Someone was telling me recently that i tend to be dictatorial in my tastes. That i don’t have too much patience with book/movies i dislike (which is fine, isn’t it?) but even more damningly, with people who read said books/movies. I stood my ground then, but this morning, i thought of the converse of this statement, and what it says of me.
Because what this means is that i want others to share my views. If i see someone reading a book anywhere i tend to sneak a look at the cover, to see if it’s something i’ve read. and if perchance it’s one i love, i go into a series of almost-convulsions, as i suppress the urge to walk upto them and shake them: “Didja like it? didja... didja... didja...” of course, i rarely have, except with people i know at least slightly, but even they look so uncomfortable at this, that i’m reasonably sure that it’s because my eyes shine with the light of fanaticism, and they’re secretly shaking in their shoes with the thought that if they tell me they didn’t like ‘The End of the Affair’ i might pull out a cudgel and whap them.
So why should my tastes and what i read have to do with anything/anyone else? It ought not to, but it does.
ps: the extension of this conversation that was the core of the argument that day, was whether or not people who can't write, should. and one argument that was brought against me was that i have a blog, in spite of my hatred of pedestrian writing. a paradox i cannot deny, nor mitigate in any way. :-/.
