What do I know?

Not much, it would seem. This is how a conversation often goes at Loftstel, when I am involved.

'Have you read this book?'

'No'

'Have you seen this movie?'

'No'

'Do you know this symphony or band so hip they don’t even exist yet?'

'...................no'

'What are your politics?

Which philosophers have you read?

How much Shakespeare can you quote?

Can you cook well, and speak 3 languages, can you tell how old this whisky is just by tasting it?'

Housemates who are my age or a couple of years older, constantly waxing lyrical about these/related topics, and I just feel like I'm drowning in a sea of knowledge and my lifebelt (which is made out of my specialist subjects: what it feels like to get a tattoo, classic rock, Broadway musicals) has drifted far far away. Anyone who hasn't read Nietzsche or doesn't watch the Daily Show is kind of screwed.

In these situations I often want to say these things:

Do you genuinely like that wine you just spent so much on, or is it just because you read that it will associate you with sophistication?

All those artists on your iPod, how many of their songs have you really heard? Just the one? Thought so.

How is it that you know so much, with so few years between us?

I don’t know that artist, I don’t know that band, I don’t know that poem or that piece, I don’t know which album that song comes from and I sure as hell can’t identify that frickin cheese. Know what I like? Comedy.

And know what else? Sit coms.

Also – romance, fantasy, eating cereal because I burnt my toast, listening to the bands I grew up with even if they’ve no credentials these days.

I like chocolate, sweets, the colour pink. Some of Picasso’s paintings do nothing for me

Does that make me a philistine?

I don’t always know what goes on in the World, can't name every film director or political prisoner, and God knows my palette is not refined enough to know why you just spent twenty quid on a shot of bourbon.

And why should I? I’m young, my whole life’s ahead of me and there's plenty of time to learn and discover.

I’m happy to find things as they come to me, not go out searching for things to enrich my life without knowing what they are.

I sometimes think 'wow, are me and my friends so vapid? We don't discuss politics every single day like I seem to here, and we choose our drinks based almost solely on the price, not the bouquet.' And then I think 'Hell, no'

I talk about different things with all my friends, but the common denominator is people. We talk about people more than anything else - people we know, people we wish we know, people we used to know. And since everything in my life is based, in some way, on people - I think it's pretty ok to talk about them more than anything else.

Other common conversation topics are animals, classic rock, school, college, university, what we want to do with our lives. Maybe the people I live with now all just have it really, really figured out - they have time to be discussing Mozart and Matisse because they aren't spending the time sharing thoughts and helping each other find their way. Don't get me wrong, me and my cohorts have had many discussions about the meaning of life et al, but really we cover stuff that's directly affecting our lives. Cos, y'know, they are our lives...that we are in...right now...it's hard not to talk about things that directly affect them. I'm really glad to be surrounded by so many people who are all incredibly intelligent and know about everything there is to know, I learn several new things every day. But it can make a person feel, to put it bluntly, stupid.

It's tempting to give in to the pressure and spend a week in the library reading 'Being cosmopolitan and sounding super educated for Dummies' - but no. I'm not stupid by any means. I think I know plenty for a girl my age, but not so much that by the time I'm 40 there will be nothing new for me to discover. Which is nice to know. That would suck.


There, that has made me feel much less inadequate, and I am prepared to face the next day when I will probably have to smile and nod along while they discuss in detail the merits of hash over skunk or their previous opiate habit (is this an attempt to emulate Mr Taylor Coleridge or similar?)

In fact, I must be the most well-informed person in the house. I'm the one who knows where to get free coffee and bagels every Sunday from noon.