Gossip

[lillibet]

Now, gossip, by its very definition, is trivial; on the other hand, is there a better way to really understand something than by appreciating all of its various trivialities? We don't cherish our friends simply because they're great thinkers, or saintly, or for any such lofty concerns. Rather it's a combination of all the small, trivial facets that combine to shape the image we carry of them; it's the complex final pattern, with all its daily shifts and adjustments, that we cherish.

Charles de Lint, The Wild Wood

Comments

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

Nicely said. I'm frequently ambivalent about gossip, and this puts a nice face to the side of me that enjoys it.

In as much, I think there are different kinds of gossip, some intended to share trivialities and some intended to hurt and slander, and perhaps one way we understant someone s not just by what trivialities we share, but *how* we share them.

Good food for thought, thanks.

[r-ness.livejournal.com]

Yah, I tend to agree--although I imagine my agreement is a bit self-serving--much depends on what one is trying to convey by sharing those trivialities.

Friends have tried to draw a distinction between what I (we?) do and that which is meant to hurt, but I sometimes think they're simply trying to put a nice face on it, as you said.

I don't know.

[muffyjo]

There was an article on Science Friday on NPR that talked about our genetic history and how primates can only groom so many of their tribe mates (which seems to be one of the main tasks of bonding and establishing order) and how our genetic ancestors may have out survived our nearby relatives (neadrathal and homo erectus) by our ability to talk and communicate.

The theory was much along the lines letting conversations become our grooming patterns. We could Converse with more than one person at a time. This evolved, in my conversations with Mom et all this weekend, into a conversation of how gossip plays into the whole grooming patterns.

[billmarrs.livejournal.com]

Hm... how do Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton fit into all this?

[lillibet.livejournal.com]

They use their positions as gossip fodder to make themselves familiar to us and therefore to make us more likely to care about them and to be interested in what they are doing, which is how they make money.