my generation is weird and lazy

[camjuniper]

This just happened this morning and I'm still fuming. I just can't believe how insulting this SC was.

SC is a regular patron to whom I once recommended King Rat by China Mieville. She enjoyed the book right up the end where the rat king is revealed. Creeped her out to no end. And there has been no end of her ribbing me about reading creepy books about rats. And it was moderately amusing and then fairly tolerable until this morning. #background

SC comes up to my desk; she's got a book to check out and a book on hold.

SC: CamJuniper, you're what, 23? 24?
Me: [warning bells--personal questions = bad news]. Thereabouts, yeah.
SC: [in a jokingly incredulous tone] You're just so young! You're still a baby!
Me: [pastes on false smile]
SC: But you read books about creepy rats!
Me: I like that kind of thing. [shrugs] You should see Mieville's other books. [seriously. His creepy factor for each new book is exponential]
SC: Huh. [in the tone of something revelatory dawning] I guess that's why our generations are so different. We fought in the trenches for women's liberation. You guys are reading creepy rat books.
Me: [semi-strangled, disbelieving laugh]
SC: [leaves, shaking her head]
Me: [clenching jaws]

SO. FLIPPING. MAD. You don't know anything about me or my politics let alone my level of activism in any number of issues that I'm passionate about so how they hell could you even dream that it's okay to make such disgusting, sweeping generalizations and imply to my face that I'm a do-nothing, lazy-ass, weird-book-reading, useless child???

(In the interest of full disclosure, I do, indeed, read weird books)

[Hanzoku]

Eh, she's bitter and has an inferiority complex which means she has to try to belittle you for reading something she didn't like. Ignore her and give her only the basic level of courtesy that professionalism demands.

[CinSim]

I wonder what Dewey (from Unshelved) would have said to that self-centered, rude patron. You'd think that she would see you as a person after all the interactions you've had. How can she not get that that's an offensive thing to say???

[Pixilated]

What the does your choice of reading material have to do with anything??

Ask Ms Women's Lib if she knows where the word 'patronizing' comes from and tell her if she needs a definition she can look in the mirror.

From the sounds of it, she and I might come from the same generation (or generations not too far apart, anyway). If some guy told her "not to worry her pretty little head" about something, she'd be all over him like a measles rash -- yet that's exactly the attitude she's taken towards you. No wonder a lot of younger women (and some not-so-young ones!) don't want to be called 'feminists' anymore.

And "fought in the trenches"? Oh please. Unless she's one of a very few, she probably did no more than march around waving placards and shouting (if she did that much). Unless she's a damn sight older than is really possible and is one of the original suffragettes.

[Beki710]

1. I'm your age and I cannot stand people that make judgements about our generation. I'm a hard worker and I believe I'm a good member of society, why should what I do in private with regards to books etc be anyone's business? (I had a great conversation with an older person about why one of my favourite books is Battle Royale so I can relate!)
2. Rat king sounds very interesting! I may have to check it out!

[barainga]

SC: MY generation did something great!
Translation: MY generation did something great while I sat around and watched.

Met some of the people who did something great. They never bragged about it. They didnt have to.

[dalesys]

This sad little lizard told me he was a brontosaurus on his mother’s side. I did not laugh; people who boast of ancestry often have little else to sustain them.

[BlaqueKatt]

This sad little lizard told me he was a brontosaurus on his mother’s side.

was it this lizard?

Squee?

[Jester]

SC: Huh. [in the tone of something revelatory dawning] I guess that's why our generations are so different. We fought in the trenches for women's liberation. You guys are reading creepy rat books.

Anyone else see the complete irony in this statement?

Ignoring whether or not she actually did any of the fighting for women's lib, let's remember that a lage part of that fight was about battling against stereotypes and changing the thought processes of what roles were appropriate for each gender. And here she's judging you because you're reading creepy books, something clearly reserved for boys.

And even if she didn't mean that, what exactly are you supposed to do? March on Washington demanding...what, precisely? Even modern feminists rarely do marches anymore, for two reasons. First, many of their goals have been met, and many gender stereotypes have fallen. Secondly, it's at the point in the fight where it's better to fight from within the system, whereas in the past that was not only not the best way to do it, it wasn't all that doable, as there were so few women IN the system.

