pictionary
Last night The Little Red Haired Girl and I played Pictionary. Well, not really. We just picked cards and drew stuff for each other to guess. It may be one of my top ten passtimes. I’m not sure if I like it particularly with The Little Red Haired Girl, or if I’d find it fun with anyone. Maybe just anyone that I know well, who knows me well. I like that guessing does not just depend on what is being drawn, but on a familiarity with the artist and an understanding of the connections that he or she might make. I guess in some senses it’s a way of discovering or confirming a closeness between (among?) people that can’t be demonstrated just through everyday conversation.
Last semester I took a class on interaction and conversation analysis, and I’ve really become interested in how people negotiate shared histories, mutual understandings, and whatever environmental resources there might be in order to communicate. Pictionary is one example where the only defined resources for communication are drawing tools. Yet often people rely more on shared histories; even if they are newly acquainted there is a local history of drawings and guesses that can be utilized. I think it’s neat that people just know to do this, and often do it without realizing.