Skip to content
quotesby

About this quote

What does it mean?
One character does not know basic facts about a famous story, while another assumes elitism.
In plain terms
We didn't know Frankenstein's personal details and joked about it.
What can you take from it?
Pop culture knowledge is uneven and class can shape assumptions.

Where it applies

  • school
  • social gatherings
  • reading

Putting it to work

  • learn basics
  • avoid assumptions
  • ask questions

Questions to consider

  • What knowledge do we expect?
  • How does class affect learning?

Another view

It risks mocking others for not knowing expected norms.

More from P. G. Wodehouse

  1. A young man with dark circles under his eyes was propping himself up against a penny-in-the-slot machine. An undertaker, passing at that moment, would have loo…

    Permalink to quote #101
  2. If Eggy wanted to get spliced, let him, was the way I looked at it. Marriage might improve him. It was difficult to think of anything that wouldn't.

    Permalink to quote #103
  3. Into the face of the young man who sat on the terrace of the Hotel Magnifique at Cannes there had crept a look of furtive shame, the shifty, hangdog look which…

    Permalink to quote #100

Related quotes

  1. Art hath an enemy called Ignorance.

    Ben JonsonBen Jonson quote #1
  2. We are like ignorant shepherds living on a site where great civilizations once flourished. The shepherds play with the fragments that pop up to the surface, ha…

    Allan BloomAllan Bloom quote #5
  3. The average 'educated' American has been made to believe that, somehow, the United States must lead the world even though hardly anyone has any information at …

    Gore VidalGore Vidal quote #20