Comments | mystful: small talk

mystful

small talk

Nov 25, 2006 16:31

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 ( Read more... )

Comments 10

bubbleteateam November 25 2006, 20:48:29 UTC

haha, you know I agree -- I'll be ready for anything and everything to do with life, living, eating, dancing, shopping, shouting, singing, laughing, and, yes, small-talking as of December 20th!!! in the meantime, I'm sure a few cute boys will more than compensate ;-)

tsagaan November 25 2006, 21:47:34 UTC

My opinion on small talk has changed over the few years too! I very much agree with everything in this post.

Well this is interesting. anonymous November 26 2006, 04:28:55 UTC

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 November 27 2006, 10:45:20 UTC

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 November 27 2006, 17:02:57 UTC

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 November 28 2006, 05:49:44 UTC

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.

Thread 5

anonymous November 26 2006, 15:05:13 UTC

Small talk is fun. Sometimes, weird thoughts like- wow, the sky is really blue today or did you see that television show that involved dyeing dogs pink?- just pop into your head and you want to share them immediately with someone :)

Small talk can be taxing but so can really deep discussions too... I think that small talk that isn't just someone trying to make conversation because they feel that they need to, but just sort of- wow, all these fun things came to mind and i really want to share them with you- that can be just as meaningful as deep talk any day! So yes, I agree wholeheartedly!

mystful November 27 2006, 10:36:27 UTC

who is this? :)

anonymous December 4 2006, 03:30:20 UTC

Allicia!