Friday, September 07, 2012

Twins

AVI notes that psychological twin studies have a weakness: different home environments within the US are not as radically different as researchers might hope. Our home is saturated with books (you often have to move them off chairs to sit down), while a neighbor's is almost bare of them, but the Zeitgeist is the same for both, and that shapes attitudes and expressions in both households.

I didn't play modern pop music at home; I played what I liked. The kids picked up a taste for modern pop anyway. The "air they breathe" is similar around the country, and there were more than a few things that made us cry "Where'd they get that?" We didn't have the TV on much--but the kids watched at their friends'.

As he says, "imagine running into an an age-mate from rural Laos and trying to find a point of connection in childhood reminiscence." Or in attitudes.

1 comment:

Texan99 said...

OT, but you made me think of the odd music my father played -- Sir Harry Lauder, Songs of the Lincoln Brigade. He sang doggerel, too, like the Australian "Anne Boleyn" song, "A Man Was the Cause of It All," "The Fatal Curse of Drink," and "The Salvation Army Song." When I was a pre-teenager I still bought albums by Herman's Hermits and The Monkees, but my father's preferences stuck with me.