<p>Any of those remakes from Japanese horror movies – the ring, the grudge, the videotape (or whatever, they all blend in my head.) People have to explain them to me and I still don’t get them. </p>
<p>Then again, I think I’m just particularly obtuse when it comes to Japanese culture. Years ago, I read a bunch of Japanese literary classics. Enjoyed them. NEVER had a sense I knew really what the point was…</p>
<p>One of my favorite clips from SNL was Norm McDonald reading the news.</p>
<p>"Last night marked the 2000th performance on Broadway of “CATS”…and the 2000th time a guy in the audience turns to his wife after 10 minutes and says “What the (heck) is this!?”</p>
<p>I don’t get Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings.</p>
<p>I don’t get how anybody could have thought Bridges of Madison County was a love story. The book or the movie.</p>
<p>I also liked Norm McDonald doing the news! (disliked most of the others, esp Kevin Nealon). Haven’t watched SNL much in many years.</p>
<p>Emeraldkity: my thoughts exactly on Forrest Gump, and on the Sixth Sense for being too obvious. I don’t really HATE Forrest Gump, but sure don’t share H’s love for it (he owns the DVD). Ditto for COPS – he’ll always stop on it while switching channels. I don’t know what the attraction is. I find it pretty unpleasant.</p>
<p>I don’t get Anime, either.</p>
<p>And I especially don’t get “The Fairly OddParents,” a program that my 3rd grader likes. The zany, angular animation and grating voices just bug me.</p>
<p>I don’t get the TV show “Rescue Me”. Every single character makes the worst possible life choices – these seem like the dumbest people on the planet to me. I find the show very depressing. My DH loves it, for some strange reason.</p>
<p>And here all this time I thought it was “Britches of Madison County.” Never saw it. Nor Seinfeld, History Boys, Lost in Translation, Desperate Housewives (have seen the adverts), My Dinner with Andre, American Idol, or (sigh) Moby Dick.</p>
<p>Get or Mostly Get: American Beauty (though not a big reward for getting it), Gatsby (I’m not happy with any of the answers proffered so far), Joyce, Faulkner, Harry Potter, LotR.</p>
<p>AstrophysicsMom: I wish I had more of a poetic sense than I do and I’m pretty half-caste in temperament and outlook. Poetry is deceptive, because it’s written with words that you read with your eyes and process with your brain, but for all that it requires a completely different set of tools or mental receptors than does reading prose. </p>
<p>One of the first hurdles that those of us coming from more analytical backgrounds have to cross is the notion that “subjective” in no way carries any connotation of inaccurate, imprecise, “wrong,” or other notions in that register. </p>
<p>Art in general consists of an emotional mediation of the artist between subject and audience, even if the audience is but one (the artist), though the latter is generally pretty uninteresting to anyone except the artist. In that context, for <em>me</em> poetry, along with sculpture, tends to be the hardest to get a grip on in ways that I can explain. Also, some of the more abstract kinds of dance in the ballet, modern, or fusion genres.</p>
<p>Speaking of genre, some people are “genre deaf,” kinda like being color blind. There are those for whom science fiction and fantasy are just inexplicable, whereas for others of us it’s a great joy.</p>
<p>I find Joyce in general a lot less accessible than Faulkner and to get both well you really do have to work at it. Joyce is highly allusive, both culturally and personally, and I’ve always needed a tour guide (as in a class or a good companion reader) to begin to really grok him but the effort has been rewarding. Reading Faulkner (AS I LAY DYING) for the first time was like being smitten on the head with a bedazzling two-by-four to the then-just-former engineering student.</p>
<p>I don’t get people who buy movies on DVD. Why not just rent them? What’s the point of having a video collection? I’ve never understood why anyone would want to watch a movie over again after seeing it once. Same thing with books – I love to read 'em, but once is enough for me. I know a LOT of people like to re-read books and re-watch films, but I still don’t get it.</p>
<p>Both of my kids have huge DVD collections but they don’t usually watch the movies more than once. (The only movie I’ve ever wanted to watch more than once was “An Affair To Remember” with Deborah Kerr and Cary Grant… guess I’m showing my age, huh? 
