I've written this post a few times, but why not--someone's probably not heard it. There's something decidedly eurocentric and upper-class about the memorization of the type of facts that make one a top quizbowl player. I wouldn't be surprised if the whole thing could be traced back to little public school boys reciting the peerage. From what little I understand of the rest of the world, appeciation knowledge out of context is generally only found in those who aspire to be part of the "upper-crust" of society, because in large part it's a good way to pretend you're smart, even if you may not be. Take a step back and look in at Quiz Bowl from a cynic's perspective. What is it? It's a bunch of people spending their Friday Nights and Saturdays competing to see who knows more about books they haven't read, places they haven't been, people they haven't talked to, music they've never heard, science they've never used, etc. Kinda useless, really. In order to appreciate the game, you have to appreciate fact-knowledge for fact-knowledge sake, and that's something people generally have or don't have. They have it, in my opinion, mainly because it's valued in their culture, and from what I've seen, most world cultures don't have that basically irrational love for trivia. White american culture does. Some others do. In my experience (some but not exhaustive) most other ethnic groups in the US don't. Think of it like curling or fencing. It's just a whitey sport. Flame away now kiddies. Jer (Doing his part for miscegenation)
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