Trivial Pursuits

I was talking with a co-worker the other day, someone who is well-paid, educated, and roughly my age. She is sort of the artsy type, so I was talking about some films that I happen to like a great deal, not obscure movies by any stretch of the imagination. The references completely stumped her, and she remarked that I seemed to know a lot of "pop culture trivia."

Pop culture trivia. Okay, I have at least 2 problems with that statement. First, if movies are art, then we're not talking about "pop culture." We're not talking about the vicissitudes of Jon & Kate's marriage. Or Lady Gaga's pants, or lack thereof. We're talking about something important. Art.

Secondly, there is a big difference between knowledge and trivia. Trivia means "things that pertain to petty or unimportant things." Trivial things. Like the fact that Charles Mingus trained his cat to use a toilet. That's trivial. Unless you're the cat. But knowing who Charles Mingus was? That's not trivial.

It just seems to me that anyone who knows anything is derided as having lots of trivial information. I guess the only important things to know nowadays are the URLs of Google and Wikipedia. All the rest is trivia.

This just in: I just finished reading the AP article on David Carradine's funeral service. The article contained this gem:

"Among the hundreds of guests were numerous actors, including Michael Madsen, Jane Seymour, Tom Selleck, Frances Fisher, Daryl Hannah, Lucy Liu, Edward James Olmos, Ali Larter, and James Cromwell. Rob Schneider also attended, carrying a basket of flowers."

Nice subtle exclusion of Rob Schneider from the "numerous actors" list.