Overgeneralizations about Adulthood
Jun. 1st, 2010 07:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
livingdebPerson A: I realized very early on that grown-ups are liars.
Person B: Yeah, but that's not the worst of it. Children learn, explore and grow. Adults shrivel and shrink. They want to force the whole world to stay the same so that they don't have to change.
Person C: Actually, adults keep learning, but only in one or two fields: their career and maybe one hobby. It's all about always being supremely competent. They don't want to start anything new because they'll look like idiots.
Person A: It's all over by the time they're 30.
Person C: If they have kids. Kids force you to notice new things. Dating also inspires you take risks, just to meet people. Once you get married and get your first real job, it's all over.
Person B: Yeah, but that's not the worst of it. Children learn, explore and grow. Adults shrivel and shrink. They want to force the whole world to stay the same so that they don't have to change.
Person C: Actually, adults keep learning, but only in one or two fields: their career and maybe one hobby. It's all about always being supremely competent. They don't want to start anything new because they'll look like idiots.
Person A: It's all over by the time they're 30.
Person C: If they have kids. Kids force you to notice new things. Dating also inspires you take risks, just to meet people. Once you get married and get your first real job, it's all over.
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on 2010-06-02 02:41 am (UTC)no subject
on 2010-06-06 11:42 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-06-02 04:25 pm (UTC)And navigating strange cities and airports. And foreign currency. And cooperative Wii games. And new Windows OS.
But really, I have not learned anything new in forever. Change is bad! BadBadBad!
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on 2010-06-06 11:48 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2010-06-02 04:46 pm (UTC)-sally
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on 2010-06-04 07:47 pm (UTC)-person A
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on 2010-06-02 11:59 pm (UTC)"...grown-ups, especially men, seldom showed excitement in that sense, and this grown-up had no Daphne Hodgson to concentrate on. But that part of it was only a part of it; surely, no human being could not feel excited at the simple prospect of going to a dance? That was it of course--the difference between feeling something and showing it. It must get like second nature with grown-ups to hide their excitement, and a good thing too, because a grown-up who was going to a dance with Daphne Hodgson at it, and who, being grown up, knew exactly what to do about her, would just make a public exhibition of himself (to borrow one of [his Dad's] favourite phrases) if he were to show the excitement he would feel. Of course." - Peter, Kingsley Amis's The Riverside Villas Murder