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 18.
Pàgina 3
... humor . Equally important is being a good listener . The seventeenth - century French aphorist La Rochefoucauld says that most people are poor listeners . " One of the reasons why so few people are to be found who seem sensible and ...
... humor . Equally important is being a good listener . The seventeenth - century French aphorist La Rochefoucauld says that most people are poor listeners . " One of the reasons why so few people are to be found who seem sensible and ...
Pàgina 5
... the rails if the good humor turns sour . ( In contemporary America there is organized vulgar raillery that goes under the name of " celebrity roast . " ) Many people , Swift says , claim they enjoy the Conversation and Its Discontents 5.
... the rails if the good humor turns sour . ( In contemporary America there is organized vulgar raillery that goes under the name of " celebrity roast . " ) Many people , Swift says , claim they enjoy the Conversation and Its Discontents 5.
Pàgina 10
... humor dogmatic people , she disliked it when other people acted the way she did . " Yet I have known her very angry with some whom she much esteemed for sometimes falling into that infirmity . " Swift calls her view an " infirmity ...
... humor dogmatic people , she disliked it when other people acted the way she did . " Yet I have known her very angry with some whom she much esteemed for sometimes falling into that infirmity . " Swift calls her view an " infirmity ...
Pàgina 54
... humor . In The Praise of Folly ( 1511 ) , Erasmus ridicules the fanaticism of monks and the pomposity of theologians . He also makes fun of learned men who like to lecture others . " Bring a wiseman to a party : he will disrupt it ...
... humor . In The Praise of Folly ( 1511 ) , Erasmus ridicules the fanaticism of monks and the pomposity of theologians . He also makes fun of learned men who like to lecture others . " Bring a wiseman to a party : he will disrupt it ...
Pàgina 106
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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