"Don't you watch Thai dramas?" she says when her son protests that he doesn't understand rich people. She lists off classic tropes: the siblings fight over money, the mother doesn't love the poor rich boy, the father doesn't connect with him.
Likewise, in Joe the Barbarian, Joe recognizes that his "ordinary world" is the other characters' mythology. He admits to his Jungian role and asks, "What does the dying boy DO in these legends?"
Although both quotes are somewhat "meta," they illustrate an important truth about literature. Story has a language of its own. Recognizing that language is part of the viewer and reader's job.
Learn the language--become part of that world.
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