"'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.
Kaor, Paul!
ReplyDeleteI 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