(no subject)
May. 31st, 2011 04:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
seekingferretI've read 45 pages of Zadie Smith's On Beauty, but I may need to take a break. So much of this novel's style (and possibly substance) expects me to know E.M. Forster and I don't.
Moments like this frustrate me. I like to think of myself as reasonably well-read, reasonably comfortable with the canon, but here I stand knowing just enough to know how little I know. I could just press on and enjoy the book for what it is, but I think I'll find that unsatisfactory. I can't stand seeing references and in-jokes and knowing I don't get them. This is also why I can't watch Doctor Who.
Moments like this frustrate me. I like to think of myself as reasonably well-read, reasonably comfortable with the canon, but here I stand knowing just enough to know how little I know. I could just press on and enjoy the book for what it is, but I think I'll find that unsatisfactory. I can't stand seeing references and in-jokes and knowing I don't get them. This is also why I can't watch Doctor Who.