How Well Do You Express Yourself?

[googleit6]

I just finished Wuthering Heights today for the first time. Now, I know hardly anything about the 'classics' as I've only read that, Pride and Prejudice, and Jane Eyre, but I know that a lot of people on this site love to read books like that.

Something I noticed as I read all these books? Everyone expresses themselves extremly well. They can clearly state their feelings and then some. Some of the speeches that those characters give just left me gobsmacked. I have trouble finding words to express myself when I'm on msn, let alone actually speaking face to face with someone. I understand, though, that back then, speaking face to face was the only communication that people had, (Other than snail mail) and they obviously were extremly good at it. But aren't there people still alive today that lived in a world where the majority of communication was done face to face as well? They don't seem to be able to express themselves as clearly as anything I have read.

This can come down to preference, I'm sure. It could probably even come down to how the authors had plenty of time to think their character's conversations over, and rework them until they were just right, (Just like authors today) but I feel that the point still stands. I just happen to be one of those people who is disappointed at how computerized communication has become, (Yes, I realize the hypocrisy of posting this on an internet forum.) and therefore, I enjoy seeing people who are truly able to say exactly what they want to say. I've seen a lot of people on the Escapist who are very good at explaining and presenting points, and I was wondering if you are able to do that when you are face to face with someone as well?

All of this is leading up to a few questions. Mainly, how well are you able to sum up your thoughts? Are you good at expressing yourself verbally? Do you feel that technology has set us back in socializing and clearly stating what we want to say?

I think it is also important to note that, while reading these books, I often found myself not sure what the character was actually trying to say, or what their purpose was, but I could understand that they were saying it well, whatever 'it' was. ('Well' being a relative term, by comparing this generation to previous ones.)

EDIT: Many people have corrected for using the term "Old English" incorrectly. I'll make sure to change it.

 

[Wadders]

Hmm, I think you've got a point. I dont read many 'classic' books, but having studied a few in college I can see where you're coming from. Modern day characters seem to lack the same eloquence. Wether or not that's a change in writing style over the decades or becasue of the reasons you mention I woouldnt like to say.

Personally I'm very poor at explaining how I feel in person verbally and I'm not much better in writing. There's been several important times in my life where I've had to talk about my emotions and trying to explain my actions, and it took me a long time to make myslef understood. Having said that I'm not sure I understood myself really...

So yeah, I suck at feelings, but if I'm in a verbal debate with someone about an issue that isnt about emotions/ feelings I seem to be able to find the right words to put my point across well. Which is odd really.

I would hesitate to say that technology has set us back in socialising. Social networking (while scorned by many) is pretty fucking huge right now, and I belive it is rather usefull. I dont think it has held us back as far as clearly stating things goes either, just that a lot of people use text speak or whatever, dont mean our literacy is degenerating as a species.

 

[Lord Mountbatten Reborn]

That's not even Middle English. I've seen Old English, and it is not pretty, nor particularly English. However, this thread receives my approbation, if that is any consolation.

I think the speeches are more for artistic effect, rather than a reflection of how everybody would communicate back in "the day". Although possibly, as communication wasn't as easy as it is today, it was required. I can stumble often verbally, but writing is far easier, and it makes me seem far more eloquent and fluid than I naturally am (actually no, I naturally employ eloquence, but cannot effectively communicate with lucidity).

 

[googleit6]

That's not even Middle English. I've seen Old English, and it is not pretty, nor particularly English. However, this thread receives my approbation, if that is any consolation.

I think the speeches are more for artistic effect, rather than a reflection of how everybody would communicate back in "the day". Although possibly, as communication wasn't as easy as it is today, it was required. I can stumble often verbally, but writing is far easier, and it makes me seem far more eloquent and fluid than I naturally am (actually no, I naturally employ eloquence, but cannot effectively communicate with lucidity).

Yes, actually, it is of some consolation. And you are right about the Old/Middle English mistake. I've never read Old English, or even Middle English if that does not classify, but I guess I connected 'classic' to 'old'. Please excuse my ignorance.

I think that some authors even today use speeches for artistic affect as well. Maybe not as often as they used to, but sometimes when I am reading a book, or even watching TV or a movie, I sometimes think to myself, "Would I ever have been able to come up with that on the spot?" (I'm looking at you, Gregory House, though, I am no medical genius, so maybe my arguement is invalid.)

Anyways, if the speeches were more for artistic affect that didn't exactly reflect the true dialogue of the day, maybe we can apply that logic to today's artistic mediums. (Some of them.) You hear characters make speeches in today's artistic mediums, and I will use House MD as an example, though that is at the 'extreme' end of the spectrum. Sometimes, an idea gets thrown out, or a line of dialogue gets thrown out, that leaves me just as gobsmacked as when I read certain speeches in any of the books I have read from back in 'the day'. I say to the TV, "I could never come up with that! You had writers thinking over that line/speech for hours, probably! No one could ever come up with that on the spot!"

So, in that extremly awful sum up of my ideas in response to your ideas in response to my ideas, I pretty much meant that maybe the difference between the speeches for artistic affect today, and the speeches used for artistic affect back in 'the day' are possible parralells? If Wuthering Heights sort of showed us dialogue at that 'next level', maybe House MD does that same thing for us, just in the 21st century.

Note: I only used House MD, because I couldn't think of many books I had lately read that applied to this subject.

