![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Cultural disconnect
Apr. 10th, 2005 06:37 am"God, you are such a Kender."
Yes, this was said to me recently. Thinking back on it, I think it was actually meant to be some kind of insult, though light-hearted, but it didn't occur to me at the time to take it that way.
Kender, for the unenlightened out there, are a species of small humanoids from the Dragonlance books, a series of light novels intended to promote the Dungeons & Dragons games, written back in the 80's. The series later became a huge franchise, with about a dozen different writers, and for all I know they might still be writing them (but really, it's a trilogy).
Aside from being so cool to be called that by a Cute Girl (tm) just because it shows that she's a true geek, too, because, really, who else would not only know what a Kender is, but actually use the word in polite conversation?
Anyway, as the name imply, they're rather childlike (some would say childish, but I'm going with the former appelation here. They are known, especially, for their eternal optimism, their insatiable curiousity, and their lack of respect (or understanding) for the sacredness of material possessions, all traits I admire.
Sometimes that curiousity, and lack of concern about the consequences, can lead to some really cool things. At one point while traveling in Mexico, I returned to the hotel to meet up with my traveling companions, and learned that we'd been invited to a nearby small village where the people don't even speak Spanish, only Mayan. Excited, as I hadn't previously been aware that there were such places still, I informed the third member of our group of our invitation as soon as he got back, before he even sat down, and just stood there, blinking, with mouth a-gape, when he asked "why would we want to go to a small village where they only speak Mayan?" I mean, um, who wouldn't??
Of course, at other times, it just causes troubl. For instance, I'm far less finicky about food than my weak stomach should warrant and have spent many hours kneeling in front of toilets in various parts of the world thinking "but I had to try it. I'd never heard of it before." This attitude is also what led to a conversation at work a while back, which led to the first (and, so far, only) poll in my blog when I was convinced that, though the majority of people I know do not share my (or, indeed, much of any) curiousity, this desire for new experiences was common among my friends. The poll, if you recall, was about tasering yourself. I was actually surprised at the results, in which 7 out of the nine respondents said not only they hadn't but they wouldn't. One said they hadn't, and only one said they had, and even he implied he may not have been sober at the time. The truth is, I did it once, and, believe it or not, I was stone-cold sober at the time. I just wondered what it would feel like. (answer: unpleasant). I still believe most of my friends do share, at least to some degree, a large measure of curiousity, but it seems most of them are smarter than me about it...
Yes, this was said to me recently. Thinking back on it, I think it was actually meant to be some kind of insult, though light-hearted, but it didn't occur to me at the time to take it that way.
Kender, for the unenlightened out there, are a species of small humanoids from the Dragonlance books, a series of light novels intended to promote the Dungeons & Dragons games, written back in the 80's. The series later became a huge franchise, with about a dozen different writers, and for all I know they might still be writing them (but really, it's a trilogy).
Aside from being so cool to be called that by a Cute Girl (tm) just because it shows that she's a true geek, too, because, really, who else would not only know what a Kender is, but actually use the word in polite conversation?
Anyway, as the name imply, they're rather childlike (some would say childish, but I'm going with the former appelation here. They are known, especially, for their eternal optimism, their insatiable curiousity, and their lack of respect (or understanding) for the sacredness of material possessions, all traits I admire.
Sometimes that curiousity, and lack of concern about the consequences, can lead to some really cool things. At one point while traveling in Mexico, I returned to the hotel to meet up with my traveling companions, and learned that we'd been invited to a nearby small village where the people don't even speak Spanish, only Mayan. Excited, as I hadn't previously been aware that there were such places still, I informed the third member of our group of our invitation as soon as he got back, before he even sat down, and just stood there, blinking, with mouth a-gape, when he asked "why would we want to go to a small village where they only speak Mayan?" I mean, um, who wouldn't??
Of course, at other times, it just causes troubl. For instance, I'm far less finicky about food than my weak stomach should warrant and have spent many hours kneeling in front of toilets in various parts of the world thinking "but I had to try it. I'd never heard of it before." This attitude is also what led to a conversation at work a while back, which led to the first (and, so far, only) poll in my blog when I was convinced that, though the majority of people I know do not share my (or, indeed, much of any) curiousity, this desire for new experiences was common among my friends. The poll, if you recall, was about tasering yourself. I was actually surprised at the results, in which 7 out of the nine respondents said not only they hadn't but they wouldn't. One said they hadn't, and only one said they had, and even he implied he may not have been sober at the time. The truth is, I did it once, and, believe it or not, I was stone-cold sober at the time. I just wondered what it would feel like. (answer: unpleasant). I still believe most of my friends do share, at least to some degree, a large measure of curiousity, but it seems most of them are smarter than me about it...
