"Yes, I know." Alun's life was coming to consist more and more of being told at dictation speed what he knew.I first read this in my early thirties, and enjoyed it. I did not then guess how often I would have occasion to think of it in my fifties and sixties. Conversations are not the worst for this, for there one sometimes has the chance to talk back, to clarify or cut the explanation short. The stores are full of books that assume that the reader knows nothing of the subject, and then get everything from details to the premise badly wrong.
Saturday, March 31, 2018
Being Told at Dictation Speed What He Knew
About two thirds of the way through Kingsley Amis's novel The Old Devils, the leading character, Alun Weaver, is being lectured by a stranger in a pub:
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Apropos of almost nothing, your excerpt and comments remind me of my years as a closed-microphone court reporter in the Navy (a job that involved "parroting" into a closed microphone recording system everything said in the courtroom); there were times when five minutes or more would go by, and I would have a horrifying realization that I had no idea what had happened (even though I had spoken every word into the recorder). Weird connection to your posting, huh?
ReplyDeleteI guess your task might have been described as "telling, at dictation speed, what you do not know." It is a duty that I had never heard of. But presumably it can be very well performed by one who concentrates not on the drama but the words.
Delete"books that assume that the reader knows nothing of the subject, and then get everything from details to the premise badly wrong."
ReplyDeleteGood cautionary advice for the writer!