It is true -- and it's really that understanding how people work aspect that fascinates me the most. It also reminds me a bit of Ender's Game, and how much the end of that novel messed me up, because I could completely understand why the adults had done what they did. The logic of the manipulation -- for a *greater* cause -- and feeling sympathy for that was terrifying to me, because ultimately, you come away from the novel feeling like those adults are pretty horrible people.
But in every part of our lives we manage some aspect of ourselves -- what part of myself do I present to my bosses vs. my peers vs. (dare I say) my blog readers? There are things I don't discuss here on the blog, not out of manipulation, but out of creating a distance between aspects of my life that are personal and aspects that are public (and hence able to be syndicated). There's also an aspect of marketing involved -- how do I best present myself to people who will potentially want to read my fiction?
None of it is dishonest, but it is, to some degree, calculated. Some folks do this unconsciouslly and are really natural about it. I'm somewhere in the middle, in part because the idea of conscious management of human interactions has always fascinated me. And some people never learn the social cues they need to interact, so it all has to be calculated.
At any rate, yes, it was a very interesting read, no less because it sparked this thought process in my brain. :)
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2009-08-21 05:21 pm (UTC)But in every part of our lives we manage some aspect of ourselves -- what part of myself do I present to my bosses vs. my peers vs. (dare I say) my blog readers? There are things I don't discuss here on the blog, not out of manipulation, but out of creating a distance between aspects of my life that are personal and aspects that are public (and hence able to be syndicated). There's also an aspect of marketing involved -- how do I best present myself to people who will potentially want to read my fiction?
None of it is dishonest, but it is, to some degree, calculated. Some folks do this unconsciouslly and are really natural about it. I'm somewhere in the middle, in part because the idea of conscious management of human interactions has always fascinated me. And some people never learn the social cues they need to interact, so it all has to be calculated.
At any rate, yes, it was a very interesting read, no less because it sparked this thought process in my brain. :)