Dr. Johnson on Conversation

We live in an age where the possibility of conversation is greater than ever. We update Facebook statuses. We Twitter. We follow and are followed. We subscribe to feeds and lists. The flow of information is instantaneous, the response rapid, the exchanges frequent. Social media has huge power attributed to it, from bringing unwelcome hordes to careless teenagers’ parties to welcome revolutions to oppressed states.

We judge these modern modes of conversation to be powerful because they are seen to effect events. It fits with our modern prejudice that the measure of conversation is how effective it is at putting across information, at expressing ourselves or influencing what happens next. If nothing happens good conversation cannot be said to have been had.

Dr Johnson did not live in an age of Twitter (although he has a fine namesake in the Twittersphere @DrSamuelJohnson). However, he would have recognised the sort of exchanges and flows social media produce. Johnson lived in a London over run with newspapers, pamphlets and pamphleteers, journals and monographs, not to mention the lively debates of Gentleman’s Clubs, Coffee Houses and Taverns. In Johnson’s London information and debate moved at a then hitherto unprecedented speed. Johnson did not know Twitter, but he knew what it was to try to surf waves of information rather than be inundated in flood of verbiage.

Why then, did Johnson comment of conversations that “The happiest conversation is that of which nothing is distinctly remembered but a general effect of pleasing impression”? Johnson’s clear implication is that conversation is not about what happens next – or at least not solely. He is a champion for the pleasures of conversation itself.

When we reduce conversation to cause and effect and see its purpose as merely the transmission of information we do a great disservice not only to conversation but to ourselves. We make it impossible to enjoy that ‘general effect of pleasing impression’ that Johnson praised so warmly. When we withdraw from conversations chastising ourselves for not getting our point across, lamenting an exchange we deem to have yielded too little progress, or scolding others for imposing their agendas, we are victims to the lost art of conversation and our ages’ instrumental analysis of it.

Instead, we should seek out conversations that provide mutual pleasure through the mutual stimulation of ideas. We should make the object of our conversations the health and beauty of the conversation itself, not what we want from it. To do this we need to listen closely to what others say. Our responses should build on what they say, not look to wrestle back the agenda. That is the way great edifices of conversation can be built instead of the flat rubble strewn landscape that emerges from disputed conversations.

This is what Johnson did. He was, of course, a great wit. He was no stranger to the stinging rejoinder or the timely put down. However, the evidence of his conversational success is plentiful. The Johnson we know is the quoted Johnson. By aiming to have great conversations, Johnson succeeded in being memorable by saying memorable things. They emerged in his many conversations and were ably captured by his faithful companion and biographer Boswell. The secret to success in conversation is not what we say, but how we speak with others. As Johnson has shown us, the more we help create a general pleasing impression rather than aiming to make distinct points, the more chance there is of saying something that others, and maybe even history, will remember. 

Nick Southgate will be leading ‘Drinks with Samuel Johnson’ at Johnson’s famously frequented pub Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese on Monday 16 May 2011.To join us and for more details, click here.

Comments

[Kirkistan]

I'm a great fan of Dr. Johnson, but I disagree on this one. I like how you point out that we hold conversation up to the same measure of productivity as we do nearly everything else in life. It's a good conversation if some task results from the conversation. I agree that is not a good measure. But I would argue that the best conversation brings with it a kind of "Aha!" where our synapses fire in a different way and we suddenly have connected two disparate ideas--all because of the words we exchange with our conversation partner. Those are my happiest conversations. Thanks for post, Nick.

[Drew Byrne]

Conversation: the medium is the message and the message is the medium.