Normal conversation
Nov. 6th, 2006 09:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI'm reading one of the books for lit right now. Is about stylistics, poking the language to see how it is stuck together.
Is fun.
I particularly like that the chapters we're supposed to read are all about conversation.
The find art of conversation is somewhere I feel I'm somewhat lacking in skill.
So it starts off with talking about all the ways drama conversation is and is not like natural conversation, and I'm like "aha! wow! cool! ... er, people do what? This people don't do that... oops... ooooh, instruction manual!"
Because being autistic spectrum I have always suspected that everyone else got a copy of the manual except me.
*nods*
So I *like* this book.
It also says ways I'm more normal than I thought, and things that have made me notice I've actually been getting better at this stuff.
:-)
The bit I've never quite felt I understood is the bit about ritualistic conversations. Like, talking about the weather. Weather is just weather, you know? Why talk about it? And in general, how do people talk without a topic? Mystifying.
Is why I end up talking about my special interests. Which works better the more specialised my education gets, for now I can talk in obsessive detail about interpreting media texts and *get points for it*.
*dreamy happy smile*
But I realised, I do talking with no topic. I do talking about laundry and doings and things. And I do this because other people do this too, just sort of turn up on the board and say what they're doing even though it has nothing to do with TV. And we're all talking about the same stuff, so it is in fact a topic. Even if the topic is "usual activities". Like, the subtext is, "here is my usual that is also your usual look we've got a thing in common".
... I feel so smart figuring that into words ...
:eyeroll:
But really. There has to be a manual, right? I mean... how else do people figure it out?
So now I have book! Yaays!
I think I've had much more practice at drama conversation and am therefore better at it. I mean, I can make my characters talk and talk and talk. It just isn't all quite like 3D talking. And now I have a list of ways it isn't.
Talking exactly like you write is one of the Not Realistic ways.
Which... okay. Apparently I'm regularly unrealistic in person.
*shrugs*
Explains a lot.
Okay, I'm maybe exaggerating for comic effect sometimes up there, but really, this is fun, poking talking to see how it works. I like it.
I do not like yellow highlighter pen. It ran out, only it was hard to tell it had ran out because it wasn't very brilliant in the first place. I went back over and highlighted keywords with the orange. That stays visible.
Which is a bit of a problem when I've got it drawn over somewhere unusual. I had to get the 'removes mascara' wipes out to get rid of some of the smiley faces I did this weekend. :eyeroll:
... I still haven't packed for next weekend. I got the bags out, but they have nothing in them as yet.
Partly because reading is more interesting :-)
But also because they gave us a reading list that is like three sides of A4, and when I'm given a list I tend to try and do it. And I don't see it is doable. And also I haven't got the hang of quick reading for meaning, I end up getting stuck in to the detail stuff, and then it takes a very long time.
I think I maybe read the bit at the front of the textbook about how to read textbooks again. And maybe see if the Study Skills book has a bit about it too. It has a bit about most things so the odds seem good.
Is fun.
I particularly like that the chapters we're supposed to read are all about conversation.
The find art of conversation is somewhere I feel I'm somewhat lacking in skill.
So it starts off with talking about all the ways drama conversation is and is not like natural conversation, and I'm like "aha! wow! cool! ... er, people do what? This people don't do that... oops... ooooh, instruction manual!"
Because being autistic spectrum I have always suspected that everyone else got a copy of the manual except me.
*nods*
So I *like* this book.
It also says ways I'm more normal than I thought, and things that have made me notice I've actually been getting better at this stuff.
:-)
The bit I've never quite felt I understood is the bit about ritualistic conversations. Like, talking about the weather. Weather is just weather, you know? Why talk about it? And in general, how do people talk without a topic? Mystifying.
Is why I end up talking about my special interests. Which works better the more specialised my education gets, for now I can talk in obsessive detail about interpreting media texts and *get points for it*.
*dreamy happy smile*
But I realised, I do talking with no topic. I do talking about laundry and doings and things. And I do this because other people do this too, just sort of turn up on the board and say what they're doing even though it has nothing to do with TV. And we're all talking about the same stuff, so it is in fact a topic. Even if the topic is "usual activities". Like, the subtext is, "here is my usual that is also your usual look we've got a thing in common".
... I feel so smart figuring that into words ...
:eyeroll:
But really. There has to be a manual, right? I mean... how else do people figure it out?
So now I have book! Yaays!
I think I've had much more practice at drama conversation and am therefore better at it. I mean, I can make my characters talk and talk and talk. It just isn't all quite like 3D talking. And now I have a list of ways it isn't.
Talking exactly like you write is one of the Not Realistic ways.
Which... okay. Apparently I'm regularly unrealistic in person.
*shrugs*
Explains a lot.
Okay, I'm maybe exaggerating for comic effect sometimes up there, but really, this is fun, poking talking to see how it works. I like it.
I do not like yellow highlighter pen. It ran out, only it was hard to tell it had ran out because it wasn't very brilliant in the first place. I went back over and highlighted keywords with the orange. That stays visible.
Which is a bit of a problem when I've got it drawn over somewhere unusual. I had to get the 'removes mascara' wipes out to get rid of some of the smiley faces I did this weekend. :eyeroll:
... I still haven't packed for next weekend. I got the bags out, but they have nothing in them as yet.
Partly because reading is more interesting :-)
But also because they gave us a reading list that is like three sides of A4, and when I'm given a list I tend to try and do it. And I don't see it is doable. And also I haven't got the hang of quick reading for meaning, I end up getting stuck in to the detail stuff, and then it takes a very long time.
I think I maybe read the bit at the front of the textbook about how to read textbooks again. And maybe see if the Study Skills book has a bit about it too. It has a bit about most things so the odds seem good.