EBOOK
About
Enough small talk. Let's get right to it: Why can't we talk to each other anymore? What makes good communication? And how do we restore the lost art of conversation?
In contemporary society, much of our communication exists in a new dimension, the online space, and it's changing how we regard each other and how we converse. In the digital realm, we can be anonymous, we can make false and hurtful comments yet evade consequences in a hurried scroll of clicks and swipes. But a good conversation takes time and patience, courage, even. We need to realize that one-half of our conversations is, in fact, listening. And aren't the best conversationalists-like the best musicians-good listeners?
With What I Mean to Say, award-winning novelist and poet Ian Williams seeks to ignite a conversation about conversation, to confront the deterioration of civic and civil discourse, and to reconsider the act of conversing as the sincere, open exchange of thoughts and feelings. Alternately serious and playful, Williams nimbly leaps between topics of discussion and, along the way, is discursive, digressive, and endlessly generous-like any great conversationalist.
The 2024 Massey Lectures will be delivered by Scotiabank Giller Prize–winning author Ian Williams.
• URGENT SUBJECT MATTER: Now more than ever, conversation-the sincere, open exchange of thoughts and feelings-is essential if we are to restore civic and civil discourse. This book is an attempt to encourage a conversation about conversation.
• CONVERSATIONS AND THE 2024 U.S. ELECTION: The next U.S. election is on November 5, 2024. As American (and global) politics become more and more polarized, it feels harder than ever to have important conversations. What I Mean to Say delves into why tough topics are often the most important, and how reactivity has caused people to back away from engaging in thoughtful discourse. The book publishes just before the 2024 U.S. election, on October 8 in the U.S. and Canada.
• BESTSELLING AUTHOR AND EXPERIENCED ACADEMIC: Ian Williams is the bestselling author of Reproduction for which he also won the Scotiabank Giller Prize. He is also the author of Disorientation: Being Black in the World which was shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers' Prize for Nonfiction. He is a tenured English professor at the University of Toronto.
• CROSS COUNTRY TOUR AND RADIO BROADCAST: The five lectures will be delivered live and in person in Sidney NS, Iqaluit NV, Saskatoon SK, Victoria BC, and Toronto ON over several weeks in fall 2024 and then will be broadcast on CBC Radio's Ideas series in November 2024.
In contemporary society, much of our communication exists in a new dimension, the online space, and it's changing how we regard each other and how we converse. In the digital realm, we can be anonymous, we can make false and hurtful comments yet evade consequences in a hurried scroll of clicks and swipes. But a good conversation takes time and patience, courage, even. We need to realize that one-half of our conversations is, in fact, listening. And aren't the best conversationalists-like the best musicians-good listeners?
With What I Mean to Say, award-winning novelist and poet Ian Williams seeks to ignite a conversation about conversation, to confront the deterioration of civic and civil discourse, and to reconsider the act of conversing as the sincere, open exchange of thoughts and feelings. Alternately serious and playful, Williams nimbly leaps between topics of discussion and, along the way, is discursive, digressive, and endlessly generous-like any great conversationalist.
The 2024 Massey Lectures will be delivered by Scotiabank Giller Prize–winning author Ian Williams.
• URGENT SUBJECT MATTER: Now more than ever, conversation-the sincere, open exchange of thoughts and feelings-is essential if we are to restore civic and civil discourse. This book is an attempt to encourage a conversation about conversation.
• CONVERSATIONS AND THE 2024 U.S. ELECTION: The next U.S. election is on November 5, 2024. As American (and global) politics become more and more polarized, it feels harder than ever to have important conversations. What I Mean to Say delves into why tough topics are often the most important, and how reactivity has caused people to back away from engaging in thoughtful discourse. The book publishes just before the 2024 U.S. election, on October 8 in the U.S. and Canada.
• BESTSELLING AUTHOR AND EXPERIENCED ACADEMIC: Ian Williams is the bestselling author of Reproduction for which he also won the Scotiabank Giller Prize. He is also the author of Disorientation: Being Black in the World which was shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers' Prize for Nonfiction. He is a tenured English professor at the University of Toronto.
• CROSS COUNTRY TOUR AND RADIO BROADCAST: The five lectures will be delivered live and in person in Sidney NS, Iqaluit NV, Saskatoon SK, Victoria BC, and Toronto ON over several weeks in fall 2024 and then will be broadcast on CBC Radio's Ideas series in November 2024.