Lessons 3

Lesson Three: Respecting Differences or “Manga Is NOT Crap!!”

“Hey! I found this way cool comic. It’s called ‘Strangers In Paradise’.” I enthuse, sticking an issue of it into Red’s face.
She frowns and picks it up, “’S black an’ white.”
“Yeah, isn’t it cool?”
“Whatzit about?”
“Uh…” You really can’t tell people what SIP is about. You’ve gotta read it to love it.
“If ye can’t tell me about it in 25 words or less, then it’s not worth a look.”
“Oh, as if you can tell me about your Manga crap in ‘25 words or less’…” I mimic.
“Manga is NOT crap!”
“Hmmph, your Rae Ayanami with her stupid blue hair and bright brown eyes.” I love tweaking her with this- she never fails to yell back.
“It’s RED!”
“Sure looks bright brown to me…” I mutter.
“It’s red, okay? It says that she has red eyes.” She flips through a well-worn issue of Evangelion to show me some kanji I don’t understand.
I grab the book and flip to the first page which has a colour picture of Ayanami. “Does this look red to you?”
“Yes.”
“Well it looks bright brown to me. Them Manga artists must be colour blind or something.”
“They’re not, you are!”
“Musta run outta red and ended up putting brown for her eyes and told th’ whole world she has red eyes.” I continue.
“Arfgh!” Red swears at me under her breath. She says that I’m th’ only person in the world she curses vulgarly at. I’m honored.
“I’m sorry? Did you say something?”
Red huffs and grabs my SIP comic, thumbing through it quickly “No fight scenes.” She counts off tonelessly “No car chases, no bulky men in spandex, no cute guys with long floppy hair, no shapely babes… you call this a comic book?”
I rub my temple with my middle finger towards her and raise an eyebrow, “It’s art. It’s tastefully done drama in pictures. Just because some of us enjoy a little culture now and then”
“The only culture you get is by eating yogurt.” I slap my head. That was sooo lame.
“Don’t diss my comics, ‘kay?”
“So you don’t diss mine!”
“Fine!” We yell in each other’s faces.
Silence. “I still think Ayanami’s eyes are brown.” I just can’t resist it.
“It’s RED!” And get a slap upside my head for my efforts.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

I learnt early in life that just because I don’t fancy something means that it’s stupid and not worth my time. My mom hates the Simpsons, and I do mean hate. I try to remind her all th’ time that she’s in th’ minority- still, her thoughts on the show is akin to a vile racist slur. How to convince her that people might give her dirty looks for her thoughts?

Sub-lesson two: Even though th’ word ‘crap’ and ‘shit’ can probably describe almost anything (ie: diving crap, “all that college shit”, etc.) its not wise to use it on things people like. As simple and harmless as it sounds to you, people prolly get a lot of grief for th’ thing they love, like “x-files crap”. Yeah. Besides, oversensitive people- *ahem* Red *ahhhemm khaakk snort* might be offended and we wouldn’t want that, would we?

Just a ramble about something I miss th’ most, folks… someone to argue with. Ahhhhh- those were th’ days.

(Note: The above conversation actually happens almost all th’ time. If you ever go to Red’s page, remember to mention Ayanami’s ‘bright brown’ eyes in her profile pic.)