"'He's sending for people to take us prisoner -'
"[Yewwl] got no chance to explain that surrender was the single sensible course. [Her son] howled and sprang." (p. 154)
How often does this happen - people responding to only a part of what is being said? I will not bore you with my many experiences of miscommunication but here are two examples.
(i) When I was at College, I tried to tell a fellow student, "If you are criticizing me for taking too long to do that job, that's OK." However, when I had said only "If you are criticizing me...," I was interrupted by: "I AM NOT CRITICIZING YOU!" (What was she doing then?) That single word, "criticize," held an extraordinarily powerful and entirely negative value even among Higher Education students.
(ii) A local conspiracy theorist (see The Conspiracy) once interrupted social conversation at a party to deliver a short lecture on the evils of the Semitic monotheist traditions. I know from experience that, if I ever do get the opportunity to tackle him about some of the content of that unsolicited lecture, I must shorten the phrase, "Semitic monotheist," to "monotheist" because, immediately on hearing the word, "Semitic," he would interrupt to assert that he is not anti-Semitic - although he has pointed out that it was the Jews who lent money and has urged me to read The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. I have just read some of that on the Internet...
Fortunately, people do often succeed in communicating with each other.
1 comment:
Kaor, Paul!
I too have endured many such cases of miscommunication, mostly because of my very bad hearing. Even with a hearing aid I frequently have difficulty understanding others. I hear the SOUNDS, but often don't understand what is MEANT.
Ad astra! Sean
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