Conversation: A History of a Declining ArtYale University Press, 1 d’oct. 2008 - 368 pàgines Essayist Stephen Miller pursues a lifelong interest in conversation by taking an historical and philosophical view of the subject. He chronicles the art of conversation in Western civilization from its beginnings in ancient Greece to its apex in eighteenth-century Britain to its current endangered state in America. As Harry G. Frankfurt brought wide attention to the art of bullshit in his recent bestselling On Bullshit, so Miller now brings the art of conversation into the light, revealing why good conversation matters and why it is in decline. Miller explores the conversation about conversation among such great writers as Cicero, Montaigne, Swift, Defoe, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and Virginia Woolf. He focuses on the world of British coffeehouses and clubs in “The Age of Conversation” and examines how this era ended. Turning his attention to the United States, the author traces a prolonged decline in the theory and practice of conversation from Benjamin Franklin through Hemingway to Dick Cheney. He cites our technology (iPods, cell phones, and video games) and our insistence on unguarded forthrightness as well as our fear of being judgmental as powerful forces that are likely to diminish the art of conversation. |
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Resultats 1 - 5 de 27.
Pàgina xi
... going out on a limb , for a number of recent books and articles have claimed that , owing mainly to anger , conversation is in bad shape in contemporary America . In The Argument Culture : Moving from Debate to Di- alogue ( 1998 ) ...
... going out on a limb , for a number of recent books and articles have claimed that , owing mainly to anger , conversation is in bad shape in contemporary America . In The Argument Culture : Moving from Debate to Di- alogue ( 1998 ) ...
Pàgina 3
... going to bore me to death . Montaigne says the main reason conversations are unsat- isfying is that many people get defensive when their views are questioned . " Most people , when their arguments fail , change voice and expression ...
... going to bore me to death . Montaigne says the main reason conversations are unsat- isfying is that many people get defensive when their views are questioned . " Most people , when their arguments fail , change voice and expression ...
Pàgina 6
... going to a dinner party and upon arrival learning that you will be entertained by a stand- up comic . Swift has a simple recommendation for improving con- versation : include women . He praises the conversation at the court of Charles I ...
... going to a dinner party and upon arrival learning that you will be entertained by a stand- up comic . Swift has a simple recommendation for improving con- versation : include women . He praises the conversation at the court of Charles I ...
Pàgina 12
... going to " Sir Joseph Banks's Con- versation . " The Italian cognate conversazione was often used to describe such a gathering . In 1781 Hester Thrale writes Fanny Burney : " Yesterday I had a conversazione . Mrs. Montagu was brilliant ...
... going to " Sir Joseph Banks's Con- versation . " The Italian cognate conversazione was often used to describe such a gathering . In 1781 Hester Thrale writes Fanny Burney : " Yesterday I had a conversazione . Mrs. Montagu was brilliant ...
Pàgina 17
... going to say better than you understand it yourself , and sees all the possible ob- jections to it , all the possible answers to all the possible objec- tions , before you've got to the end of the sentence . " Undoubtedly , at many ...
... going to say better than you understand it yourself , and sees all the possible ob- jections to it , all the possible answers to all the possible objec- tions , before you've got to the end of the sentence . " Undoubtedly , at many ...
Continguts
29 | |
EighteenthCentury Britain | 79 |
A Conversational Triumph Lady | 119 |
Raillery to Reverie | 150 |
From Benjamin | 194 |
From | 242 |
NINE The Ways We Dont Converse Now | 264 |
TEN The End of Conversation? | 291 |
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According Addison admired agree American anger appeared argues asked attacked attended avoid became become Boswell Britain called century cities civil clubs Coffee coffeehouses common continually conversationalist conversible world critic culture describes dinner discussion easy effect eighteenth-century England English enjoyed essay feel Franklin friends give guests human Hume ideas implies important Instant Messaging interest Italy Johnson Lady Mary leading learned less letter listen live London look mainly manners means meet mind natural never one's opinion party passions person play pleasures poem polite popular praised questions raillery reason refers remark salon sation says seems sense social society Socrates solitude sounds speaks Spectator sublime suffering Swift talk thing thought tion told turn versation wants women Woolf writers wrote young