trickykitty | I guess I must be illigitimate, er illogical, er illuminated, er I just can't read (the right stuff)

I don't understand how someone can feel good about themselves making someone else feel bad for not knowing some things. I know nothing of the French Revolution, I only yesterday connected the name J.K. Rowling with the Harry Potter books (which I'll probably forget shortly because I am not a child, an English woman or a parent and therefore could really care less), and I don't know how to change the oil in my car. I try not to pay any attention to the war going on and I bury my head in books about cognitive science and dyslexia due to my research paths. I really don't see what good it does me to keep someone around who insists on pointing out the so-called "common knowledge" that I don't know and tries so damn hard to make me "pro-active" regarding the issues of the world. What kind of friend puts you down instead of building you up in your own right? If this person can't accept me for who I am, then maybe they need to discard me and move on.

This person's view of the Sweet Valley High series, which I read avidly as a teenage girl (and can't for the life of me remember the author's name, but again I could really care less about that as well), is that such words are nothing more than kiddie porn. But at least I WAS reading and at least I CAN read. If I enjoyed my time reading non-fiction for girls instead of reading about wars of the past or more "adult" literature like The Scarlet Pimpernel (which I still have not read - there's also a lot of other books I have not read and movies which I have not seen - so shoot me), why the hell am I being chastised for it? What the hell does knowing the French Revolution have to do with creating neural networks of limbic system interactions with cortex functions? I'm a scientist, not a literature reviewer, a writer, a politician, a historian, or an activist. Women didn't get the right to vote because all of the women stood up at once. In fact there were many women who felt that what the activists were doing was uncivilized and that giving women the right to vote was akin to blasphemy. And then there were other women, like me, who went along with the political feel of the day and just worried about teaching school children or focused on sewing dresses or whatever else fancied their taste. So that's me, the non-activist (pro or otherwise) and to be put down for it, well just fuckin' nail me to the cross then.

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I can count the number of non-fiction books I have on one hand. I just don't read the things. Does that make me any less deep than anyone else? Nah.

I read the Sweet Valley High series in school, too. And The Babysitters Club, and various and sundry fantasy novels. I can't stand Faulkner, Hemingway, or Plath. Everyone has their preferences, they're no less right than anyone else's. Anyone who says so is full of absolute crap.

Don't get me started on the common sense argument.

Anyway, as long as you can read and enjoy reading, anything anyone else says is goddamn irrelevant, especially in this day and age when we're hard pressed to get anyone to read.

And the author of the SVH series was Francine Pascal, do not ask me why I remember that.

I can relate - I watched my sister's teenage years disappear into a neverending rotation of "Loveswept #355" style Mills and Boon CRAP. I kid you not; she got up to number 355 in the tall dark stranger falls in love with troubled young beauty genre. They were the printed equivalent of a TV soap - a really bad one; Santa Barbara or the like.

I never chastised her for it, I certainly sneered a lot though.

your relating to the person whos chastizing her? Isn't that a bit insensitive?

If they consider those books as 'kiddy porn' they seem to be using the word porn as a shameful thing. I wonder whether they themselves view porn as that would make them a monumental hypocrit.

No one has any right to view their taste as superior to another persons, it goes back to all the positives I got on the 'is it wrong to view yourself as worth more than someone else'.

This person probably knows jack shit about your area of speciality. Why dont you dis them when they haven't heard of Fodor or Pinker or a comparably arcane yet pivitol cognitive text , they then might realise the error of their judgemental treatment of you.

Many people read and do meaningless unconstructive things for pleasure and enjoyment. I think playing a computer game is just as much a waste of time than reading a pulpy romance. Oh and the argument that it enhances perceptual skill I counter that with any type of reading improves spelling and grammer.

so :P 40

"kiddy porn" isn't necessarily used to reference porn per se. It was more of a put down of the whole genre. The argument made was that as teenagers we should have been reading more about history (and yes, the French Revolution was one of the examples given during the discussion) or some of the more important pieces of literature, instead of the teenage angst books. My argument was that I have no interest in history (it took four times before I finally passed history in college) and even if they did teach me about the French Revolution, or any other revolution/war/uprising/activism/etc. I never would have paid attention period. So why must I get ridiculed because I don't about things. I've met some airheads who know only a fraction of what I do.

Yes it probably is a bit insensitive :) I was just trying to give some insight into what they're thinking though.

Oh and the argument that it enhances perceptual skill I counter that with any type of reading improves spelling and grammer.

I could. It would be soo easy... I could, but I won't :) :)

isn't sneering a nonverbal form of chastisement?

I think you're right, but I also think that chastisement can come in two guises. If you're just picking on someone in jest, that's one thing. But if you are actually putting someone down and looking down on them, that's something else.

Tell you what; I'll go dig up one of the novels and you can try and read it. After you've thrown it out the window in disgust we'll continue this discussion :)

I'm just admitting to the same flaw Nikki commented on. I'm not justifying it or anything, just trying to explain the viewpoint.

I can understand someone laughing at a person's little quirks. That's how I see myself - too busy with science stuff to even know who sings a song playing on the radio, let alone the name of an author of the Harry Potter books. My brain just doesn't work like that - Trivia Pursuit gives me the hives. That's what makes a person unique and each of our friends have them. But when the other person actually sees something like that as a flaw in the person, then I that's when I start to take offense. That's when I start to wonder if they see me in such a negative light, then why are they hanging around? If I see someone who is prone to theft, I don't see it as a little quirk and I don't want to be around the person. If something about a person bothers you that much, then why stay friends?

I don't like the guilt you get when you say "I don't like you. Go away." It's much easier in most cases just to avoid them as much as possible and put up with them when you have to. I'm sure lots of people have this attitude towards me :)

Also, this was my sister. "You can pick your friends..."

"If this person can't accept me for who I am, then maybe they need to discard me and move on."
Sweetie, I hate to be the one to bring this up, but you can easily do the same. Why on Earth would you allow someone to put you down like this and continue to tollerate it? If you're talking about the person I think you are I understand the appeal of having him or her around, but is it honestly worth it if he/she attacks you like this?
This friendship has to go both ways, no one can talk to you like that unless you let them. This person may be being unfair to you, but you're being just as unfair to yourself.
Again I'm sorry to be the one to bring this up.

http://www.nwo.nl/nwohome.nsf/Pages/NWOP_6CYKJN/$file/2005JuryrapportHagoortUK.htm

Hehe - right up my alley.

I guess I must be illigitimate, er illogical, er illuminated, er I just can't read (the right stuff)

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