|
|
|
Written by Knight Ridder
|
|
Wednesday, 10 May 2006 |
|
|
|
|
 Apparently, Stephen Miller is a card-carrying member of what could be called “The Bloomsbury School of Cultural Criticism.” Like Allan Bloom and Harold Bloom, Miller praises a cultural practice — in this case, the art of conversation — and then presides over its funeral.
A verbal interchange of information and ideas, conversation has neither an immediate, narrow purpose (as does a request for directions) nor a set structure. Conversationalists know how to listen, do not parade their own accomplishments, have a sense of humor, and are polite but willing to mix it up. Good conversations, Miller suggests, take place among equals, all of whom feel free to speak. A “conversible world” is virtually nonexistent in North Korea.
Miller surveys conversation from its origins in Athens and Sparta to its apex in clubs and coffeehouses of 18th-century England to its debased state in contemporary America, where “angry self-expression and nonjudgmental ‘supportive’ assent” are pervasive. Writing about talking is problematic, under any circumstances. Comparing the health of conversation over time and across nations is as difficult as capturing thunder in a thimble.
In tracing the rise, reign and ruination of conversation, Miller relies almost exclusively on belles lettrists of the Renaissance, Enlightenment, Victorian and modern eras. In essays, diaries and novels, they take us inside drawing rooms, clubs and salons, and offer their opinions on the ingredients of good conversation.
Should religion and politics be banished from polite conversation? Are women “Sovereigns of the Empire of Conversation” or vampires draining from it logic and boldness? Occasionally, Miller’s gallery of greats gives us a glimpse of conversation as a lived reality as well as an abstraction. Samuel Johnson, for example, believed that “the mind stagnates without external ventilation.” As he grew older, deafer and more frugal, Miller notes, Johnson became more isolated — and more irascible.
Miller’s witnesses, however, are more idiosyncratic than representative, more likely to disagree with one another than to produce evidence of consensus. They are many steps removed from conversation in the lower and middling classes, and comment rarely, if at all, on conversations at work, in pubs or en famille. They can only speculate about whether, when, where and why conversation took hold or didn’t.
Miller blames the 1960s; counterculture “grumblers, mumblers, ranters and cursers”; pot smoking, which “tends to make one passive and solemn”; postmodernist relativism; the insipid, ersatz conversations of Oprah and Ellen DeGeneres; the trash talk of Jerry Springer; and iPods, cell phones and video games. Norman Mailer, he suggests, believes that “a square American is roughly the same as a Nazi party member” and “if you are interested in conversation you are repressed.” The rapper Eminem, he insists, “made it chic for educated people — women as well as men — to use vulgar language not regularly.”
Like Howard Beale, the news anchor in the movie “Network,’’ Miller is “mad as hell,” an inhabitant, it seems, of a Bloomsburyite anger community. “Argument, as usually managed,” Jonathan Swift once observed, “is the worst sort of conversation.” Especially when combined with vulgar raillery: “to run a Man down in Discourse, to put him out of Countenance, and make him ridiculous, sometimes to expose the Defects of his person, or Understanding.” Even if conversation is endangered or extinct — and it may not be — Miller ought to listen more and lighten up. | Only registered users can write comments.
Please login or register. |
|
|  | "Humankind cannot gain anything without first giving something in return. To obtain, something of equal value must be lost. That is Alchemy's first law of Equivalent Exchange. In those days, we really believed that to be the world's one, and only truth." | |
|  | We're not that bright, even though in our own little world, we're geniuses. We like 80s hair bands and one-hit wonders, but among us we have respectable tastes, too. Metallica, Iron Maiden, U2. Pursuit of all things trivial is a lifestyle, not just a game. We like some sports, love other sports, and can find something to say about anything. We watch TV and movies and we've read a book or two, even a few classics (Yes, Classic Comics count!)
We call it insight, you call it what you will. | |
|  | Felix Wong is an outdoor enthusiast living in Fort Collins. A mechanical engineer by day, he is especially passionate about bicycling, running, and backpacking. | |
|  | Hola Amigos! I'm Sandra. I like to believe that people are 70 percent good and 30 percent dumb. I'm stickin to that story. Reading this blog might make you want to be good, but probably just dumb. | |
|  | Donovan Henderson is editor of NEXTnc. | |
|  | Here at Nextnc we have some characters. Get a sneak peak behind the curtain and find out what amusing antics our staffers get themselves into on a weekly basis. | |
|  | What is up FoCo?
I am a recent college graduate of Minnesota State University Moorhead. After recieving my B.A. in English and Mass Communications this past August I moved down to Colorado.
I enjoy long walks on the beach, candlelight dinners, and heavy metal. My hobbies include reading and writing, music, movies, and getting drunk. Some of my favorite contemporary authors include Bret Easton Ellis, Chuck Palahniuk, and Kurt Vonnegut. My top movies are anything directed by Kubrick. I enjoy listening to anything that rocks.
Right now I am just trying to get to know Colorado and FoCo better. Mostly in order to find the best drink specials on each day that ends in Y. So if you know where I can get a cheap drunk on, let me know!
--Drew | |
|  | Life's little morsels of inspiration, observation and encouragement seen through the eyes of the Nextnc reporter.
| |
|  | Ms. Giles currently lives in Colorado where she stars in her own private reality show. She writes aphoristic accounts of her life, taken completely out of context, and embellished with characters and situations disguised to resemble something close to interesting. | |
|  | over and out | |
| | My name is Michelle Turley and I'm 28 years old. I live in Severance with my hubbie, Brandon. We have 2 dogs and a cat. We enjoy camping, four-wheeling, and just being in the mountains. I like to cook, clean (go figure), flea market, and play poker. I have so much to say about poker... | |
|
|
