(no subject)

[laleia]

So a year ago (around?) I complained about the way Vampire Diaries tried to make Stefan ~mysteriously knowledgeable~ because he knew such dates as the years World War II and the Korean War started and ended, the year the Civil Rights Act passed, etc.

I felt that this should be common knowledge, or at least, not especially ~surprising~, given these are also dates/years I could have rattled off at his supposed high school age.

I was proven wrong last night, when 2-3 of my (law school-age!) classmates tried to argue with me that World War II ended in 1946.

This is like when I got annoyed with the heroine of Julie Kagawa's book (something faerie-related -- I don't remember the name of the book) because I felt that her best friend named Rob Goodfell --> quite obviously was Robin Goodfellow, a.k.a. Puck and similarly felt like this should be common knowledge and couldn't believe it was taking her SO LONG to figure this out.

Of course, things that other people consider common knowledge are things I have no clue about -- example: I'm still not terribly clear on who Cher is, just that people express shock when I admit this.

Comments

[darklightluna.livejournal.com]

Erm...I'm a big history buff and know exactly three dates of events from before 1996: 1066, 1776, and 1945. Ask me any other date, and I will blink at you owlishly and give you a vague approximate. I can tell you every single thing that happened in Tudor England, and I cannot tell you a single date.

Some people are very, very bad with remembering years and/or dates.

[laleia.livejournal.com]

I suppose, but I still don't buy that:

1.) any teenager who remembers years important wars happened MUST have lived through them and be a vampire because that's the only way this ill happen

or

2.) when I tell you in all earnestness that I can guarantee you that World War II ended in 1945, why would you persist in arguing with me and maintaining that it is 1946? I am clearly right! People should just accept that and cease arguing with me. :P