two sips from the cup of human kindness and I'm shitfaced

Sometimes I wished I studied something like science or math because then I could talk with some authority about what I took in school. That's the problem with taking courses specializing in popular culture. Everyone has some knowledge about it, therefore they're allowed an "informed" opinion. This is especially true of those science types who took SOME liberal arts courses. I spent an entire night sitting beside someone who took one course in what I studied and therefore thought they could talk with some authority about the subject. The worst part was that they assumed that the one course was all there was to it. Yes, I studied a useless subject, but only I'm allowed to say that. You (anyone who didn't take similar courses) are not allowed to refer to it as silly. Most people have the common sense to keep those thoughts to themselves.

This is exactly like the time I got into a HUGE debate with some people about Batman. I was wrong for making a scene, but then again what they were saying wasn't informed. Popular culture is easy to have an opinion about because it's everywhere. You can't turn around with it hitting you right in the face. And there's also the problem of being informed about popular culture because most people dismiss what you're saying as silly because you're looking too deeply into something that's meaningless.

Long and short of it, you can say that Batman is a modern myth, but don't just dismiss the source material just because most people haven't read it (the comic books are important and what is happening in them is important because it informs the rest of the myth making process).

AND television isn't real. Narrative devices are used all the time. Accept that fact and stop looking for verisimilitude. It's good that you know some literary jargon, but don't use it when you don't know what it means. You don't see me trying explain mathematic problems, do you? (aside from when I teach the children. because I've had to do a lot of research to understand what's going on there. HINT HINT)

Oh, and I'm not talking about people discussing what they like or what they dislike. I'm only talking about people trying to talk critically about this shit. Stating an opinion about whether or not that kid from War of the World creeps you out is one thing. Trying to explain why the remake wasn't faithful to the original book/radio show without ever having actually read/heard either... that's something completely different. Just because popular culture is viewed as "low culture" doesn't mean that you should pretend to talk about it intelligently in a similar fashion.

And yes Carly, I am angry about this. Let me be.

End of rant. We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog post.