The jamais vu of good art

The other day, I saw a note that one of my friends is asthmatic and I couldn't believe it. A-S-T-H-M-A-T-I-C. The word looked wrong. So I wrote asthma a few times on a post-it note. A-S-T-H-M-A. Asthma. And it still looked wrong. Even though I knew, logically, that it was spelled correctly.

Naturally, the French have a term—Jamais vu—for these times when the familiar seems unfamiliar. And it's basically the opposite of déjà vu.

But this isn't about what I can learn from wikipedia. The idea of jamais vu got me thinking about good books, movies, video games and TV show.

Much like that restaurant you've driven by a million times but never noticed until today, a good piece or art will take something you've seen a million times but make it feel like you're only just experiencing it for the first time.

So with something like Modern Family or Community, you end up accepting all of the sitcom or teenage movie cliches because you just don't quite know that you've ever experienced them before. Even though, logically, you know you have.

BTW... Modern Family, Community and Parks and Recreation are the three best shows on TV right now. The only bad thing I can say about any of them, is that they really make you see how much The Office and 30 Rock have declined.