This happened two days ago. To put things in perspective, my wife and I are in our 70s and we both have college degrees from liberal arts colleges. We are both voracious readers.
We see an article about somebody finding Robert Burns’ flute.
Her: Who’s Robert Burns?
Me: You know…the poet. Oh, my luve is like a red, red rose….
Her: Who?
Me: Robert Burns, the Scottish poet. Sort of THE Scottish poet. As in a Burns Supper.
Her: A what supper?
Me: A Burns Supper. You know, haggis on his birthday and reciting poetry.
Her: I have no idea what you’re talking about.
In all fairness, she did not study literature in college, but neither did I and I certainly recognize Robert Burns (at least his name and some poetry). Nothing wrong with her not knowing of him, but I was pretty shocked.
My wife and I both had to suffer through English and English Lit classes through (US) high school. I would expect that she could name a few American, English, and Scottish poets. Heck, I’d expect to be able to name a couple French poets. It’s more about my personal expectations than anything else, I guess. But it surprised me.
I know that there were Burns’ poems in at least two of my English lit books in junior high and high school. Maybe I just have a good memory for poets….
And it’s not like my wife and I are provincials. We’ve vacationed in Scotland twice, spending a week each time driving around.
I think your expectations have an assumption built in, that there are certain books/poems/plays that everyone is exposed to in high school or college. I don’t remember every English class I took in high school and there was only one in college but I do know I avoided any class with “poetry” in the course name. I heard of Burns at some point in my life but I don’t know anything he wrote other than Auld Lang Syne ( which I just found out is his)
We never got to read anything fun in AP English. I had to read all the fun stuff outside of class. And in college as a Spanish major I was reading mostly surrealist Spanish literature. Today, I read pretty broadly, but not much poetry. The last poetry book I read was Japanese Death Poems, which are pretty cool.
There are so many great authors to read I don’t think they can be fit into one lifetime. Every time I read a book, I remind myself I have a finite amount of books to read and this might be my last chance.
Forgive me they were delicious so sweet and so cold
William Carlos Williams, ‘This is Just to Say’.
(Most guys would either leave the plums alone, or scarf them down and live with the consequences. This response elevates the situation into the realm of poetry)
I was in the supermarket when a young woman–she couldn’t have been much older than 30, if that–approached me and started interrogating me (a la Jack Webb in Dragnet) about my phone, my phone company, my phone service, etc. She had an assistant with her, a kind of milquetoast looking man-boy, who never spoke, but carried a clipboard.
After a minute or so of answering her rapid-fire barrage of questions, I finally said, “Look: I’m really happy with my current phone company, so it’s unlikely that I’m going to change anything. I probably shouldn’t waste anymore of your time.” (“Or mine,” I was thinking, but I didn’t say that last bit.)
”Oh, it’s never a waste of my time!” she said–and she seemed to be sincere. “I’m a people person,” she continued, “I love talking to people!”
I eyed her skeptically, and thought, “Okay, let’s put that to the test…”
”Well, in that case,” I said, “I’m currently watching this very interesting documentary called Raiders!: The Story of the Greatest Fan Film Ever Made. It’s about these kids who try to re-shoot, on VHS tape, every scene from the movie Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
She stared at me blankly and said, “I have no idea what that is.”
I was flabbergasted! I mean, yeah the movie was made before she was born, but she hadn’t even heard of it. Citizen Kane was made before I was born–not only had I heard about it, but I had also actually watched the whole thing.
I tried again: “If I were to say, ‘Indiana Jones’…?”
”Oh yeah!” she said. “I know who Indiana Jones is.”