Snobbery (yikes, this is long!)

[Jennifer Piersol]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Tabouli" <tabouli at u...> wrote:

> That said, I'm very fond of films.  Highbrow intellectual 
> literature makes me impatient - I feel I *ought* to appreciate the 
> stuff, but in all honesty, I can rarely be bothered with a book 
> that takes a lot of effort.  I could blame doing a postgrad degree 
> (struggling through oceans of dreary articles by pedantic, boring 
> academics whose grasp of jargon greatly outclasses their grasp of 
> writing... blaaagggh), but the truth of it is, I've always liked my 
> reading for entertainment accessible and digestible.  The problem 
> is more that a succession of people whose judgment I've feared and 
> respected (perhaps without good reason), have consistently sneered 
> at my taste for light reading, implying that this somehow means 
> that I'm lazy and immature and plebian and of inferior taste.
> 
> I really dislike this attitude, but try as I might I can never 
> totally shake it off.  (Mind you, as these are also the sort of 
> people who either refuse to sully their pure, sophisticated 
> intellects with the hoi polloi's Harry Potter or, if they've 
> deigned to read them, dismiss the series patronisingly as a bit of 
> fun, but really they're just children's books after all, not to be 
> confused with, say, Beowulf...)

I've always encountered this attitude myself.  It's almost driven me 
to being a closet-kiddie-lit-reader.  I remember being, hmm.... 12 
years old, maybe? going to my public library, picking out about 3 
Louisa May Alcott books (I think it was the two Rose books and 
perhaps Jo's Boys, but I'm not sure), plunking them on the counter, 
and promptly feeling stupid (remember, I'm 12!) when she says to me, 
"Don't you think you're a little old to be reading this?"

By this time, I feel that in my small town of about 12,000, my 
"reputation" as a bright girl had preceded me (especially at school 
and at the library), and they thought I should be reading Dickens or 
Austen by then.  I'm pretty sure it was after this incedent that I 
started BUYING books instead of going to the library.  To this DAY, 
I have trouble checking out anything from the library that isn't 
non-fiction or something similar, just in case someone's watching me.

I also have trouble with "highbrow" literature.  I had to take a 
couple of lit classes in college to satisfy my English Minor, and I 
remember having a lot of problems.  Chaucer - ouch.  I remember 
LOATHING _Catch 22_, perhaps only because I was supposed to be 
reading it to "analyze" it, not to "enjoy" it.  On the other hand, I 
always loved Shakespeare because I could read it and hear the 
language being spoken... I actually *enjoyed* it.  Perhaps that's one 
of the reasons I got a Hermione-ish reputation... because I was the 
only one in my high school who loved Shakespeare (which was the only 
advanced stuff we ever read in my standard English classes).

Hmmm...

Anyway, now I'm finding myself feeling very insecure.  I'm a 
"housewife" and a stay-at-home mom, and I constantly feel like I'm 
going to disappoint everyone who expected me to actually 
"accomplish" something.  Isn't it awful how something that seems 
fairly insignificant in your childhood can affect you to the point 
of not wanting to go to your 10yr reunion because you're not 
"successful" in a career/monetary way?

Jen

PS - your shallow American man... perhaps this is why so many 
American women are stressed out about their looks?  I was lucky in 
that while I've pretty much always been "chunky", I never paid that 
much attention to my weight, so it's never been an issue with me 
(until recently, when I became familiar to what's important to my 
husband's family), and since I was never one to be without a date for 
very long, it must have been that guys always felt immediately 
comfortable around me.  Of course, I've gained 25 pounds since high 
school (and had a kid, which doesn't do much for your figure), so 
I'm not sure how it would be now if I were single, but I was lucky 
to find a guy who was interested in more than my physical appearance. 
Who knows how common/rare those kind of men are in America?