Probably Unanswerable Questions
Questions cover Troy’s band, whether Chuck would befriend Troy, how long the central relationship lasts, whether the panel misses that period of life, and what a 2019 version would contain.
In the discussion (10)
Approx. transcript time · 01:16:15Read transcript
- The panel predicts Troy’s band never releases an album beyond perhaps a split seven-inch.
- Asked whether he would have befriended Troy, one participant first says they might have been close but adversarial, then says he hated passive, superior college men like Troy.
- The same participant says he identified with Troy on screen but in practice resembled Michael because he was only a simulated version of cool.
- The panel distinguishes passive posturing from DIY artists who rejected corporate money while working intensely, using Fugazi as the example.
- Working at the record store felt interesting but degrading, and the speaker describes a mental block about turning music knowledge into a writing career.
- The speaker disliked Troy’s contempt for other people but valued less extreme Troy-like companions during late-night restaurant and bar life.
- The panel asks how long Winona Ryder’s character and Troy remain together; answers range from less than a year to an imagined lasting relationship.
- The panel asks whether it misses the highly social, dramatic, friend-centered stage of early adulthood.
- The role of the internet in reducing unstructured hangout time is debated.
- A hypothetical 2019 version raises the internet, dating apps, media work, and politics as forces that would change the characters.