"... as well as spirited daydreams about whom you would invite to your fantasy dinner party of historical figures. She writes of the special 'synthesis' that occurs in marriage or other long-term partnerships, in which one’s lexicon merges with that of another, producing shorthand terminology and a distinct rhythm and style. But she doesn’t prize these types of decades-long exchanges over others; she always remains open to new connection. 'Surely, my readers can identify with that welling of positive feeling—that almost-falling-in-love-with someone with whom we engage on an authentic level,' she writes. 'I have felt this not only for friends and even strangers with whom I’ve had a probing or even a fleeting conversation but also for whole classes of students where it can seem that the group has merged into one deeply lovable and loving body.'..."
In Cohen’s view, the practice of experiencing “uncertainty and open-endedness in a safe environment” has become imperilled by a variety of forces: political polarization, a mediascape that profits from dissent, the conformity of groupthink, even campus drinking culture.
“Our society abounds in bad conversation,” Cohen writes, in part because it makes for more entertaining content on the Internet and television. People would rather regurgitate “predetermined positions,” she fears, than wrestle with ambiguity. No spaces seem safe for the frictions or disagreements that make conversation go....
As the philosopher Michael Oakeshott observed, in conversation “there is no ‘truth’ to be discovered, no proposition to be proved, no conclusion sought.” What matters, he continued, is the “flow of speculation.”...
२१ टिप्पण्या:
wrestle with ambiguity
Metaphor drives its point home on a two-way street.
"But she doesn’t prize these types of decades-long exchanges over others"
If everybody's special then no one is.
Every conversation can have value, even an online exchange. They're not all of an equal human connection, though. This woman is a chat slut.
Most of the $ tips I get come after some chatty engagement. I drive for the rideshares. One long ride with a trucker gave me $20 cash after we talked about this very topic of people not talking much to each other anymore. We had similar theories. I blame the over reliance on the smart phone with their social networks, as opposed to face to face. All the visual clues, song and dance available on face to face, is lost via text only.
Well, lets just ask Charlie Kirk, shall we?
A good conversation suspends disbelief.
Chatterboxes unite. We will talk them to death. Louder and louder to keep them awake. Mix in some empathy to make them like it.
Sounds to me like you have yourself a super lawyer…..or maybe a Bad Orange Man making America Great Again.
'Surely, my readers can identify with that welling of positive feeling—that almost-falling-in-love-with someone with whom we engage on an authentic level,' she writes.
As an introvert and an engineer, that sentence makes me want to gag.
Why do you suppose this name, Oakeshott, appeared in two different articles in my news feed today?
Hmmm...what is this 'conversation' you speak of?
Handmade tales, brayed.
Seinfeld was deriding the low talkers of society 25 years ago.
'Surely, my readers can identify with that welling of positive feeling—that almost-falling-in-love-with someone with whom we engage on an authentic level,' she writes.
As an introvert and an engineer, that sentence makes me want to gag.
My reaction isn't quite so visceral, but - I have a friend who absolutely embodies the first paragraph, and I am spiritually one with the second. I get together with this friend regularly, putatively to write, which to me means we should exchange greetings and any news from the previous week and then get down to writing. To her, it seems to mean a two-hour conversation punctuated by the occasional written sentence.
Yet somehow she manages to write more than I do (mostly when she's alone)! I should do my writing by myself too, but it's easier for me to do when I'm accountable to someone who's right there. We are way out of sync!
Another conversation starter was a guy I picked up with my same name. We talked about how rare it is now. And he told me it was the name of an angel guarding paradise. I told him there was a name sake also in the story Gullivers Travels.
OTOH, I've been with my husband for 33 years now and we still haven't run out of conversation, so that seems good.
Oakeshott is rolling over in the ether
Logic how does that work
Hi my name is Tina, and I talk to strangers. In lines, when I travel, at the kids school. I meet the most interesting people and learn about them and have lovely conversations. I travel for work and talk to people at restaurants, at the hotel, coffee shops, airports, even out for a cocktail. It never disappoints. Sure beats staring at a phone, and I hate those earbud things.
Chatty ones unite!!!
"Ain’t talkin’, just walkin’
I’ll burn that bridge before you can cross"
Aren't all Paulas chatty chatterboxes?
"Chatty ones unite!!!"
I'm all for that, I just ask that you leave the non-chatty ones alone once you recognize they don't share your interest in conversation. Not everyone wants to chat with strangers, sometimes even those not fiddling with a smartphone or listening to music with earbuds. Some people would prefer to be left alone with their thoughts. Thanks in advance. :)
Everybody's an expert--at least an amateur one--on two things; his job and one other interset, be it coin collecting, Battle of Gettysburg, something. Or at least is far better at it than I am.
So from time to time, one or the other of those is interesting and possibly useful.
While I don't force people to talk, they're usually interesting.
Everybody's an expert--at least an amateur one--on two things; his job and one other interset, be it coin collecting, Battle of Gettysburg, something. Or at least is far better at it than I am.
So from time to time, one or the other of those is interesting and possibly useful.
While I don't force people to talk, they're usually interesting.
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