Things I used to think were the Best Things Ever but have recently discovered are not all that great:
1. The X-Files
2. Tom Robbins novels
3. Gilmore Girls
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Things I used to think were the Best Things Ever but have recently discovered are not all that great:
1. The X-Files
2. Tom Robbins novels
3. Gilmore Girls
I don’t know if I’m going to see the movie, but not because I don’t still think the first few years of the x-files were awesome. I’ll definitely buy the score though. I’m pretty sure Mark Snow remains one of the best things ever to happen to television music.
I’ve only read one tom robbins novel, but I distinctly remember the feeling I got from reading it: that it was a good thing I had gotten around to reading it before I hit my mid-twenties, because I would probably have no patience for it after I got too grown up.
Good on you for noticing in advance the college-osity (if I may) of Tom Robbins novels. I have a very vivid memory of reading Still Life with Woodpecker my freshman year and thinking that it was going to be The Book That Changed My Life. When I tried to re-read it a few months ago, I was surprised to find that I couldn’t even get through 1/3 of it.
My cat doesn’t like Tom Robbins either.
I generally agree with your list. How did you manage to make the discovery that these things are Not All That Great?
I’m relieved to see Buffy is not on that list.
i went through a period when i really liked tom robbins, and then after a while i found him unreadable. grew out of it.
when i like something, i try to predict how it will eventually end up: i will eventually find this crappy; i will eventually not like this, but will look back on it as cool nonetheless; i will love this forever.
i’m actually getting good at it.
Still Life with Woodpecker is the only Robbins I’ve read, and that only after much cajoling by a couple of friends. I enjoyed it, but it didn’t make me want to go out and read more.
Ryan, I figured it out the old-fashioned way: by trying to consume those things again and noticing that they just weren’t as good as I remembered them.
Josh, someday I hope to have your cool-predicting skills.
If I can make a sweeping generalization…
I’ve found that nearly everyone who is a “reader” likes Tom Robbins novels when they are early to mid twenties. Then, if they continue to be readers (rather than becoming busy grown-ups with other priorities), their tastes grow with them and they outgrow Tom Robbins.
It’s sort of like how when you meet a person aged 30-60 and they believe that new music stopped being cool at exactly the same time they were in their early 20’s, then you know that actually they just stopped having an active interest in music because they got busy with other things. That’s what I think of 40 year olds who still think Tom Robbins is profound or hysterically witty.
OK, disclaimer- I’m sure there are many of you out there who have excellent taste in art and love Tom Robbins. That’s the problem with sweeping generalizations!
I hate hearing that about “The X-Files.” Mainly because I am re-watching them now and I’m about to start the 6th season. And deep down I am not enjoying it as much as when it was new. I just didn’t want to admit it to myself. But, I’ll soldier on (to the end of 7th season) and definitely see the movie. And then I will most likely put it away.
P.S. — Will I feel this way about “Lost” and/or “Battlestar Galactica” one day?
whoa, whoa, back up a little. i HEART Tom Robbins. i mean, granted, he is one effed-up dude, and the theories can get a little crazy, but i still lurve him. i like Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas best. Gilmore Girls will always rock, so just go ahead and repent any day now. Lecture complete.
Oh how I loved Jitterbug Perfume. Though I put Tom Robbins away about the same time I shelved Ayn Rand, I’ll probably still go see that X-Dork movie, too.