Week 3, Theme 2

Prompt: Spoken language is, uh, filled with “fillers”: words like “like”---or simply sounds like “uh”---that serve complex functions in like ordinary discourse, or something. They exist, you know, somewhere between language and physical gesture. Take time to listen carefully to other people’s speech and to your own. Note how and when fillers enter, and with, um, what effects. Then create a dialogue or a monologue in which fillers are used suggestively (you can simply present the dialogue or monologue on its own, or provide a narrative frame). The point is not to make fun of a particular form of speech or speaker (although you may have fun with this assignment), but to highlight and make intelligent use of dimensions of speech that we seldom think about or acknowledge, even while we register and respond to them. Think of this as a chance to notice and explore the expressive noise that is part of speech.

1: Well Joe is now single. So I was like should I friend him and she was like “yeah go for it” whatever, but then, in like the middle of the class, she turns to me and is like “Victor, you practice safe sex, right? I just want to know because AIDS is really prevalent in the gay male community. I just want you to be safe.”

2: Sherry! As, for like, for real?

1: And I didn’t talk to her for the rest of the class.

2: Wait was she like joking? Is that part of the improv thing she does?

1: No, not at all. Not at all! She was like being such a jerk!

2: Uh, she has AIDS, probably.

1: Literally I didn’t know what to say. She’s a piece of shit.

2: There’s like, remember…

1: I got so mad at her.

2: YUHG or whatever did…remember there’s that article about STDs or whatever, and the health guy said he couldn’t say how many people here had AIDS? And he said, it was like, around 10 or 20.

1: That’s a lot.

2: That’s not that much.

1: Well, it’s not like, ehh, it’s like, you can only get AIDS from like…and it’s like, whatever. Like, Sherry’s such a dolt…I hate her.

2: Wait Sherry said that?

1: Yeah!

2: I can’t believe she’s for real.

1: It’s like continuing her thing of always acting like she knows better…

2: Watch her get AIDS…

1: So then I was like oh does Joe think I’m cute, and she was like “yeah, definitely, but I also told him you’re crazy” or whatever and I was like “seriously?”

2: Wait she told him that? That’s for him to decide…or, like, find out. But that’s like, half the joy of a relationship.

1: I know right?

(pause)

2: Ok, I, uh, have to do reading.

1: Yeah I’m gonna nap.

(pause)

2: But Joe is short! He’s shorter than Sherry!

1: No, he’s not!