h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Ta-da!

Is that like pregnant pause?


A pregnant pause is usually uncomfortable.
Something to do with unseen things and forces
that grow in the darkness of silence.
But...
What's the opposite of pregnant.
Maternal?
Naw, that's more of a consequence of pregnancy
rather than an opposite.
Hmm..
Still thinking about liminal.

Mostly 'cause I think the best we'll do here is an adverb.
Unless there's a noun from a forrin language.
I suspect the wordless nature of such moments makes any word
unsuitable, unnecessary perhaps even unwelcome.


~jwf~

I can hear Rudyard Kipling muttering soft advice about
keeping your head while all around you...

But, the current chaos of h2g2 aside, I have found only one
noun so far that even comes close to describing those wonderful
moments of togetherness. Yes, togetherness. But that can also
mean other times and forms of togetherness. Many of these involve
noise and excitement and bonding (often extreme). Togetherness
just doesn't really focus exclusively on those quite moments
when nothing needs to be said.



Oh, and I think I got pregnant pause confused with awkward pause.

A pregnant pause is a dramatic rhetorical device that sets up a
feeling of anticipation - a coming punchline, a surprising shift
of topic, an emotional outburst.

An awkward pause is when thoughts are being thought but nothing
is being said.


~jwf~

And very often, despite the cosiness of the situation, the thoughts diverge frighteningly. The participants THINK they're thinking the same thing....

Ahh, time to re-air Roger and Elaine . . . one of the first stories passed on to me in my early days on the net, and still one of the best--
http://tonysworld.org/re.html

That's funny.

The situation is well known to many even if the stereotypes
depend on an apparent ignorance of what's really going on.
I can almost see the woman and her friends:

"They will continue to discuss this subject, off and on, for weeks,
maybe months, never reaching any definite conclusions, but never
getting bored with it, either."

And that spirit of chat, of girly talk, is something that always
impressed me. I enjoy overhearing or being allowed to listen to
groups of women gossiping. I honestly believe this is where we
first realised that a lie told often enough becomes the Truth.

Not unlike many conversations here at h2g2.


~jwf~

While I am still searching for a word to describe those truly
wonderful moments of quiet togetherness I see it can occur in
many group situations. It isn't just limited to lovers but in their
case there is the word 'afterglow' used to describe those joyful,
peaceful moments after sex. Words just don't have a place at
such times of 'bliss'.

And then I wondered if 'bliss' was the word I'm looking for. It
could be used to describe a group of bird watchers stunned to a
group silence by what they see, or a group of hikers pausing to
observe a sunset or sunrise. It even applies to a family group in
certain situations. Or a team of surgeons, or bricklayers who step
back to admire a job well done.

But afterglow and bliss don't cover all situations and imply a
state of rest and gratitude after some physical or mental exertion
toward a common purpose. There needs to be a broader word
which includes those times when silence and contentment just
sorta happen.

So far we've got "the silent bliss of togetherness" as the best
way to describe it. We may never reach 'any definite conclusions'
but I hope we'll never get bored with thinking about it either.


~jwf~

companionable silence?

Well, we have friendship and companionship.
Companionship seems - to me - to be closer & has elements of compatibility...

Comlerty

that sort of fits - ?

Shall we let an angel pass?

Both the word comlerty and the reference to angels have passeth
way over my head.

I suspect comlerty is a new construction based on COMpassion and
companionship somehow. But how?
And most references to angels are usually beyond my ken.
So c'mon lads, give us a bit of flesh on these bones we're picking.



The earlier suggestion of 'companiable silence' set me off to think
of 'quiet companionship' which has a nice alliteration. And it made
me think of the modern youth phrase 'chilling out'. But chillin' as
I understand it can be a solo act as well as a communal one. And
that made me think of 'hanging out' which usually does apply to a
group of friends being relatively idle and relatively quiet.



The wonderful thing (for me) in considering 'quiet companionship'
is that it keeps reminding me how unlikely it would be that such a
common and happy experience does not have a name. I bet there's
a scene in Shakespeare somewhere...


~jwf~

Comlerty - no derivations, just sort of sounded sort of okish when it passed through ear to ear

Actually, what I was after was to do with ley lines. Some say that quiet places lie at the meeting thereof (eg my latest journal entry - though dunno about any ley lines in NZ - are there?)

So

Comleyty or
Conleyty

?

Oh I think I get it, an auditory spasm of on-a-matt-o-pee-ah.
A sound emerging from the subconscious aspects of the scene.
Comlerty...
I get an image of a calmer tea.
A placid sea of calmer tea.
Good thinking!



~jwf~

~jwf~

To me an angel passing indicates a sudden silence that comes upon the company, maybe of just a couple but usually a bigger group.It doesn't have a comfortable feeling Why woud Shaespeare have written silent scenes? It wasn't possible to see the actors' faces well enough to guess what they were thinking until very recently.
I don't think there is a single word for what we are talking about, but would vote for "companionship"

What am I going to do without this thread that has been a major part of my life for more than 11 years? I can view the loss of the rest of hootoo with resignation if not equaniity but not this. (who is already jumping through a couple of hoops to get here)

>> Why would Shakespeare have written silent scenes? <<


Good point.
I was thinking of some of those wonderful soliloquies where the
principal character is reflecting upon the nature of human behaviours
and eloquently revealing their thought process. These often appeal
to feelings the audience might have experienced but never articulated.

For some reason I keep thinking Midsummer Night's Dream has
many of these revelatory scenes to explain what people are feeling
or thinking or what they might be induced to feel or think. But I keep
getting Jim Cagney as Bottom doing the Bottom's dream speech.
"Methought I had... Methought I was..."
A wonderful scene. But perhaps not relevant to the question at hand.

And now you mention it I do very vaguely recall someone, perhaps
some friend's mother, quoting something about angels passing over.
Wasn't sure what it meant then, and upon reflection it seems she
was referring to how quiet we became when she entered the room.


~jwf~

...or 16170 might remind you of that scene in "Dance of the Vampires" where that leftthreaded vampire tries to seduce Roman Polanski.

OK, I know I have a dirty mind.

Yes, "Shall we let an angel pass?" is a quote from Polanski's 1967 film Dance of the Vampires, known in the US as The Fearless Vampire Killers. Wonderful performances by Jack McGowran as Professor Abronsius and Ferdy Mayne as Count von Prolock ("I am a night bird. I am not much good in the daytime").

The speaker was reading from a textbook on flirting, which said "Let an angel pass", meaning "Pause for a moment's silence". There is an old superstition that when a company falls silent spontaneously it is because an angel is passing; but it isn't necessarily an uncomfortable silence, and it's clearly not intended to be so in the wooing manual.

The other part of that tradition is that an angel commonly passes when the clock is at twenty minutes to or past the hour.

Don't mind me, not been in for the last 11,000 posts or so. But I wondered if some of you mightn't get a kick out of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2cCZX106AE