)</p>
<p>Don’t get Joyce (except Dubliners). After living in the south 10 years, I am starting to get Faulkner. Love Eudora Welty. Don’t get Star Trek. Or any of the Star Wars movies after the first one. I just saw Moby Dick and I think I got it, though I’ve never been able to get through the book.</p>
<p>Rarely see movies or commercial TV. Last year I was in the hospital in a very bad situation. Seinfeld made me laugh really hard. It was the episode where they get lost in a parking garage. I know nothing about Seinfeld. But I was grateful for being able to laugh at that moment.</p>
<p>I did like Lost in Translation–totally got it. I taught ESL at a Japanese factory–and lived for several years in a couple other countries. I could relate to it in so many ways. (I thought SJ was too young for the role, though, and I didn’t like her underpants).</p>
<p>I buy movies on DVD, sometimes, and so do my kids. There are some things we like to watch over and over. I shudder to think how many times my daughter has watched every episode of Buffy The Vampire Slayer or My So-Called Life. I mainly have purchased Bollywood and Studio Ghibli movies that were not available at my video store (well, the Ghibli ones are mostly available now, but they weren’t four years ago). We’ve probably watched Kal Ho Na Ho and Mononoke hime at least 20 times each.</p>
<p>(My wife, however, does not like to watch movies ever again, except for The Philadelphia Story, and she doesn’t get Bollywood or Buffy. She did like Mononoke hime, though, and I think she’s even watched it twice.)</p>
<p>re-reading/re-viewing: some are merely enjoyable again; cf., reading for pleasure. Other works lend themselves to new perceptions and insights…TheMom notes this in her multiple re-readings of Dickens.</p>
<p>Fwiw, often the first time I read a book or see a movie, I’m caught up in the “following the plot” mode. On subsequent reads or views, I can start paying attention to other things.</p>
<p>citizen kane
star wars prequels
lord of the rings movies
matrix movies
olive loaf- I see it at the deli. Does anyone actually eat it or is it the same piece that’s been there for 100 years
heavy metal music
angelina jolie</p>
<p>Among many, many things, I don’t get:
“reality” tv shows, there is no reality to them;
the fascination with the likes of Paris Hilton and the rest of her bffs;
head cheese. What is it and from its appearance why would anyone eat it;
Nancy Grace and the other talking heads of her ilk. What is the point;
George W. Bush;
how we won WWII in four years and defeated the war machines of the Axis powers but in the same amount of time can’t secure one road in Iraq;
I really don’t get how the Dodgers lost the pennant in 1962.
And I also don’t get why Goofy is a dog but behaves as a man while Pluto is a dog that behaves as a dog; and Mickey wears pants but Donald doesn’t.</p>
<p>Any reality show.
I have seen a total of 5 minutes of any one of them</p>
<p>American Idol
Big Brother
Survivor
etc.</p>
<p>LOVED SEINFELD. Maybe it’s an east coast/Jewish thing (I am both). </p>
<p>hate Greys anatomy, Desparate housewives.</p>
<p>The only ‘network’ show I have watched (since seinfeld ended) is Lost. </p>
<p>OTOH, I can watch almost anything on the History channel, discovery, science channel, National geographic. I’m learning all the stuff I never did in school.</p>
<p>^^^: I can’t stand Grey’s Anatomy - I like ER so I guess I “don’t get” why I “don’t get” Grey’s Anatomy…</p>
<p>Don’t get the movie Sweet Home Alabama.</p>
<p>And as for Seinfeld, I didn’t get it until it was in reruns - now I LOVE it and my entire family quotes from it (and we’re considering an annual Festivus celebration.)</p>
<p>och! Grey’s Anatomy…another ‘I dunna get it’ for me. At first, I thought it had potential…but that’s back when I thought it was going to be real. It quickly became bizarre with new interns doing open heart surgery, blah, blah, blah.</p>
<p>Frankly, I’d die without cable and shows like Big Love, the Tudors, etc… I do admit to liking two reality shows…Top Chef and Project Runway. Hell’s Kitchen? Someone smack that mouthy Brit, I mean Scot.</p>
<p>I totally, completely don’t get - and cannot stand the sound or sight of - shows like Oprah, Dr. Phil, and ANY reality TV show. Totally do not understand why people are so interested in American Idol. Larry King is annoying, though I get it.</p>
<p>I wish there were more movies, and better movies…</p>
<p>I don’t get Vera Bradley purses. They look like something I made in high school sewing class. And they’re so expensive (for the materials), and absolutely do NOT go with ANYTHING you’re wearing.</p>
<p>
I think you’d find plenty of takers. My husband likes poetry as do I. I loved Moby Dick. I can appreciate nice language, but I get really impatient with books that don’t have much plot or characters I like.</p>
<p>Thanks Garland – I get it now ~~~~~ sort of~~~~~ LOL</p>