junior clueless fanboy

[quietann]

So I shared the elevator today with two young teens, one female and one male. They were maybe 13, 14 at the most. The girl was quite lovely; the boy was... well, shaggy-haired and goofy as fannish boys that age often are. He was in one corner at the back of the elevator, and she was squished as far as she could get away from him into the other corner at the back of the elevator. And he was trying sooooo very hard to talk to her, and she was trying sooooo very hard to not talk to him, I could have laughed, but it would have been mean.

So he got off the elevator first, and when he was gone, she rolled her eyes in true teenage-girl fashion, and said, "He tried to start a conversation with me by talking about mathematical equations!" Ouch. She repeated some other line he'd tried, I don't remember what, that was equally, um, geeky. I made sympathetic noises at her.

So she got off the elevator, and I told her, "He just sounds clueless," and she gave me a grin before stalking off.

An older woman got on the elevator, and I told her that the young lady was having her first pass through the world of clueless fanboys. "Oh dear," she said. We agreed that the girl has a lot more clueless fanboys in her future...

(Now of course, if he found a girl who responded positively to mathematical equations, he probably would be struck senseless. Poor kid!)

Comments

[docorion.livejournal.com]

I find it's a good thing hormones are so powerful, or boys would give up after the first few smackdowns. As it is, he'll keep throwing himself into the breach until he discovers, by trial and painful error, how it's done. This is [one of the] the price[s] of living in a society where males are expected to take the initiative most of the time.

(I was once a clueless fanboy, and that story struck a sensitive place).

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

There's a "how it's done"?

*shrug* I thought the point was to know someone enough to know who'll be charmed by, say, equations and who won't, which will vary by individual someones. But that may just be me.

[docorion.livejournal.com]

Of course there's a 'how it's done'! Know about more than one subject, and adjust your conversation to what your [conversational] partner wants to talk about; eventually you will get to talk about your interests, I promise. (If you don't, you didn't really want to get to know this person anyway).

Admittedly, the 'sample the population of [appropriately gendered persons] until you find one who wants to discuss equations' method will work, but it is, as demonstrated, replete with opportunities for disappointment.

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

i acquired my husband via a long conversation about the mcgurk effect. your teenage boy might do well to consider his pickup lines as a sort of litmus test ;)