 

[NeutralDrow]

That's not even Middle English. I've seen Old English, and it is not pretty, nor particularly English.

I would dispute the "pretty" part. I think Old English looks quite nice. Still, you did manage to save me from trying to spend the next half hour trying to compose a snarky response in actual Old English, so thanks for that.

...not that this thread deserved the snarky response, really. I'd just point out that people back then probably talked the way they do now: <url=http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealisticDictionIsUnrealistic>fitfully. Authors tend to not want to recreate actual speaking patterns, because it's annoying to read.

 

[Johnnyallstar]

That's not even Middle English. I've seen Old English, and it is not pretty, nor particularly English.

I would dispute the "pretty" part. I think Old English looks quite nice. Still, you did manage to save me from trying to spend the next half hour trying to compose a snarky response in actual Old English, so thanks for that.

...not that this thread deserved the snarky response, really. I'd just point out that people back then probably talked the way they do now: <url=http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/RealisticDictionIsUnrealistic>fitfully. Authors tend to not want to recreate actual speaking patterns, because it's annoying to read.

Darnit. Every time somebody links to tvtropes I get caught up for like an hour flipping through things -_-

 

[googleit6]

Darnit. Every time somebody links to tvtropes I get caught up for like an hour flipping through things -_-

Haha I just spent a good while on that page, too, while in the process of getting linked to a lot of other pages I wanted to check out.

 

[Crowghast]

I always thought Old English was a misnomer, it barely sounds like English at all. It's almost like a Tolkien-esque black speech, speaking but a word will summon storm clouds and jeering hordes of minion creatures.

 

[orangebandguy]

I'm sure future generations will look back on our current day English and see it as overly formal.

You need an outside perspective for these things.

 

[Betancore]

Try reading Beowulf - that's in Old English, and I don't care how well they express themselves in that piece of work, because I can't for the life of me understand it. I wouldn't say I'm particularly eloquent, but I'm able to express myself fairly well in real life. I can, at the very least, get the basis of my ideas across to the other person. I guess people back then were just less lazy - a lot of the words and phrases we use nowadays are simplified, and we also have other ways (maybe this is due to technology?) to express ourselves. We don't just have words - we also have visual aids that we can employ when making a point. Especially online.

 

[CitySquirrel]

John McWhorter, in "Our Magnificent Bastard Tongue" talks about how people make incorrect assumptions about the development of English based on the notion that people write the way they speak. This is, as others are pointing out, silly. It is also why the last few decades of U.S. Presidents seem less eloquent than their predecessors... those speeches were written to be read and recorded, not given live. One of the best examples, however, it is think about any sitcom ever and try to recreate those types of conversations in real life. It just wont work and maybe 300 years from now someone will wonder why we have become less funny.

By the way, this is old English. You can decide if it is pretty or not.

Hwæt. We Gardena in geardagum, þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon, hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

-http://rpo.library.utoronto.ca/poem/19.html

 

[The Procrastinated End]

And it's based on your perspective of apparently not being able to express yourself and lacking in social communication.

 

[Bruin]

I just finished Wuthering Heights today for the first time. Now, I know hardly anything about the 'classics' as I've only read that, Pride and Prejudice, and Jane Eyre, but I know that a lot of people on this site love to read books like that.

Something I noticed as I read all these books? Everyone expresses themselves extremly well. They can clearly state their feelings and then some. Some of the speeches that those characters give just left me gobsmacked. I have trouble finding words to express myself when I'm on msn, let alone actually speaking face to face with someone. I understand, though, that back then, speaking face to face was the only communication that people had, (Other than snail mail) and they obviously were extremly good at it. But aren't there people still alive today that lived in a world where the majority of communication was done face to face as well? They don't seem to be able to express themselves as clearly as anything I have read.

This can come down to preference, I'm sure. It could probably even come down to how the authors had plenty of time to think their character's conversations over, and rework them until they were just right, (Just like authors today) but I feel that the point still stands. I just happen to be one of those people who is disappointed at how computerized communication has become, (Yes, I realize the hypocrisy of posting this on an internet forum.) and therefore, I enjoy seeing people who are truly able to say exactly what they want to say. I've seen a lot of people on the Escapist who are very good at explaining and presenting points, and I was wondering if you are able to do that when you are face to face with someone as well?

All of this is leading up to a few questions. Mainly, how well are you able to sum up your thoughts? Are you good at expressing yourself verbally? Do you feel that technology has set us back in socializing and clearly stating what we want to say?

I think it is also important to note that, while reading these books, I often found myself not sure what the character was actually trying to say, or what their purpose was, but I could understand that they were saying it well, whatever 'it' was. ('Well' being a relative term, by comparing this generation to previous ones.)

I speak my mind when people ask me to. Or when they don't ask me to. I tend to do it pretty well, and not limiting my language to "nice words" goes a long way in that.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

It's fiction, it doesn't play by the rules of reality. In reality people are awkward, horribly flawed(not in the idiot-savant way of Hollywood), inarticulate, anxious...and seriously can't dodge bullets, take on entire armies single-handedly, or fail to even flinch at a very large explosion occuring behind them.

That's how I see it, escapism was always escapism...leave reality behind. Mr Darcy was the Neo of his time.

 

[rockyoumonkeys]

writing, i can express myself pretty well.

speaking? forget it.