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

[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.