What if the picture above triggered no recognition in your brain, no social relevance, no movie connection, no thoughts of the scree of a tween clawing at your eardrums?
Over heard this week:
GAL: What's your granddaughter's name again?
GUY: Bella.
GAL: Oh, yeah. So pretty.
GUY: Yeah, I guess someone asked [my son] if they named her after, I guess there's some vampire movie or something.
GAL: Oh. Really? Hrm.
GUY: But [my son] just likes the name Isabella.
GAL: I don't know, I never heard of that.
GUY: Me neither. I'm not really a movie person.
GAL: Not unless it's free.
*they laugh*
My first reaction, after picking my jaw up off the floor, was OMFG! How can you not know Twilight? How can you be so much not a movie person that you're completely unaware of one of the biggest movie and literary sensations in years? Do you not read books either?
Is it even possible to be unaware of something that is so completely ubiquitous? This happened in a "work" environment, so the people in question leave the house every day. With billboards and posters and radio and television and conversations with people who know someone who read the book or saw the movie, you never heard about Twilight?
Then I stepped back and monitored my own reaction. This doesn't make these people any less people, but am I a media snob for reacting like that? I don't think I come across as "OMG I know everything about everything," even in my private thoughts.
So what are your thoughts? About the interaction and my reaction. I'd love to hear what other people think.
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7 comments:
I know two dogs named Bella, that I think were named that in the 'absence' of Twilight. However, weren't there like, a million baby girls named "Emma" after that episode of Friends? I'd think, even if they aren't consciously aware of the movie, they must've heard the name. It's not like things come out of nowhere, especially when they're everywhere, you know what I mean?
One of my great aunts was named Isabella and I liked the Patti Smith song on her Easter album as well. So Isabella doesn't automatically mean Twilight to me, but it's close! I work in a public library and these books were always flying off the shelves. Personally, I LOVE the name Isabella.
People have different times and tastes, rhythm and blues I think ;)
Ah, I agree with both of you, but I guess that means I didn't explain my internal dialog well enough.
I know Bella doesn't come from the movie. I believe it means "beautiful" in Italian, and the name Isabella goes back hundreds of years.
I was just surprised at how void of awareness the speakers were with something so ...everywhere.
Then again, I have a 15 year old daughter and basically live on the internet, so I'm horribly biased.
Not everyone lives and breathes pop culture. Kind of refreshing.
Cause Al Gore invented it? (Hm, doesn't work quite as well here)
I'd ask "was it my mom?" but for the fact that none of my siblings have named a child that...
Sometimes I am amazed at how people manage to NOT know things, and then there are other times when I find that I am the one ignorant of some bit of obviousity. <-- [I made up a word. How do you like it?]
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