surprised me. My first reaction was "Oh, but haven't you read the books?" *G*

Then again, I'm sure there are things I'm completely ignorant of that would shock her - pop culture type stuff, likely.

[alymid.livejournal.com]

I am sure that I would be similarly surprised by her comments - OTOH -

I know from scanning the front of magazine covers these days at the news stand, that there are quite a few current celebrities that I don't know from adam ... people that the world seems to be quite aware of ... I would probably seem just as clueless to someone who recognized all those people, let alone someone who was intersted in them .. :)

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

Exactly - that's the kind of thing I was referring to with Browngirl!

[hrrunka]

I've come up short the same way when talking to folks, before it dawned on me that there are some who're so rooted in the Real World(tm) that they just can't 'get' fantasy. I have my own blind-spots too, I guess. Soap-operas based in the Real World(tm) for starters.

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

But doesn't it feel odd to run into it unexpectedly? I was just surprised, then surprised at myself for being surprised.

[hrrunka]

First time, it completely boggled me. And then an instant later it was all just so obvious... ;)

[redaxe.livejournal.com]

I suspect I'd be surprised, too. Then again, I grew up with LotR being one of the Two Works of Fantasy Literature any Really Cool Person had read (Stranger in a Strange Land was the other), and so I have this deep expectation that everyone will have read both. (Well, okay, so deduct some for significant youth or obvious illiteracy. :-) But I'm still startled when someone admits to not having at least tried to read one or the other.

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

Youth is a good point - I think she's in her early or mid twenties. Still... I guess I have the built in expectation partly because she is clearly very intelligent and very articulate. Somehow I expect that to translate to reading for pleasure, and reading science fiction for pleasure. I think that really is a blind spot.

[joecoustic.livejournal.com]

I remember seeing the movie "A.I." with a friend who felt it was the most incredible movie he had ever seen. I... didn't feel quite the same way. When I finally thought about what he was describing as so mindblowing and unique I realized he was not a fantasy or science fiction reader. He had never really been exposed to different possible futures in an accessable way. It sort of blew my mind.

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

That's much of it, I'm sure. So did you manage to tactfully point this out to him and get him hooked (as everyone so self-evidently should be!) on the good stuff in those genres? *G*

[figmo.livejournal.com]

I've been told by friends in their 20s and 30s it was commonplace to require students to read LotR in school. If so, this would explain your co-worker a lot more, as well as why some folks think "of course you know the story" while others go "what book is that?"

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

I wonder if it's also regional? I'm in my 30s, she's in her 20s, I never was assigned it in school and she obviously never was either. It's at least possible that was a regional thing. It's an interesting point, thanks.

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Hrm. I was certainly never required to read it.

On the other hand, Paul, who's 12, read it 2 years ago.

[kitanzi.livejournal.com]

Right when the buzz on the movies was picking up force. I wonder if it had been assigned reading before then. (You are implying that he was assigned it, not just reading it on his own?)

[filkerdave.livejournal.com]

Urmm..possibly 3 years ago, then. He read it well before that, because he was done long before the first movie opened. (And just after he finished reading The Hobbit, which is why he read it).

It definitely wasn't assigned in school!