tuscl

Using Hypotheticals as a topic of Conversation

Monday, August 11, 2008 8:54 PM
A book that I recently read, had a section in it that dealt with using Hypotheticals in a social environment. They intended them to be mainly used if your actually trying to date or make friends with someone but can be used in any situation. I decided to take this knowledge and see how some of my favorite dancers would react to the different scenarios. I prosposed 2 hypthetical situations to a couple of my favs named Essence & Jade. Essence is about 23years old while Jade I think is around 26. The 1st hypothetical situation: You have been seeing this guy for 2 or 3weeks. You really like him and think he is a good guy. One night while he is over your house the cops pull up outside. All of a sudden he jumps up and says"Tell them I'm not here!" and runs and hides in the bedroom closet. The doorbell rings and you go to the door to speak to the police. How do you handle this situation? Do you rat the guy out and tell the police where he's hiding? or do you stick by him and tell the police he is not here? Well the answers varied with the each of them. Essence stated that she would probably tell cops he wasn't there. On the other hand, Jade was like " I would tell them where he is hiding" I don't know him that well, he could be a murder for all I know." Well according to the book if they say that they would cover for him then that means she holds loyalty in high regard. When she cares for someone she has there back. If she says she would tell on him then it means that she values honesty. If the guy wasn't being straight with you about himself and what he is doing, then there's no reason for her to cover his back. There was another hypothetical I told them about a young couple who had recently moved next door to them. One day you happend to look over there and you see that they have left the curtains open. Upon further investigation you discover they are making passionate love. Do you turn away out of respect or do you keep on looking? Both of them unanimously agreed that they would keep on looking. They seemed to be fairly interested in the stories. I think hypotheticals are good in keeping a conversation interesting and it also may reveal a little bit about your favorite dancer's "true" personality.

6 comments

  • ozymandias
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    16 years ago
    I kind of lost it at "I proposed two hypothetical situations to... Essence and Jade." ;) Black club, I assume? O.
  • jablake
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    16 years ago
    Black girls have the BEST names and the BEST butts and the BEST teeth. :) I like the hypotheticals approach. :)
  • Jpac73
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    16 years ago
    ozymandias: Actually it is a mixed club. Jade is black, Essence is white.
  • Book Guy
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    16 years ago
    I think a "hypothetical" is a good way to describe NORMAL conversation so that someone who lacks NORMAL conversational skills might be able to FAKE it for long enough that he can seem NORMAL instead of ABNORMAL. It's like suggesting, to someone who's never thrown a baseball before, ever in his life, that if he just goes over to the pitcher's mound and spits a lot of tobacco over his shoulder, he'll probably look like he knows what he's doing. True, he will; and in a rare instance or two, he may even get noticed as someone worth interacting with. But he ain't gonna pitch a no-hitter ...
  • ozymandias
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    16 years ago
    In seriousness... I very seldom use hypotheticals, but I do use metaphor quite a bit. I lecture on mathematics and physics, and often try to coax visualization from students via metaphor, so it's just a habit. Metaphor is a great way to communicate a difficult idea to someone who lacks the formal language and tools to understand it "normally." I think hypotheticals are more common in "female" modes of speech, and as such probably *are* pretty effective when chatting up dancers. O.
  • jablake
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    16 years ago
    "Well according to the book if they say that they would cover for him then that means she holds loyalty in high regard." I'd be leary of the book's conclusions, btw. Also, while they may reveal a little about your strippers true personality becareful of the "if, then" logic. People can have a variety of motivations that may not seem logical or don't fit a dualistic way of thinking. For example, a dancer wants to eliminate the financial aspects of the "relationship" and give you free dances so that *must* mean she has real affection for you, right? That sounds very reasonable. What if instead of feeling real affection she just felt very protected and that was her number one priority? Or, maybe instead of feeling real affection she just saw you as a tutor to improve her conversational skills or she highly valued your ideas? Or, maybe she just planned on asking you for a whopper of a favor down the line? Or, could it be a jealousy play? The point I'm attempting to make is that it is too common and too easy to pigeonhole a person by falling into the trap of "if,then" logic.
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