Last weekend the kid had another birthday party to attend, obliging us to drive out to the burbs and exchange pleasantries with other parents with whom we have nothing in common except for our offspring being in the same kindergarten class (why do suburbanites send their kids to school at the end of our street? and why can't the downtown parents find fun, age-appropriate birthday activities for their children in the neighbourhood they live in?).
In those few awkward moments before we abandoned our children to the care of the unwitting parents who'd extended this invitation on behalf of their fresh 6-year-old, the conversation fumbled a bit, but being that there was a cinema complex in the mall in which we'd assembled, movies seemed a natural subject.
J-F mentioned he'd like to see the new Terminator movie, and I smiled in a kind of solidarity — it's certainly one of the coolest trailers I've seen in ages. Who doesn't love to watch the post-apocalypse?! Apparently, all the parents of my daughter's peers. We were promptly advised that the Star Trek movie is far superior — it's multilayered! — and were snubbed for the duration of the ritual smalltalk. J-F fails to understand their lack of appreciation, and has been fuming over this incident for days.
So it comes as a kind of vindication to learn that J.D. Salinger broke his public silence this weekend to share his fervour for the latest Terminator movie.
[Apparently he's developed quite a bit of literary material over the years, all of which appears to be "without a doubt the most personal and affecting body of Terminator fan fiction ever discovered."]
J-F can keep company with the likes of Salinger while the goddamn phonies pat each other on the back.
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2 comments:
Those moments are so annoying but I tend to be evil about them. I draw attention to the awkwardness and end up feeling better myself whilst the others feel more awkward.
At one party, a woman was annoying me by advising me to not see a certain movie -- she hadn't seen it -- that none of the other mothers had liked. She was adamant.
Finally, I said, "Oh, I'm just so compulsive about forming my own opinions." ;)
I'm reminded of The Human Stain: "People are getting more and more opinionated, but they're also getting stupider at the same time."
yay for Salinger & you & J-F. boo on the phonies.
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