Met some of the people who did something great. They never bragged about it. They didnt have to.

Absolutely true. It's just like that old adage about the people who talk the most about sex are generally the ones getting it the least.

And we all know people who tell great stories. And oftentimes, we know that they are full of shit. And every now and then, we meet someone who tells great stories, and we know immediately that they aren't full of shit, that they actually lived those stories.

A great example of the latter is my friend and coworker, who I and others have dubbed The Most Interesting Man in the World, after the guy from those Dos Equis commercials. Because he has great stories, because he's DONE all this crap. He doesn't need to make it up. Hell, he's in his early fifties, and still has a more interesting time in his life now then others of any age. But forgetting his current lifestyle (his last girlfriend was 26, and they were the type of couple that the age didn't matter, and it made perfect sense for them to be together), some of the things he's done include being in a rock band (and not only recording a CD or two, but his band socialized with and played in the same venues as another band that went on to worldwide success), published his own magazine, had his own bar (since closed), and designed a logo for a sports team that, long before I ever met him, I considered the most killer logo for a sports team, even though that is not a team I root for. I'm sure there are many more, but this dude personifies the phrase "Renaissance Man."

And again, when he tells a wild stoy, no one questions it, because you just KNOW that it's on the up and up.

This sad little lizard told me he was a brontosaurus on his mother’s side. I did not laugh; people who boast of ancestry often have little else to sustain them.

Unrelated to the thread, but this reminded me of my friend Finances. A while back, we were talking on the phone, and he was telling me about some family tree research had done. And according to him, his family, while Italian, actually traced their roots back to a French royal family, who had been usurped and thrown out of France, after which they took up residence in Italy, then fought their way back into France, only to be beaten again.

To which I said, "So, you're bragging about the fact that you're descended from royalty that got their asses kicked....twice?"

I figured that either he believed it or that he really was descended from that family....otherwise why would you admit to it? Just another instance in a long line of instances of the French getting their asses handed to them.

[Shalom]

This sad little lizard told me he was a brontosaurus on his mother’s side. I did not laugh; people who boast of ancestry often have little else to sustain them.

Rabbi Israel Friedman of Ruzhyn (1797-1850) once said that ancestry is like a string of zeroes. If any number at all stands at the head of the line, each zero after it increases its value by tenfold. But if the final descendent of all that ancestry is himself a zero, none of the others will do him the least good...

[mharbourgirl]

To which I said, "So, you're bragging about the fact that you're descended from royalty that got their asses kicked....twice?"

I grew up with my Dad always going on and on about our Scottish heritage and hinting that we were connected to ancient royal lines. I assumed he was correct. Well, he was, sort of, but that wasn't the WHOLE story as I discovered when as a teenager I went researching the history of our family name. Apparently there's a bit of English mixed in there, since one female ancestor married a Duke of Wellington. But that's not the interesting bit.

The clan did indeed spend a few hundred years in Scotland before my branch emigrated to Canada. They came to Scotland, however, from Ireland. Why did the entire clan up and leave Ireland? Oh, it was tragic, really. A complete and utter inability to tell the difference between 'our cows' and 'everyone else's cows'.

After I informed my father of these fascinating facts, he refused to speak to me for a solid month. Seriously, Dad? I was 17, and thought it was ten kinds of cool that my ancestors were notorious cattle rustlers. Come to think of it, I still do.

[Moosenogger]

Maybe you should have asked how her bra burning went. You know, just to pander to her superiority complex.

Isn't it due to people fighting for women's rights that you're able to read whatever you choose? Hell, that you can read in the first place? I seem to remember a time not too long ago where women were held down academically as well as socially.

[wolfie]

This sad little lot lizard told me she was a brontosaurus on her mother’s side. I did not laugh; people who boast of ancestry often have little else to sustain them.

Edited for my amusement, and for a better take on the character of people who boast about their ancestry. For those who don't understand, the bolded term is a (very rude) piece of CB slang.

[Ironclad Alibi]

SC: But you read books about creepy rats!

Better creepy books about rats than really creepy books from her generation like Lord of the Flies.

I haven't read King rat, but I loved China Miéville's Kraken.

[JoitheArtist]

I wonder what Dewey (from Unshelved) would have said to that self-centered, rude patron.

A fellow Unshelved fan?? MARRY ME!!