small talk

[mystful]

My views on small talk have changed drastically in the past two years. First, a definition: small talk is the "meaningless" chatter people engage in. Talk about the weather, which movies you've seen recently, and the man across the street all qualify. Stories from one's past, discussions about convictions or ideas, and sharing emotional issues do

Comments

Well this is interesting.

[anonymous]

Because last year pretty much the only conversations I had with friends/blockmates were of the serious kind: relationship issues (mine or theirs), spiritual issues (again, mine or theirs), or raging debates about the nature and purpose of art. (Oh, Harvard.) I didn't have time for anything else, nor did I really have the taste for it -- I was working waaay too much, and anyway I'd stopped watching TV and listening to the radio years before, so my equivalent of small talk (books, which is pretty much the only thing I know the slightest thing about, it turns out) was for the other person like being lectured to by an overeager English TF. Not really small talk

Re: Well this is interesting.

[mystful]

I think you bring up a good point. Last year I didn't share interests with many other people (watching hours of bad sitcoms on DVDs just isn't my thing)...which probably contributed to my near-complete lack of small talk.

I think a fundamental aspect of the good part of small-talk is being yourself. If you're bored by shoes, don't chat about them with friends. It's the shared interests that are fun to banter around with...whether that's a dijoridoo or Dostoyevsky or doing work in cafes.

Let's share some small talk about Fyodor sometime. That man is one of my heros.

Re: Well this is interesting.

[anonymous]

OKAY! It's a date!! When I get back to Boston!!! Because Brothers K is #1 on my list of books to read while I'm bumming back home in Atlanta before spring semester starts!

G.

Re: Well this is interesting.

[mystful]

YAY!!! It's a FANTASTIC read. I just read it a couple of months ago on a VERY LONG series of train rides (totaling about 5 days laying flat on my back). Good for airplanes, snuggly armchairs, and even coffeeshops.

Re: Well this is interesting.

[anonymous]

Yah, my general battle plan is to hole up in a French café near my house -- which has a *fireplace* -- with a decadent dessert in one hand, and Brothers K in the other. I'm actually quite unreasonably excited about it -- but not as excited as I am about seeing you soon!

-- G.