rinue | words

My new roommate does a kind of smalltalk that I find stressful, where she asks me questions that I have no way of answering, such as: should I buy internet for the next two weeks although my university is just around the corner and I can use the internet there?

Romie: Buying internet for a month is cheaper than two weeks.
Candela: But do you think I need internet?
Romie: Do you need internet?
Candela: I don't know whether I can be bothered.
Romie: Okay.
Candela: But should I get internet?

This normally continues for about a minute. Other common topics are "should I work on my dissertation even though I don't want to work on my dissertation" and "aren't you irrtated by the noisy people in the hall." It's all very friendly, and I appreciate her attempt to involve me in her life even when I am wearing headphones and typing furiously, but this is the exact sort of thing that makes me dread certain kinds of parties. I just don't know how to keep up a conversation with sensory-oriented people.

Which is perhaps why a certain percentage of the world thinks that intellectuals are a myth, as I was reminded during the critique of my term film. All I can say is: thank god for Howard, the head of the sound department, who studied literature and was a script writer for documentaries and then fiction before he got into sound. He came out swinging after the visiting DoP dismissed the film as incoherent, stating confidently that some people really do enjoy sitting around and thinking about things. Howard is my hero.