Everyone has a quirk. Mine is detail. I notice little things and these things interfere with my enjoyment. Like reading. I wasn't fully aware of this until I was reading a book and a character couldn't get dialtone on his cell phone. It ruined the book. I could not get it out of my head. No cell phone ever gets dialtone.
So, today, I am reading a book (Lee Child's "Nothing to Lose") and the main characters are riding through town at night in a black car, doing their best to avoid being noticed, with their lights off. They stop when they realize there are people some distance ahead of them. Oh, you think, lights off will prevent them from being seen. What about the brake lights giving them a glowing red aura???
[sigh]
I wish I could turn this off. It's like being told, at a dinner, that people's ears move when they chew their food. From that moment on, all you can think about is people's ears.
10 comments:
Ok, I am eating alone until that ear comment leaves my brain.
You're a very interesting guy, Douglas. You never cease to surprise me.
Try this. Try reading Shakespeare without getting hung up on the detail. It takes effort. Then check out Don Quixote, and do the same. They'll both be exercises in trying to avoid letting detail interfere with your enjoyment.
You and I could irritate a whole room full of movie wathcers I bet. I have a hard time supspending disbelief I suppose. Just because the movie cost 70 million and stars some famous cardboard cutout, it doesn't cut it. My favorite annoyance. A sniper on a building takes a dozen shots at the hero on the ground with a high powered rifle with scope, missing. The hero takes a pop at him with a handgun, swinging upwards and firing once, clipping the barely visible head and shoulders, usually in the shoulder allowing a final scene of the sniper being carted away, feeling way less pain than likely. Another favorite is it takes almost no strength or skill to whack someone in the upper shoulders or neck and send them into unconciousness! Hey, did you check out that blog Judging the Books, I think it is pretty funny? Alan
I'm not looking forward to dinner tonight now... it'll be totally jutan.
I linked your blog to another similarly interested in wordifies...
http://themiddenshirechronicles.blogspot.com/
AV
http://netherregionoftheearthii.blogspot.com/
http://tomusarcanum.blogspot.com/
MPH - How are you going to control your own ears?
Robot - Or the hero who gets his lunch handed to him by the head bad guy and then whips the head bad guy at the end immediately after beating up half a dozen others. I still like "24" even though... Those Books probably triggered the desire to post this piece.
Log - all of Shakespeare? How about just Merchant of Venice?
AV - YABTF????
Oh, my, never switch it off. Never, ever switch it off.
24 is either my favorite or second favorite TV show. Lost is the only show that measures up to 24's standard.
Michael.
P.S. Which reminds me... I might get started on creating that television/music/film-themed blog.
Michael - I watch way too much TV. I stopped watching Lost when they began ignoring the mysterious beasts in the jungle. (What ate the pilot?) The characters on that show are interesting, though.
So far, I can ignore the flaws in 24 because it is pure escapism. But others are starting to grate on my nerves.
It is for this reason that I only watch ESPN and Food Network now... and even shows about food can get a little cheesy.
Your last book about stereotypes kind of ties into this one. I know a lot of good books and movies that don't get read/watched because they have a bad stereotype (too sci-fi, not enough drama, whatever) and many more POS novels and films that go down as Great American classics when they are full of plot holes and bad grammar.
God, I hated english class in school.
GB - Try as I might, I could never get into Great Expectations.
MPH - How are you going to control your own ears?
Robot - Or the hero who gets his lunch handed to him by the head bad guy and then whips the head bad guy at the end immediately after beating up half a dozen others. I still like "24" even though... Those Books probably triggered the desire to post this piece.
Log - all of Shakespeare? How about just Merchant of Venice?
AV - YABTF????
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