Junkyard Quote 4, week 3

"But it's Madonna!" -friend watching the Super Bowl
What struck me about this quote is that none of the other people seemed to understand the relevance of the fact that it was Madonna. So often we say things that seem to us self-evident, but are so removed from other people's understanding and opinion that, without elaboration, the utterance means little to nothing to anyone but ourselves. In this particular case, this friend's husband replied "And?" and this friend had no response. She didn't even know why it was relevant that it was Madonna; she had no real interest or fascination with Madonna either, but as a cultural icon, apparently Madonna is supposed to carry some kind of significance. I'm starting to see, however, that in many cases dialogue can be a hazardous thing. If I were writing the scene, I would want to remain "true" to what happened and what was said, but if I were to do that in this instance, there would be a break down in communication between the story and a large portion of the would-be audience. To some "But it's Madonna!" would make perfect sense, but in many cases the reader would have the same response as my friend's husband. The importance of picking and choosing dialogue that is relevant and that does more than just directly relate the spoken word is becoming more and more apparent.