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selves as players to mobilise essentially abased selves as conversational
images. Such distribution of selves points to the fact that 'Cookie's Party' can
be seen to be primarily positively skewed. That is, uniqueness in terms of
selves mobilised as both conversational images and players is minimised in
favour of the mutual mobilisation and alignment of essentially similar selves
both as sociable players and sociable images.
The key of course to fully understanding how such selves are relevant
to our understanding of conversation in sociable episodes lies in the manner
in which they are aligned in the sequential development of the talk itself.
Moving on from these general alignment observations then, I now want to
consider more closely the conversational data for its alignment features.
At the beginning of the excerpt, LM makes an evaluative statement
about Cookie's house party (line 1). This in itself reveals nothing of its
alignment features - it may for instance have been a unique experience which
LIM wishes to develop into a narrative. However, rather than negatively
aligning to this particular re-invocation (as would be necessary for the pursuit
of narrative), in line 4 DB similarly mobilises a re-invoking self, and one which
consensually attests to the evaluation made by LM. From this point onwards,
LM, DB, TM, and RP mobilise similar re-invoking selves by drawing on the
past reality of Cookie's party. Subsequently, DB, RP, and TM mobilise and
align selves as both players and images grounded in a similar symbolic
universe.
In terms of selves as conversational players, there are certain
similarities in the types of selves mobilised and how these are handled. All co-
present selves here orient to the same past reality, appear to evaluate this
similarly, and invoke similar past selves as figure within that reality. In this
sense, the primary selves mobilised as players here are re-invoking selves. In
line 1, LM clearly mobilises a re-invoking self, followed by DB and TM. By
mobilising such solidaric sociable selves the participants in'Cookie's Party'
are able to align positively as each engages in the similar practice of talking
about a past sociable event in a present sociable one.
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