I have come to the conclusion that it is wrong for persons of authority to make book, movie, restaurant or music recommendations. There are a few exceptions of course. It is ok for an English professor to recommend a book, if it is related to course material. But most of the time, people who have any authority over other people should not be going around recommending things.
Why is this, you may ask? Because later when they ask you if you agree with them that this place-sound-actor-writer is just the greatest thing since sliced bread, what the hell are you supposed to say?
I have a perfectly good example of this. My boss writes poetry. I have been dreading the possibility that she might offer some of it to me to read, since I haven't ever read any modern poetry that has touched me, moved me, or impressed me in any fashion. Most of the time it has the opposite effect on me. Reading peoples' poetry makes me want to mock them. It makes me feel sorry for them. It makes me uncomfortable looking them in the eye. I'm not saying any of these feelings of mine are fair, but they exist, and I don't think good friends ask their friends to read their poetry.
These feelings of discomfort are multiplied when the person asking is someone I have to impress on a regular basis. This is what I would consider an abuse of power.
Fortunately, the boss did not ask me to read her poetry.
She asked me to read her best friend's poetry.
Fuck me.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment