(Warning: This post may or may not have any real point. You have been warned.)

It's interesting how different real-life conversations are from TV. If people had conversations like television conversations, they would sound ludicrous. Try it. Whatever you're watching right now (except maybe the evening news. No, wait, *especially* the evening news), listen to two or three sentences, and picture a friend of yours saying those words to you in a normal conversation. It probably sounds too contrived, too direct, or both.

I guess the obvious reason is that TV conversations have to take place in a heartbeat, instead of the lingering talks friends, clients, or coworkers can have. The same is true for the written word, either dialog between characters, or narraritive. Take this post as an example. It's conversational as text goes, but I wouldn't explain this idea out loud the same way.

I was thinking even wordier than this, when Fred sent me an email with a really relevant .sig quote from Tom Stoppard:

"The thing that makes Shakespeare breathtaking and defines poetry [is] the simultaneous compression of language and expansion of meaning."

Basically, Shakespeare takes these ideas to the extreme, trying to pack meaning in as if he were fined by the word.

By the way, Fred's in Much Ado About Nothing opening tonight and playing through June 11th. You should go see it, even if you don't know who Fred is. He plays Benedick.