Feeling Nostalgic For A Good Cuppa Conversation
- Typical folk journalist conversation with typically friendly North Dakotan
The other night I was on a panel with three authors. Sponsored by IWOSC (Independent Writers of Southern California), the topic was “Nostalgia,” and when the moderator turned to me and I leaned into the microphone, this came out: “I’m nostalgic for good conversation.”
Well, the evening proceeded and indeed, a fascinating back-and-forth ensued, with writers trading stories from the biographies they’d completed about old-time Hollywood figures like Spike Jones, Cecil B. DeMille, the Marx Brothers, even Elizabeth Montgomery from the show Bewitched.
At one point, after moderator Bob Birchard said he saw Richard III on a TV show called Omnibus in the 1950s, I threw in: “Ever wonder why with all these new channels today, there’s no Shakespeare kind of Bard-TV thing presenting all the films made from his plays?” Which led to a conversation about theater vs film vs TV, etc.
A folk journalist doesn’t just ask questions. He makes suggestions. Suggestions that instead of getting simple “yes” or “no” answers, lead to something more: creative conversation.
“Feel the buzz of the holidays in here?” I said today to someone at Peet’s.
In this web log I’ll show you what helps me, as a folk journalist, connect with people. How when we walk and talk our way daily through a jungle of what passes like a parade of people here, there and everywhere — mixing metaphors just like that may in fact help you engage in life at your dazzling best.
Ready to play?
“How?” you’re still wondering?
I’m getting to it.
In Gloria Steinem’s new book My Life On The Road, she calls for, “in-person politics and face-to-face organizing. She extols the virtues of conversation circles in arousing empathy and creating connections, but insists that such breakthroughs are simply not possible online. ‘The miraculous and impersonal Internet is not enough,’ she writes.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/15/books/review/gloria-steinems-my-life-on-the-road.html?ref=review
Ann Friedman, reporter on the piece, says Steinem is “foolish to play down” the potential of conversing on the web.
Do you agree? With whom? And why?
Next Time: Saying Whaaaaaaa? Let’s Talk About How We Try and Talk with each other, because I mean, really, who doesn’t like a good talking to, right?
