[Tolkien] shared little of Edith’s delight in the type of person (as C.S. Lewis expressed it) ‘whose general conversation is almost wholly narrative’, and though he found an occasional articulate fellow male among the guests he was sometimes reduced to silent and impotent rage by the feeling of imprisonment.
-Humphrey Carpenter, J.R.R. Tolkien: A Biography, p.249
Ever felt this way? You want to talk about something deep or abstract and the only conversations going on concern was narrative: What I had for lunch, what my dog did yesterday, how we visited my brother-in-law last week, etc.
Look at your average Facebook or Twitter feed to find plenty of this.
And of course this is always a big part of our conversation. It’s who we are. But how much more satisfying to take a step back and look at some of the big picture items. Can I get a witness?
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July 3rd, 2009 at 9:23 AM
Testify, brother Matthew! Testify!!
I call those what-I-did-on-my-summer-vacation conversations. People have a checklist of current events they want to convey — and when that’s done, they’ve got nothing else to say. IT DRIVES ME CRAZY!!!
As you say, that kind of stuff is a big part of our conversations. But when the conversation never gets beyond that, then something is wrong.
And don’t get me started on Twittermania!