Pop-Culture References are important, dammit. Errrr. I hate when I ask “Have you seen this movie?”, or “Have you read this book?” about a movie or book that is absolutely essential to have experienced, and just get a blank stare. Like for instance:
Catcher in the Rye
To Kill a Mockingbird
The Alchemist
The Count of Monte Christo
Flowers for Algernon
Just a small group of examples. The lists are MUCH bigger, and I’d be glad to see what else folks think should be on them. But now back to the venting:
Listen Godammit. This shit is important. The things you’ve read, and the things you’ve seen create an incredible way to relate to each other. Conversation is alot more fun and cool if you can work in some cultural references. And in alot of cases, if you don’t get the reference, you missed alot of the conversation. If you hear a bunch of people talk about a movie or book, check it out for christ sake. Read the mutherfucker. Rent the sonofabitch. The funniest things start happening when people relate to each other . . .
Most of this won’t apply for alot of the folks here, who seem to be very well-read and well-versed entertainment (as well as other subjects) wise. But there’s always a few. I met a girl recently who has never seen Pulp Fiction. You must be kidding me. How could you not have seen that movie? Lived under a rock? In a fuckin’ tent maybe? In Antarctica? Jesus. Catch up.
If you’re having trouble, for a start check out(and keep an eye out for) my new MPSIMS thread on references, and then check out this other thread, and then read and watch the above examples, and then I’ll give some more if needed.
I have never seen Pulp Fiction. I have never seen The Godfather. I have never seen Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, The Sound of Music, or Citizen Kane. Hell, I’ve never seen Blazing Saddles. And you know what? I don’t give a fuck. I have no desire whatsoever to see any of the above. (Well, maybe Blazing Saddles. Gunslinger says it’s funny.)
I don’t care about pop culture references. I don’t care what movies anyone thinks I should have seen. I don’t give a flying fuck at a drunken bat’s puckered asshole. Got it?
I’m perfectly capable of interacting with and relating to other people based on actual experiences rather than the fact that both of us wasted several hours of our respective time watching the same images copied on celluloid. Imagine that!
Conversation is a lot more fun and interesting if you don’t have to rely on what everybody else in the world thinks you ought to talk about.
I forget who said it in the first place, but “Ignorance of one’s culture is not cool.” Many of the things dldj listed serve as important source materials for modern American culture. However, sometimes we lose track of the fact that they are not the ONLY sources of modern culture and that the sources from which other people draw their knowledge of our culture are still valid and are not made any less valid by a person’s unfamiliarity with the “pop culture canon.”
Also, I would point out that it is not a requirement that one have seen a particular film or read a particular book to be familiar with it. For instance, I have never seen any of the three original Star Wars movies. However, as a resident of Planet-fucking-Earth, I am intimately familar with damn near every character and situation to be found therein. One of these days, I’ll get around to seeing them. In the meantime, I can lamely hold up a corner of a Star Wars discussion. I may not choose to opt in to all aspects of “canon” pop culture, but that doesn’t make me ignorant of them.
Did any of that make any goddamned sense? Let me know and I’ll clarify as necessary.
Who gets to make the list? Will we ever be unanimously in agreement about what is important enough to be on this list?
I mean, I think people should be able to recognize the works of Bruckner, Mahler, Sibelius and Prokofiev, but many people don’t care. And never will. And somehow seem to get through life.
But knowing these peoples’ works is important to me. Far more important to me than seeing “Pulp Fiction” (which I have never seen. Maybe I will some day, I don’t know.)
So you have to demonstrate how “cool” you are by throwing out movie and book references, and it annoys you when others don’t get them–is this about the size of it? Maybe your real problem is that you don’t have anything particularly worthwhile to say.
Ignorance of pop culture is cool. I love it when someone asks me, “Have you seen that commercial with that really annoying guy in it?” and I can say, “Hell no!” because I hardly ever watch TV. The only time I’ve ever had any respect for William F. Buckley was when he claimed never to have watched a single episode of Oprah, and couldn’t even remember her name.
