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27 RP: =get out of it=
28 LM: =. HHHH=
29 DB: =>No=he's got a big beaufont hairstyle now< it's [sort of (stuck up) at the
30 MB: [What's he goin'to wear
31 DB: front
32 MB: for his weddin'then=. hhhehe
33 (0.5)
34 DB: "God knows"
35 (1.5)
36 DB: Horrible
Here, Cookies self is conversationally mobilised and aligned to in a way
that could only be done - at least in English in English sociable conversation -
in his absence. His personhood is subject to collective negative evaluation as all
co-present participants put their differences aside in as each moblises and
aligns a gossiping self internally (vis-a-vis) each other and externally (vis-a-vis)
Cookie. It is not simply that such instances of collective gossiping selves can
occur as part and parcel of sociable conversation in English, they appear
endemic to much talk. As with other positive and negative selves however, and
in line with the model of equilibrium outlined above (see esp. 6.5), gossiping
phases do seem to be normatively capped and have limited conversational life,
at least as far as any particular alignment is concerned.
Alongside the English predilection for the mobilisation of Gossiping
Selves in the pursuit positive alignment runs the tendency to mobilise an equally
contemptuous self, the griping self. Rather than focus on some known third
party, griping selves will generally focus some common factor which can be
seen to be mutually available for open criticism or display of contempt. The
weather provides an omni-available topical resource for the mobilisation of
griping selves in English sociable conversation. It is the 'safe topic' par
excellence (see Goffman 1967; Brown and Levinson 1987) with very little
conversational manoeuvre for negative alignment. Similar to the mobilisation of
gossiping selves, in mobilising griping selves participants will collaboratively
introduce conversational evidence to create a shared picture of the outside
world, in a manner as if all heads were speaking as one. An instance of this
occurs in the following excerpt.
221