Learning in silence

The second time everything is much easier than the first time. Even being mute. This time I immediately got out my little note pad and wrote away. And as it was the second time, people recognised the situation, and adapted to it much quicker. They just ask “ah, voice gone again?” and when you then nod they’re not at all surprised if you shove a notebook into their faces. The people that were not there the previous time were still puzzled, of course; one guy asked me if it was a religious thing; some vow of silence-on-Fridays (he hadn’t seen me on Thursday) or something. Another guy asked if I'd shut up for money, in order to support some charity or other. Interesting hypotheses people have!

What was the same was people assuming I had acquired this ailment through snogging someone, and the widely expressed wish that I would snog many, many people, thereby infecting them, as everybody had a long list of those they would want to shut up for a while... and the person most people want to silence is still the same.

I did notice soon I was much better with the notebook than the previous time. I filled page after page! I got lost of communication done. Even went to the pub for a pint, and didn’t feel isolated. Yay for written language! And I directly benefit from being some atavistic sod who still writes letters; I’m used to writing fast and long, quite unlike most of my peers.

Side view of the notebook; the upper piece of tape indicates how much of it I used in a week’s worth of silence in April, and the lower piece of tape is two days in August...

The notebook is used in many different ways by different people; some read in silence, making the conversation very cryptic. Some make sure everybody within a mile has heard what I was trying to say. Some are not very good with sloppy handwriting and make me repeat myself all the time. Some make sure the conversation goes so fast I can’t keep up, and mock me. Some get influenced by the short sentences I am forced to use and become as concise, which is a bit of a challenge. Some people show their solidarity and answer in writing too. Some people happily elaborate away if you ask them a question of only a few words. These are excellent! Make you forget your handicap. And then there’s the people who read aloud, but not what I write, but what they would have liked to see me write...

Some examples of half-conversations in the notebook