But never having seen The Godfather is kind of weird.
Yes, I always thought so! Not that I am totally ignorant, of course. But I am reminded of my constant vigilance to not absorb any information about the local sports teams. The people here are obsessed with their sports teams, to a nauseating degree. I tire of it. I don’t want to waste any brain cells on such stuff. I enjoy having a completely blank look whenever a local athelete is mentioned. (They are treated like gods by many people.)
I’ve never seen any of the Godfather movies. I am sure they are excellent films, and I am not vowing never to see them, but I never seem to be in the mood. They seem to be rather depressing, and I get enough of that from other sources.
Pulp Fiction - Saw it
Raging Bull - Haven’t seen it
Taxi Driver - Saw it (unimpressed)
Star Wars - Saw it (impressed when I saw it on it’s initial run, but I was 5 - hasn’t stood up well on more recent viewings)
Sound of Music - Saw parts of it (hate musicals)
Catcher in the Rye - Haven’t read it (from what I’ve read about it, I’d probably hate it)
To Kill a Mockingbird - Read it
The Alchemist - Haven’t read it
The Count of Monte Christo - Haven’t read it
Flowers for Algernon - Read it
I’ve heard, from various sources, that Pulp Fiction is quite violent and gory. Besides which, it’s got John Travolta AND Bruce Willis in it. It’s on my “I’ll pass” list. I’ve never seen Titanic, either, and I really don’t plan to. Just because a lot of people see or read a certain film or book doesn’t mean that I feel obligated to do so. This goes double or triple for TV shows. If you plot my characteristics and interests on a graph, most of them lie on one of the far ends of the bell curve, one way or another. I will never be “normal”, and I no longer attempt to be.
Sure, it’s fun to have in-jokes…but I’ll decide which group I’m in. I’d much rather hang out with someone who says “Dex check!” when he almost trips and falls than someone who has memorized every Seinfeld episode and makes constant references to same. And I’d have more fun with someone who knows why the hedgehog has less to worry about than almost any other mammal, rather than someone who makes constant sports comments.
Am I the only one who nearly stood up at the beginning of Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and shouted “The World Is Square” (the only reason I DIDN’T do this was because my daughter was with me, and she would have died of embarrassment)?
Well, I thought Pulp Fiction was kinda funny is a meaningless sort of way. But Lady Chance hasn’t seen it, doesn’t want to see it, and regards that sort of cynical attitude towards violence to be a blight upon a once-proud country (or some such cant as that).
And is she wrong? Pop culture is cute, but not necessarily good.
Heck, I know I couldn’t identify a Britney Spears or Spice Girl song if you held a gun to my head. But ask me to place any Mary Prankster lyric and I can do it. Even the unreleased stuff.
There’s a world of difference between not having seen something but having heard of it and holding an informed opinion (as with the dissenters on this board) and not having the slightest clue about it (as suggested in the OP). It’s like the average person these days has a 3 year memory for pop culture and everything before that gets shuffled out of rotation. Depressing.
People whose conversation revolves completely (or mostly) around pop culture aren’t relating to each other; they’re relating separately to something else. Conversation isn’t necessarily more “fun” and “cool” (whatever that means) just because you can quote “The Simpsons” or “Pulp Fiction.” At a certain level, it simply becomes shallow and vapid.
Lemme get this straight… You get pissed because someone else hasn’t seen one of the movies or read one of the books you listed in the OP? That’s just silly.
It’s silly, but it reminded me of the time when my old boss complimented me on my wallet, and I made a comment something like, “Thanks. I’ve been looking for one that says ‘Bad Motherfucker’ on it,” and the guy HADN’T seen Pulp Fiction. So basically, I had to explain that entire scene in the movie to him to get him to wipe that “WTF?” look off his face.
Did I recommend he go see the movie? Yep. Did I get pissed and call him culturally illiterate? Nope.