A Day in the Life of...

I was chatting with a coworker via gtalk Tuesday morning. She was watching I, Robot. I told her that likely I'd never watch the movie because I was a fan of the book. I reread the book several months ago. I remember reading I, Robot when I was 11 years old, one summer in Alpine, TX., while my Mother was attending college, getting her Education Degree. There wasn't a lot to do in Alpine except climb hills, read, or watch TV.

Well, back to the story. I explained that several attempts had been made to adapt I, Robot into a screenplay. Harlan Ellison had tried and he wrote an essay about why I, Robot would never make it onto a movie screen largely intact. I explained to her that a lot of science fiction movies were dumbed down by Hollywood. They weren't true to the original story or just loosely based on a short story. Hollywood has based several movies loosely on Phillip K. Dick short stories. It's enough to make one ill. (Dick was mentally ill. He died in a mental institution.) Surprisingly, she became indignant. What passed for a conversation is below (unedited):

me: ...perhaps it's because they dumb it all down
the best movies challenge the audience
4:05 AM Sydney: who is it you are saying wanted to dumb it all down?
me: a lot of what passes for science fiction is dumbed down
likely the people who approve the scripts
4:07 AM Sydney: suddenly I feel so insulted
4:08 AM simply because I said I liked a movie
me: insulted by whom
the movie is yours to enjoy
4:09 AM I just won't enjoy it because I've read the original work
Sydney: I am enjoying something that is dumbed down
geez
4:10 AM me: I don't know that, it's just a guess based on experience
4:11 AM Sydney: maybe they did a spectacular job with whatever adaptation they came up with and some of us who are more intellectual than others enjoy it... unlike most of the other sci-fi crap I've seen here lately
me: ask gary if this movie is dumbed down
4:12 AM Sydney: I'm not interested in this conversation anymore
me: likely he's read the original work and he likes the movie
Sydney: no offense
ya'll are so opinionated it's frightening
I thought I was opinionated
4:13 AM me: everyone is opionated
Sydney: not so

Likely, I'll have to be very careful with what I say from now on around "Sydney". I feel like I'm tiptoeing through a minefield with this person. I've already had one misunderstanding with her over an ironic statement. Now this.