The Lost Art of Conversation

Last Friday was one of my favorite least-favorite-days-of-the-year, or maybe least favorite favorite-days-of-the-year. I love it because it celebrates my students. I dread it because it's graduation and I have never liked graduations (too long and dull for something that's meant to celebrate students).

One thing that has made graduations interesting throughout the years are the conversations I hear because people talk as if they weren't in a crowd of 5,000+.

For the 10 hours I spent at graduation last Friday...it was simply amazing the number of times I heard the F-word...by people over 50.

As I read Sense & Sensibility and Pride & Prejudice I was reminded of the lost art of conversation.

- people who sometimes swore, didn't used to swear in public because of the art of conversation (obviously some did but society as a whole didn't)

- people, at least people you wanted to be around, carried the conversation...if it got too sensitive toward some one's feelings or seemed to be wounding someone they would redirect the conversation toward a different topic

- gentlemen were expected to lead a conversation...no more difficult dates, ladies

- conversations were meant to incorporate those around and didn't isolate someone out of the conversation

- and there were many other objectives and guidelines involved in public and private conversation

It's an art that we have lost and while society has never perfected conversation, gossip has always prevailed after all, we seem to be reaching all time lows in topic, respect and civility, and even communication itself.

What have you noticed about both conversation around you and in your own conversations?

Intermission (& time to catch up)

Finished Pride & Prejudice today (I highly recommend the A&E version with Ehle & Firth as basically identical to the book...a few additions and a few subtractions but nothing major).

I have a ton of blog post ideas that I haven't gotten to but will eventually. The one I really wanted to do was cut off at the pass by Austen herself. I was thinking through P&P down the road when lo and behold, Austen wraps up the book that way.

So...a little intermission. First, because I need some time to catch up on ideas I already have. Second, because my schedule (read - free time) takes a big hit in the next few weeks and I don't want to stop in the middle of Emma or Northanger Abby (whichever one I was going with next). Third, because I just watched Tim Burton's/Jack Sparrow's...I mean Edward Scissorhands'...I mean Tommy Hanson's...you know...Johnny Depp's version of Alice in Wonderland.

Since I've never read Lewis Carroll's...I mean Charles Dodgson's...I mean the creepy 1800's photographer/clergyman who might not be creepy after all (look it up if you're interested)...I mean, well, whatever, I'll stop now...

Anyway, it's time for an intermission so I'm going to read Alice in Wonderland to see how the Burton/Depp/Disney team did on this one.

Not sure if I'll post anything about it but I'll hopefully post some Sense & Sensibility and Pride & Prejudice stuff in the mean time.

Questions for you...

what Alice in Wonderland version do you like best and which character do you most identify with?

what books have you never read that you hope to/will/should read in the future?
(and while you're thinking about it...what's stopping you from doing that now...)