(Two people are seated across from each other on the subway. Both are reading on e-readers. The male addresses the female and catches her attention.)
PETER: Say, what are you reading on that Nook?
MARGE: Oh, this is Kafka. Don’t you just love his use of symbolism?
PETER: Very much, very much indeed. At the moment I’m reading Thoreau’s poetry from the 1830’s. It really moves beyond the quotidian nature scenes of the era. Do you enjoy transcendentalism? Have you read Ralph Waldo Emerson?
MARGE: Transcendenta-what? Oh, transcendentalentalentalism. I know that rather well. He’s the guy that wears a red striped sweater in that kids search-and-find book, yes?
PETER: I was flipping through The New Yorker this morning and I saw a review of a new play coming out this week. It’s a four hour dialogue between pieces of hair on the head of a Pakistani orphan. Care to join me?
MARGE: Sure. Sounds great.
PETER: Ah, it’s a frisson getting to know such a literary bon vivant as yourself. It is so taxing, listening to the endless droll of these uneducated louts, don’t you agree?
MARGE: I have a confession to make. This isn’t Kafka. It’s 50 Shades of Grey. I said it was Kafka to impress you.
PETER: I also have a confession to make. I don’t read the New Yorker; my niece did that play with her drama club last winter. And this isn’t Thoreau, either. It’s a novelization of the second Transformers movie.
The Lighter Side of the Moon 