(no subject)

[darchildre]

I have decided that my least favorite question ever is: "Why do you know that?"

A coworker has a first aid class coming up soon, so I told her about L'Inconnue de la Seine. Because that is totally fascinating - who would not want to know about that? And my coworker just looked at me and said, "Why do you know that?" You know the tone. Like knowing things is strange and off-putting in itself, like knowledge is suspicious.

I hate that. I hate when I give someone a plot description of a book I love or an old horror film and their response is "I just don't know how you keep all that in your head." I hate when my dad laughs at me because I've chosen to use a word that might be unusual but is more precise as to the meaning I want to convey. I bet they have things they know that I don't, special areas of interest and expertise. Why the hell are my areas of interest and expertise less worthy of respect?

Why do you know that? It is a legitimately interesting piece of knowledge - why the hell don't you?

Comments

[silveradept]

For some people, I suspect they believe knowledge should be functional - only those things which are important to your life, work, and hobbies should be things that you know. Knowing things because they're fun or interesting or because you like knowing things places you squarely in the realm of the Other - the nerds, the geeks, and the librarians. And the Other is always suspicious.

[toft]

I know that knowledge! I heard it on Radiolab.