The other day, in my English literature class, the teacher asked us to enumerate for her a few classics of the language, and while everyone came up with the works of Charles Dickens and Jane Austen and Bernard Shaw and the Bronte sisters, the answer that stood out the most was that of a girl sitting right behind me, who raised her hand sweetly, and came up with the absurdest thing I'd heard.'Ma'am, authors like Nicolas Sparks, they write so well, why don't we call those books classics?'
The teacher was stumped. Honestly, so were most of the others in the class.
Not at the 'unconventional' question, but at her sheer brainless audacity. A few heads banged down, there were a few exhasperated sighs, and some giggles, and some genuinely chafed whispers wondering what she was doing in a literature class anyway, all in some not-so-polite words.
And for that one minute, I felt like I'd found my place in the world. I fit in perfectly with this obnoxiously contemptuous, stuck up group, and I loved it.
I like to think of myself as something of a sophisticated 'reader' kind of person; rather take pride in being one. And all through my school life, there was only one person, my best friend, who I shared the trait with. With the rest of the world, it seemed to me, there was something wrong.
Me: What was the last good book you read?
Friend: Breaking Dawn!
Really? A mindless nincompoop of a teenage girl giving birth to her sparkling 107-year old vampire boyfriend's child and her werewolf best friend falling in love with her newborn baby? Good book, that. Forget that, people wouldn't have read a book like that either. People simply watch the movies, and claim to know the books.
It gets to me. Its like an inexplicable pet peeve. People who read interest me. The Stephenie Meyer types annoy. Of course there'll all fine, until they begin to claim they read good literature and then call you a bookworm in an irritating giggly tone when they spot you reading Khaled Hosseini.
It irks me no end when people can't tell their 'accepts' from 'excepts' and their 'affects' from 'effects'. People who say 'didn't knew', 'didn't came', or even 'lolzz'. Basically, people who ruin the language, even its short forms. It feels like having to fight an inexplicable urge to correct people all the time. I don't know exactly how frustrating, but I'm guessing it must be QUITE annoying to have someone breathing down your neck, correcting your grammar, your diction, pronounciation and spellings all the time.
And so, I've (finally) come to realise that its a supercilious condescending obsession. And that I need to get rid of it, for people's good, and mine.
So today, when someone told me they'd just read Revolution 2020 and found it absolutely amazing, I snapped my mouth shut and passed him a smile. Well, its a start.
It's amazing how people won't give much thought to basic grammar while speaking, or writing, as was the matter with me.
ReplyDeleteI remember using 'I didn't knew' a lot of times earlier, thanks to you, I won't be doing that anymore. :)
Nice post, by the way. :)
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ReplyDeleteVrinda, you write extremely well. I hate to see amazing writers like you not getting a big enough platform to express yourself. Blogging is a nice way to do it, but it's immensely difficult to get a big fat readership.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I stumbled upon your blog. I see that you haven't posted for a year, but I hope you see this and start writing again. I'd love to read more of your work.
Also, in case you do see this, check out this post I wrote
http://thebabblingbumblingbaboon.blogspot.in/2014/09/how-to-make-book-nerd-react.html?m=1
It's similar to what you've expressed here. :)