The Art of Conversation

In this split & drifting space, strange 
bonds are knit. In a landscape of batt-
ling giants or of the beginning of the 
world, two tiny persons are speaking.
The art of conversation consists in the 

exercise of two fine qualities — never 
interrupt any one who is speaking; &
overlook the deficiencies of others 
when conversing with them. Men, at 
last reduced to silence, commune with

the signification of things, allow them-
selves to be touched by enigmatic, in-
sistent words that come from elsewhere.
Words are not bound directly to other 
pictorial elements. They are merely in-

scriptions on blobs & shapes. But in 
this context, words do not replace mis-
sing objects, occupy no hollow spaces.
A lady of true refinement will always
give your words candid consideration.

Sources:
This Is Not a Pipe, by Michel Foucault
The Ladies’ Book of Etiquette (1860), by Florence Hartley