Favorite ignorances

[Blarg]

Chime in with your own!

The three types of favorite ignorance: 1) you don't know and wish you did, but probably without having to work at it for even a second; 2) you don't know and don't wanna know; 3) something's value seems not at all intrinsic, but almost entirely social to you -- games and sports are easy examples; I guess you could call this social ignorance. If you wanted to.

1. Ballet -- super cool for about one minute, then awful.

2. Opera -- One of my most prized dislikes that I don't want to learn anything more about. Not one second of being any less than awful

3. Faulkner -- Even my long sentences don't go on for three pages without a comma or a period, and he seems very overwrought. I know I should read more of him to have a better knowledge of American literature, but I can't bring myself to do it. Frankly, I hate his stuff.

4. Football -- too many breaks in the action; I don't wanna learn more so I can understand what makes the game really exciting, and don't apologize. This is a boring game, to me.

5. Female-written poetry -- I've never found a female poet I consistently liked.

6. Female-written fiction -- Read a bit of it, and liked some of it, but not much, and have actively disliked a lot that I've bumped into. Never picked up a Wharton, Bronte, etc. Frankly, fiction by women authors often feels claustrophobic, overworked, and trivial to me.

7. Local politics -- I don't care who runs for the school board, unless I hear word that they're a creationist or religious nut, in which case I'll vote against.

8. Rap and Pop music -- I'm fine with knowing very little about it and sometimes wish I knew less.

9. Celebrity culture -- screw celebrities and the magazines, t.v. shows, and even fans who love them. There, I said it, now kick me out of America. This goes with #10.

10. The Condition of the President's Dog -- I don't care what George Bush, or any president, ate for lunch yesterday, and I don't need to see it on the front page of the paper. Endless fawning coverage of the Chief Executive's every fart is dumb and dull. I have further complaints about this worshipful, awed sort of thing turning people into idols, and that being unhealthy and maybe even partisan, but will just end this one right here.

11. Religious occasions -- who cares? Not me. If I'm not interested in your religion, why would I be interested in its ceremonial particulars?

12. Fixing stuff. I could learn more about working on cars or fixing plumbing or such -- but I don't want to. I hate paying people to do it for me, but not as much as I hate learning it, and doing it, myself. I can change my oil and my filters in my car, and handle my tires; that's good enough for me.

And those are the first ones that came to mind.

[jakethebake]

This is an excellent thread! My list is very long. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

I'll have to work on this respknse awhile.

[SocialWelfareIV]

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I'll have to work on this respknse awhile.

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Jake's plans for future posts.

[tdarko]

i agree with most of the thread but why are sports and games an ignorance? [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

[Blarg]

Because I could know more about them, and that might genuinely help me like them more. So my dislike could be partly based on ignorance.

Football is a good example. There may be something a little ignorant in my saying it's dull, but frankly, it's so dull to me that I don't care to invest more time in a dull thing ot make it more exciting.

It's socially ignorant in another way, too. Depending on what your goals are.

Football is practically a reason for living, for many people. They don't care if teachers get fired at their schools, if they get a nicer football field. Screw education! They don't care if their city goes bankrupt funding a new football stadium. It's worth it because to them, the social value of watching football with their buddies at home or going to a football game is almost impossible to top as a social activity. Not giving a crap enough to suffer through a lifetime of football games excludes you from this all-important social activity with a lot of people, and being excluded is no fun. It could even be career-damaging. Yet liking something that sucks isn't easy. Not trying to like it, or not trying to fake liking it, could be seen as a sort of social ignorance, because the game is not just the game, it's a centerpiece of social life for many people -- heck, practically a religious experience. Telling people you don't like football is, for some of them, like saying you peed on Jesus or joined the Communist Party or NAMBLA.

[tdarko]

oh i agreed with football on your list, half the fans at a game are ignorant to actually what is going on or ignorant to truly understanding the game.

i was just asking about games in general and you answered me, thanks blarg. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[steelcmg]

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4. Football -- too many breaks in the action; I don't wanna learn more so I can understand what makes the game really exciting, and don't apologize. This is a boring game, to me.

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Wow i can think of many other sports that are more boring then football.

I would have to agree with every thing else on your list. I dont really care about any of them and dont want to know about any of them.

[SL__72]

Wow that is a very solid list except for that I love football so obviously that wouldn't be on my list.

One at the top of my list would be women's sports. WNBA, LPGA, women's college sports etc. The olympics don't count here.

[RunDownHouse]

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One at the top of my list would be women's sports. WNBA, LPGA, women's college sports etc. The olympics don't count here.

[/ QUOTE ]
Careful. There's no difference in general between women's sports and men's. You implicitly acknowledge as much by excluding the Olympics. You can make the argument for specific sports - the WNBA being the prime, shining example - but not in the general case.

To Blarg wrt female lit: have you read Toni Morrison's stuff? "Claustraphobic" etc would be just about the last descriptors I would choose.

[Blarg]

Never read Toni Morrison. Some of the ones I've read that come to mind right away are Marianne Moore, Emily Dickinson, Jayne Anne Phillips(liked a lot of her stuff), Alice Walker(hated The Color Purple big time), Anne Beatty(liked almost none of it), Joyce Carol Oates(both liked and disliked strongly), Cynthia Ozick(hated all her stuff). Never did get to what most people would consider the older classics, like the Brontes or Wharton.

A high percentage of "darlings of the New Yorker" in there. I think the New Yorker and its idea of fiction is often incredibly pretentious, trivial, and leaden.