Random thoughts about media-illiteracy among the fictional
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A thing I sometimes find not ringing true in fanworks is when characters have "fan" levels of media mastery. Sure, I can name five captains of the Starship Enterprise off the top of my head, but I'm a fan: I'm somebody who's over-invested in this by definition. Batman, on the other hand, cannot possibly have time for 'trek marathons in between surveilling drug dealers and inventing brand new martial arts.
(Obviously, there are exceptions. Abed Nadir can probably name eighteen captains of the Starship Enterprise, and then he'll start listing the acting-captains.)
Specifically, I bet most of the Avengers are about like that relative or co-worker of yours to whom you have to decide if you want to explain "What is this 'hunger game' the kids now are playing?" I mean, to greater or lesser degrees, but I'd be pretty surprised if more than a couple of them got very far past "It's a movie."
Even Tony, who likes to act like he has his finger on the beating pulse of the internet, I would bet rarely reads anything that's not delivered to him via the internet and updating minimum on the half-hour. Like, in my head, he's *literate*, but fiction? Not his bag. He can sit through a two hour movie, if he can play with his phone at the same time, or if it's being MST3Ked (and he can play with his phone at the same time.) He'll read technical specifications, but those are *useful* and relevant to his life. He got through highschool English by reading the first and last chapter of the assigned texts, and bullshitting all the rest. (Possibly also by suborning his teacher.)
I mean, I bet when he recognizes that a joke happened he didn't get, he'll send Jarvis to investigate, and Jarvis will come back twelve seconds later with "it refers to a *Saturday Night Live* sketch which aired last week. Shall I replay the relevant portion?" But that's just because Tony *hates* it when he's the uncomprehending outsider.
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A thing I sometimes find not ringing true in fanworks is when characters have "fan" levels of media mastery. Sure, I can name five captains of the Starship Enterprise off the top of my head, but I'm a fan: I'm somebody who's over-invested in this by definition. Batman, on the other hand, cannot possibly have time for 'trek marathons in between surveilling drug dealers and inventing brand new martial arts.
(Obviously, there are exceptions. Abed Nadir can probably name eighteen captains of the Starship Enterprise, and then he'll start listing the acting-captains.)
Specifically, I bet most of the Avengers are about like that relative or co-worker of yours to whom you have to decide if you want to explain "What is this 'hunger game' the kids now are playing?" I mean, to greater or lesser degrees, but I'd be pretty surprised if more than a couple of them got very far past "It's a movie."
Even Tony, who likes to act like he has his finger on the beating pulse of the internet, I would bet rarely reads anything that's not delivered to him via the internet and updating minimum on the half-hour. Like, in my head, he's *literate*, but fiction? Not his bag. He can sit through a two hour movie, if he can play with his phone at the same time, or if it's being MST3Ked (and he can play with his phone at the same time.) He'll read technical specifications, but those are *useful* and relevant to his life. He got through highschool English by reading the first and last chapter of the assigned texts, and bullshitting all the rest. (Possibly also by suborning his teacher.)
I mean, I bet when he recognizes that a joke happened he didn't get, he'll send Jarvis to investigate, and Jarvis will come back twelve seconds later with "it refers to a *Saturday Night Live* sketch which aired last week. Shall I replay the relevant portion?" But that's just because Tony *hates* it when he's the uncomprehending outsider.
This post also on dreamwidth (
comments)