Oh. And I was looking for the quote where Kirkegaard says something like he’d rather have his daughter became a whore than a journalist. But couldn’t find it. Instead I stumbled on this:
“I hate journalists. There is nothing in them but tittering jeering emptiness. They have all made what Dante calls the Great Refusal. The shallowest people on the ridge of the earth.” -William Butler Yeats
which is also fine. But if there is a person who stumble on the Kirkegaard one, do send a link.
As much as people criticize the piece, it’s hard not to think about what important cultural events someone would miss if he or she were isolated from society for 18 years. And for better or worse, that includes sports. In fact, it’s even become sort of a Hollywood cliche that, say, a time-traveler from the future, or someone who is liberating a POW from the enemy, would deliver news about sports that people would be surprised by. (Lost and the Red Sox references are the first thing that came to mind but there are definitely many others.) The article may have been in poor taste but it’s nevertheless a reflection of a pretty undeniable reality of modern America.
Well, yeah, she missed a bunch of pop culture moments. Sure. In the list of priorities for her, though, how fucking far down does have to be on the list, expecially since it’s only been a couple of weeks?
That’s the lesson we take away from this – that for some people, and maybe media flacks are more prone to this – mindless lists of pop culture events are pretty near the TOP of their list of what they really care about.
I think her priorities might partially depend on what she was interested in before she got snatched.
Thinking back to when I was 11… my musical tastes, for example, hadn’t jelled at all. I was still musically in the womb of my parents: there were things I liked, but I didn’t really have my own terms to describe them. On the other hand, I knew I was interested in math and drawing and bridges and science fiction, and not interested in team sports. How much would these preferences be squashed if I was kidnapped and held incommunicado for 18 years?
The problem is some people thnk this woman lived in a bubble which isn’t true. She helped with her captors paper, her children had video games, she went shopping. She was in a situation where she didn’t know how to escape from. Obviously brainwashed by the gentleman which is very sad and I pray she is able to overcome this trama to lead as normal a life as she can get to.