And a phone.

Absolutely fascinating.

Pedantry, not conversation.

Still, you are correct.

And there’s something else I’m interested in. When you think, do you think in a mixture of those languages? Or do you actively translate? Is it a conscious thing?

We’re very similar, I think. That externalisation as a way of understanding in particular.

Absolutely. My day job is as a conceptual artist (seriously, the hours are good and I get to travel). Visualising objects is a large part of that. I’ve also worked in video game level design and found thinking in terms of 3D space pretty easy too. Just no words in there, or specifically, no voice.

Interesting you brought up Service… Grew up reading him as he’s from my home town.

I do like poetry, but I’m much more inclined to concrete work, or something closer to what William Burroughs was after.

The shape rather than the rhythm.

Never thought of it that way. Though I still adore Service for the narrative.

I like that your internal monologue is an idealised voice.

Absolutely. I’m no expert, and since there weren’t any studies performed on people from that era, I’d expect it to be taken as a theory rather than a fact.

I won’t pretend in not a little jealous of that. I can only imagine the texture that adds to a novel. Plus, it’s like a form of creative collaboration… You are present in the text… How cool is that?

I worked as a typesetter for years. I have a rather speedy reading pace (it isn’t inate, rather through practice)… but I do wonder if not having to ‘hear’ words changes the rhythm of reading.

I’m also fascinated if other folk perform accents in their head whilst reading? Do different characters sound different or is there one ‘voice’ that acts as a narrator?

I don’t have one at all. Spent ages thinking that it was just a figure of speech, but when I found out I became fascinated by it.

The current theory is that at some early point in our evolution we literally had a voice in our head, not unlike how some forms of schizophrenia present.

It’s called the bicameral mind.

https://gizmodo.com/did-everyone-3-000-years-ago-have-a-voice-in-their-head-510063135

In my day to day life it makes little difference however, despite being an avid reader and writer I struggle tremendously to read aloud.

I don’t know for sure but I suspect it is connected.

Damn, you’re good.

You’ve missed off the sausage roll, you absolute savage.

He should have been sacked when he described Stockton – a place ravaged by 13 years of Tory austerity – as a ‘shithole’ during a televised parliamentary session.

Not for calling Stockton a shithole (I love the place but it really is a bit rough), but for being the sort of politician that is so poor at their job that they say stuff like this in front of the public.

Gun heaven, where they can run around and frolic in the fields and enjoy the rest of their well deserved life.

Xor

Or in Glasgow…

And then everyone clapped, right?

Oh fuck off.

I’m making a point about the international nature of food, and the way in which it relates to identity, and you seem determined to take it in bad faith to truss up your own weak argument.

Ok, here, have a win. You’re right. You are so totally right. Well done. Enjoy the glory.

I think you misunderstand.

What I mean is the man who cooked the curry and served it to me and my two companions. He’s of Asian heritage but was born and raised in the UK.

Does that mean that he’s not really British?

What if he sees himself as British. Is he then culturally appropriating Asian food?

Because that’s the argument being used about the food too. That dish was cooked in a kitchen in Birmingham. It has Asian heritage too. But is it not the British food?