One of my colleagues said, "Oh, is that what you think?" (clearly interested) while the other said, "I guess I've never thought that hard about the story."

Heh. That illustrates it quite nicely. :)

I've come to realize that some people can read or watch a story and leave it alone afterwards, even if they like it. That there will never be anything going on when the pen is put down or the camera turns the other way.

Quite often I can read a story or watch a movie and then move on without giving it much more thought. But there's no emotional connection then. In those cases when a story really resonates for whatever reason, I need more right away. When I watched my first episode of Angel, I got online the same evening and started to hunt for fic.

And I have absolutely no idea how to explain the "why" of fanfic to people like that.

So far, looks like no one has managed that...