The web is wide
Jun. 2nd, 2012 02:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolorosa_12First up, I am sorry that I haven't replied to anyone's posts or comments for quite a while. I've been in a very bad place for quite a while, and it's left me with little emotional energy. But know that I am reading.
A conversation with a friend a few days ago on Facebook made me realise how much of what I take for granted as being common knowledge, is, in fact, anything but. She was talking about 50 Shades of Grey and mentioned that it reminded her of Twilight. Hardly surprising, I replied, since it originated as a piece of Twilight fanfiction. It soon became apparent that this was new information to her, and indeed to everyone else participating in the conversation. I found this hilarious. Weeks before the book was even published, the internet was flooded with posts about its origins, compare-and-contrast articles where those in possession of the original fanfic went through it line by line to see what had been carried over into the published work.
I've been shocked at this kind of ignorance before* (when, for example, I had to explain to my sister what macros were - she knew what I meant, but had never heard the name), but I really shouldn't be. For one thing, five years ago, I did not know how to do tabbed browsing. For another, I know very little about anything that isn't literature, some areas of history, or geek culture. I'm sure there are groups of lawyers, or mathematicians who would be horrified at my ignorance of what they consider basic elements of their respective fields. But after five-and-a-half years online,** the whole thing is fairly intuitive and obvious to me. Very little that I see shocks me (although to be honest I don't go around actively looking for things that might shock me), and most of what I see makes sense in the context of the culture in which I find myself immersed. What surprises me (but really, really shouldn't) is that the rest of the world does not find it equally fascinating and immersive.
This isn't really the place for it, but have a link for Isobelle Carmody speaking about her latest collection of short stories.
I felt as light as sunlight in the face of the weight of history that people carried. ... It made me feel light, but also insubstantial. That is exactly what it feels like to be an Australian in Europe.
__________________
* And in my other life, I am shocked when people don't know stuff relating to medieval literature or history. 'You just described Shakespearian English as "Old English"? Seriously, how poorly-educated are you?'
** I used the internet before that, of course, but I don't consider myself to have been online. I had a couple of email addresses, which I checked from time to time, and that was about it.
A conversation with a friend a few days ago on Facebook made me realise how much of what I take for granted as being common knowledge, is, in fact, anything but. She was talking about 50 Shades of Grey and mentioned that it reminded her of Twilight. Hardly surprising, I replied, since it originated as a piece of Twilight fanfiction. It soon became apparent that this was new information to her, and indeed to everyone else participating in the conversation. I found this hilarious. Weeks before the book was even published, the internet was flooded with posts about its origins, compare-and-contrast articles where those in possession of the original fanfic went through it line by line to see what had been carried over into the published work.
I've been shocked at this kind of ignorance before* (when, for example, I had to explain to my sister what macros were - she knew what I meant, but had never heard the name), but I really shouldn't be. For one thing, five years ago, I did not know how to do tabbed browsing. For another, I know very little about anything that isn't literature, some areas of history, or geek culture. I'm sure there are groups of lawyers, or mathematicians who would be horrified at my ignorance of what they consider basic elements of their respective fields. But after five-and-a-half years online,** the whole thing is fairly intuitive and obvious to me. Very little that I see shocks me (although to be honest I don't go around actively looking for things that might shock me), and most of what I see makes sense in the context of the culture in which I find myself immersed. What surprises me (but really, really shouldn't) is that the rest of the world does not find it equally fascinating and immersive.
This isn't really the place for it, but have a link for Isobelle Carmody speaking about her latest collection of short stories.
I felt as light as sunlight in the face of the weight of history that people carried. ... It made me feel light, but also insubstantial. That is exactly what it feels like to be an Australian in Europe.
__________________
* And in my other life, I am shocked when people don't know stuff relating to medieval literature or history. 'You just described Shakespearian English as "Old English"? Seriously, how poorly-educated are you?'
** I used the internet before that, of course, but I don't consider myself to have been online. I had a couple of email addresses, which I checked from time to time, and that was about it.
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Date: 2012-06-03 05:03 am (UTC)(no subject)
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