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The Art of Conversation, 3rd period

Jon nodded to them as they settled. "Up until now, we've been largely trying to talk about our own things and connect that way, but apparently one of the principles of conversation is 'embracing small talk'." Did that sound as horrible to you as it did to him?

"So today we're going to talk about the weather. And only the weather." Definitely not anything to do with this weekend. "And we're going to talk about the weather for as long as we're able."

This might be a really short class. Unless someone got Jon going on a tangent about climate change.

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Excited for the weather! Or like this weekend.

Luma Zarrin

Adrian Blackwood

Jon is very studiously being professional and ignoring this weekend.

"So. The weather is...getting warmer lately," Jon began.

Yes, because it was nearly summer.

"Oh, and it's just splendid, isn't it?" Luma gushed, clearly eager to take this topic and run with it. "It's already much warmer than it gets back home where we used to live, up in Maine, by the coast. I've already gotten so many new summer dresses I can't wait to start wearing!"

And then her head tilted slightly, with a faint wince. "Oh," she realized, suddenly stopped little apologetic, "does that still count? As talk of the weather, if you mention something else associated with it?"

She wanted to get it right, Jon!

Either that, or she was just being a little bit faceceous! Who knew which!

"I...um. Well, I think so?" Jon nodded. "Yes. We'll say it counts." Because otherwise this would be a really, really short class.

"I've never really been much for shorts and things myself, but yes, it does get a bit warmer here than England, too. Not as rainy, though! So we've got some sun coming up, hopefully."

"I do love a good, dramatic thunderstorm every so often," Luma said, eyes still bright, which definitely seemed to tilt the meter toward sincerity, "but too much rain does make me feel terribly restless. So plenty of sunshine is good; I hope to spend a good deal of the summer out exploring the woods here."

"Thunderstorms are at least interesting," Jon agreed. "I could definitely do with less dreary drizzle and fog, though. I don't miss London for that."

"Oh, I love the fog as well," Luma gave a pleased little sigh, wistful as she remembered the way the mist would crawl in from the sea on particularly cold spring mornings, and how much more interesting it made stalking the rabbits and deer. "What about snow? Do you have a lot of experience with that?"

"This is one of the best times of year to explore the woods," Adrian assured her. "With the warm sunshine and the scent of green growing things. And even a nice thunderstorm can be a good way to cool off if you've gotten too hot hiking."

He paused and asked, "So, there were a couple of different things that I could have said there that would have led to a more interesting conversation than just the weather. Do you think that's how small talk is supposed to work? You talk about something simple and commonplace like the weather and then see what more interesting topics can spin off from there?"

"Oh, I wouldn't have the faintest idea," Luma admitted, with with her shrug and slightly tilted smile, it suggested that she didn't much care, either. "I would hope so, because can you imagine? Having to stick with just the weather the whole time? I can see why, if that was the case, Mr. Sims and other people would regard it with such disdain."

Sure, he hadn't explicitly said as much, but she could practically smell it on him, really.

"I just think most people don't get why smalltalk exists and I think it's just for this, you know? Like a groove in an orange peel - a way to facilitate conversation amongst people who don't know each other well enough to have an immediate jumping off point for interesting conversations."

"A groove in an--" Luma started, and the tilt of her head became very much like that of a curious dog, before she blinked a moment and shook her head as if it didn't matter.

(One hardly even needed to notice such things, when they had handy claws to do all the neat work there....not that Luma ever cared much for neat).

"But that does make sense. And maybe sort of as a test. To see if you actually do have things more interesting to spring into, or if you're pretty much better off not even bothering venturing beyond the small talk if you don't have to."

Luma could not imagine herself just sitting around talking about the weather for too long, she'd probably just get bored or irritated and simply wander off instead.

"I...I have no idea. I thought it was a purpose of its own. Not that I've ever really understood smalltalk. I, um. I wonder if we should talk about other things, then, or stay on the weather."

"Nobody likes small talk, right?" he asked. "It's just safe conversational topics that nobody can be offended by when you don't know the other person. It serves as a way to get people talking to each other, but I never thought it was meant to be the end of it, unless you don't have much time or you're deliberately playing it safe. But I don't think anybody really wants to sit around all day talking about the weather, or the local sports team, or the state of the roads. It's just like Luma said - a way to test the waters to see if you want to keep talking about more interesting things."

He shrugged. "Pretty sure that learning how to make small talk and still keep it engaging and interesting would be a useful skill."

"I, um. I always assumed that people enjoyed it. They always seem to want to do it," Jon confessed.

"I don't really think most people like it?" he said. "But, I mean, I spent almost my whole life in a magical Grove with my family, I'm not an expert in any means. But I think other than the people who don't have any thoughts that run deeper than the kind of things you talk about for small talk, nobody else really enjoys it. It's just the polite thing to do when you're talking to people you don't really know, so you can't accidentally step on a conversational landmine in the first five minutes of knowing someone."

"I suppose I just thought it was one of those things about people I never understood," Jon confessed. There were a lot of those. "I thought people just enjoyed that sort of thing."

About something other than the weather, please god.

One of these AU weekends I will actually get Jonny D'Ville out to do havoc!

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The Art of Conversation, 3rd period

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Listen to the lecture

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Talk to Jon!

OOC!