According to the always-reliable medium of Facebook quizzes, I've only seen 46 of the 100 films I should see before I die. Which is actually quite comforting, because it means I'm not even half way to the grave, yet.
I've also read an embarrassingly small number of the 100 books I should read before I run down the curtain and join the choir invisible. I'm not sure what my actual score was on that quiz, but it felt like about ten titles. I was sufficiently shamed that I didn't even make a note of it, or perhaps couldn't, because I'm clearly some sort of illiterate dullard.
(This blog is actually composed by having a room full of monkeys randomly bash some laptops. Don't act like you didn't already suspect as much.)
From one of the 100 things you really should see before you die.
Still, the choices, at least from a movie perspective, were a little odd. "Aliens," but not "Alien," which was the reverse of the treatment given to "The Godfather," which got a mention to the exclusion of its own sequel. Presumably "Part II" was bumped off to make room for "Ratatouille" or never-heard-of-it Julianne Moore film "The Kids Are All Right."
It could be my wounded nerd pride over my score, but I can't help but feel that the last thing the internet (especially the Facebook part of the internet) needs is another way to form cliques. Sure, it's nice when people have shared cultural experiences, but aren't these quizzes just a way of saying that we should all watch the same films and read the same books?
Aside from making us all into pod people, expelled in our identical outfits from the hatcheries of the ubiquitous, soulless Combine*, it seems to run contrary to the very principles of online communication. Sites like Facebook, and the whole of the web in general, give us unparalleled access to things we'd never normally have experienced; people we'd never normally have talked to and opinions we'd never normally encounter. Computers allow us to talk to people on the other side of the world, and if you chose to do so and asked someone what their favourite film was, wouldn't it be kind of nice to get an answer that wasn't on some preconceived list?
At the same time, not having seen any of the films or read any of the books would mean you were either ignorant or, worse, a hipster, but it's still worth pointing out that individuality is an important thing that should be encouraged instead of used as an online cultural guilt trip. Having read exactly the same books as everyone else you know doesn't make you cool; it makes you a religious fundamentalist. A little bit of straying from life's curriculum can do you a lot of good.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that while it's great to have moments in cinema or literature that everyone recognises and responds to...
...it's also good for everyone to have their own interests and their own knowledge. Which means you should read a few of those books. And see, maybe, forty six of those movies.
Tops.
*For those who got the reference, "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest" was on the film list, but not the book list. Criminal.
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