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In the movie "August: Osage County," about 35 minutes in, Meryl Streep says, 'The world is round.' I found me myrstufah ! -enough to rewind the movie to make sure.
She is lamenting how men get better looking with age while women just look old. Another woman interjects, 'What about Sophia Loren? Lena Horne? She stayed sexy till she was eighty.' Meryl Streep shakes her off, saying, 'The world is round, get over it.'
I find this usage so off, but her meaning must be this: that her point of view is as obviously true as the earth is round, so quit arguing.
First off, the notion of the earth being round for me hints at many entanglements in science and history, which makes it quite unapt as stand-in for truism or obviousness. Second, if taken as idiomatic, in my experience it is the same as 'Small world!' which refers to old acquaintances being reunited, or to disparate points of view finding common ground.
Am I wrong to feel the usage in the movie above is quite off, even hopelessly distracting? Or is that a common usage ?
Saying it's so doesn't make it so. Who knows? Maybe the pyramids of Egypt were built to store grain. Lousy engineering for it, but maybe they had lousy engineers.
Truth is stranger than fiction, because fiction requires a willing suspension of disbelief, and non-fiction has no such requirement.
Actresses like Meryl Streep and Susan Sarandon can complain all they care to, but a major factor in ticket sales is romance, and while a man of advancing years may father a family, women of advancing years may not. Guys may find Meryl Streep, Susan Sarandon, etc., to be quite appealing, but there's no dramatic tension in a comfortable sensuous relationship. It's discomfort that sells tickets.
Robert said: Am I wrong to feel the usage in the movie above is quite off, even hopelessly distracting? Or is that a common usage?
I don't think so. Although I've rarely heard that expression, it made immediate sense to me. It's just an idiom meaning "It's an indisputable fact, get over it."
Sure, there's still a Flat Earth Society, but it's members are pretty far out there ... everything from conspiracy theorists to paranoid psychotics to self-appointed "experts." Hard to understand, but some of them actually do believe the Earth is flat. Generally, their explanations are laughable and contrived.
That was actually my 2nd take, which took me hard work to arrive at. My 1st take was that men had that advantage back in ancient times, then somehow women got that advantage until now, when somehow because the world is round and cycling around, men somehow got back that advantage again. Which makes no sense, which was my point.
At any rate, to me the earth is never obviously round- more obviously flat. I think that Meryl Streep's point is weakened by the distraction of inadvertently raising the issue of knowing vs seeing.
A story about knowing vs seeing: In a post-apocalyptic world a famous smuggler crossed the border on a bicycle, hauling a big bundle of contrabands on top of his head. The border guard made him open up, found some dopes hidden in the bag of rice. He confiscated the goods, beat him up some, and let him through on his bicycle. Not long after, the smuggler crossed again with another bundle on his bicycle. The guard opened up, found some medicines inside some loaves of bread. He X-rayed his body this time, but found nothing. So he confiscated the medicines and the bread, and roughed him up some before letting him cross on his rickety bicycle.
Over time, the border guard caught the famous smuggler again and again, each time crossing on his rickety bicycle with a bundle of contrabands. The border guard X-rayed everything. He got annoyed with the smuggler. He said to him, 'I KNOW you are up to something big, but each time I can find nothing but some little meds, bits of dopes. Where are you hiding your REAL STUFFs?' The smuggler said, 'All I have is what you found on me, you got to let me pass.' The guard had no choice but to beat him up some, and let him go on his rickety bicycle.
Well the story is becoming a little too 'obvious' by now because I am not a good story teller. But the end of it is, years later the guard met up with the famous smuggler who was by now a billionaire bicycles mogul. Something like that.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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