My So-Called Life (TV Series)
Why Jordan Can't Read (1994)
Quotes
Angela: This life has been a test. If it had been an actual life, you would have received instructions on where to go and what to do.
Angela: Love is when you look into someone's eyes, and suddenly, you go all the way inside, to their soul... and you both know, instantly. I always imagined I would fall in love, nursing a blind soldier. Who was wounded in battle. Or maybe while rescuing someone in the middle of a blizzard, seconds before the avalanche hits. I thought, at least, by the age of fifteen, I would have a love life. But, I don't even have a "like" life.
Angela: Huge events take place on this earth every day. Earthquakes, hurricanes, even glaciers move. So why couldn't he just look at me?
Angela: I was just thinking, could you maybe have Dyslexia?
Jordan: What the backwards thing?
Angela: Lots of people have it. My father's brother has it. It makes reading incredibly difficult cause your mind like ...
Jordan: Let's not talk about this.
Angela: - Reverses things. I'm sorry. It's actually not... I mean A lot of really intelligent people are dyslexic. Just because a person can't read doesn't ...
Jordan: Hey! I can read, OK. Just not ...
Angela: No, I know.
Jordan: Just not that good.
Jordan: You know those guys... up in the mountains.
Angela: what guys?
Jordan: Who make snow, like as their job.
Angela: Yeah.
Jordan: I would really like to do that.
Angela: Part time or...
[Jordan kisses her]
Jordan: Sorry.
Angela: What?
Jordan: I interrupted you.
Angela: Yeah.
[Jordan hands Angela the love letter she wrote about him]
Angela: But when I wrote this... I wrote this about someone else, um, I... this guy, I had a boyfriend last summer and, um... I, I wrote everything... I wanted to remember him... and I used your name because I, I wanted... I didn't want other people to know it was about him because... he... he died... he's dead.
Angela: If only there were a button somewhere that I could push to force me to stop talking.
Jordan: Oh, I almost forgot. Here.
[hands letter to Angela]
Jordan: I found it at the museum. You wrote it, right?
Angela: Yeah. But when I wrote this, I wrote it about someone else. This guy. I had a boyfriend last summer, and I wrote everything... I wanted to remember him. I used your name because I didn't want other people to know it was about him. Because he died. He's dead.
Jordan: Look, I didn't read it. Okay? So you don't have to, like, tell that stuff.
Angela: You expect me to believe that?
Jordan: I don't care what you believe.
Angela: Well, you find a five-page letter in a museum and it starts "dear Jordan," and you expect me to believe you didn't read it?
Jordan: Nevermind. Look, I read parts of it. Okay?
Angela: What? You must really think I'm stupid.
Jordan: It just didn't hold my interest, okay?
Angela: Oh really? Why is that? I'm curious!
[stops Jordan]
Angela: I'd really like to know what it was that made it so incredibly boring. Just tell me! Was it too emotional? Too personal? Too many big words?
Jordan: [yells] Shut up! Geez.
Angela: You couldn't read it. That's it, isn't it?
Jordan: I never told anyone before.
Enrique (Rickie) Vasquez: Um... she's a little upset. I guess, well, because of... well, nevermind.
Jordan: [stops Rickie] No, what?
Enrique (Rickie) Vasquez: Um, I guess you know she figures, why didn't you call or something?
Jordan: Yeah, that makes sense. She just... she, like, wanted me to meet her parents. I just, I wasn't in the mood. You know? It's like she knows to much about me, or something. And not really, but she just makes too big a deal out of everything. She makes everything too complicated. Anyway.
Enrique (Rickie) Vasquez: Well, it was partly that song that you wrote. She really liked it. And it was obvious what it was about, so...
Jordan: Yeah... my car.
Jordan: Hey, you want to hear that song I was telling you about?
[singing]
Jordan: I was going nowhere. Going nowhere fast. Drowning in my memory. Living in the past. Everything looked black till I found her. She's all I need and that's what I say, I call her RED She's my shelter from the storm. She's the place to rest my head. Late at night she keeps me warm. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I call her RED.
[stops]
Jordan: That's all I have so far.
Angela: I'm finally over him.
