do you have an inner monologue?
- Thread starter shiels
- Start date
Kind of.
It's like reading in your head vs. reading aloud in your head vs. reading aloud. Sometimes I'm just on autopilot and get images and abstractions and whatnot, sometimes I'm aware of monologuing but not actively doing it and sometimes I'm deliberately running through something internally.
It's always my voice, but I can choose how much influence I have over it and the degree to which it makes itself felt. I suppose it's like a much more manageable version of something like lucid dreaming. Once you recognise it, you can work with it.
Burroughs' thing about trying to halt sub-vocal speech is certainly real, mind you. I can do it for a bit, but The Word quickly returns.
It's like reading in your head vs. reading aloud in your head vs. reading aloud. Sometimes I'm just on autopilot and get images and abstractions and whatnot, sometimes I'm aware of monologuing but not actively doing it and sometimes I'm deliberately running through something internally.
It's always my voice, but I can choose how much influence I have over it and the degree to which it makes itself felt. I suppose it's like a much more manageable version of something like lucid dreaming. Once you recognise it, you can work with it.
Burroughs' thing about trying to halt sub-vocal speech is certainly real, mind you. I can do it for a bit, but The Word quickly returns.
The Beckett stuff feels really authentic to me. The clipped sentences and internal back and forth as you turn things over. The 'Penelope' episode of Ulysses too. That constant flicking between things, non-sequiturs, memories popping up, and all at a much quicker pace than if you were speaking aloud to someone else.
shiels
_
Molloy, you feel like that style reflects your internal narrator?
Yeah, to a degree. It's sometimes difficult to tell whether I've thought the image first and then the word or the word and then the image or whether both came together. I might picture the tomatoes in the fridge and think I'll have tomatoes, or I might think 'tomatoes' then think of them in the fridge.
It's the working out of things on the fly and at pace that really rings true for me with Beckett. The "I'll do this. That would be good. But what if x happens? That could happen. Might still be an idea though. What's that song that came up earlier? Foot hurts. Anyway, tomatoes in the fridge. Chop an onion up too," thing.
There's a fuzzy area where I might look at something, know what it is and the word for it, but not feel as though I've actually said the word as part of my internal monologue, although clearly the word's surfaced somewhere as on some level I've paired it with whatever I'm looking at.
It varies. Sometimes it's breakneck speed, sometimes it's leisurely. Sometimes I just do things without engaging with it. It's much more prominent if I'm anxious or fired up. If I'm just sat around, like now, I slip in and out of going blank, just concentrating on what I'm doing without any commentary.
Nah, usually if it's something as intense and immediate as that then there isn't the distance for the monologue to take over. It's much harder for it to make itself felt when I'm around other people or doing things which require concentration. It's most prominent when I'm alone and can drift off a bit.
It's difficult to put into words tbh. It's not easy to pin down as it shifts all the time. I'm thinking and reading the words I'm typing right now in my head, but also able to see books either side of me, headphones, a computer screen, a keyboard etc. and recognise that's what those things are called. It's a bunch of processes going on at once and at different levels of consciousness.
WashYourHands
Cat Malogen
Sort of, it weaves in and out of attention which weaves in and out of abstraction which weaves in and out of yoghurt
An inner monologue but different depths of wisdom, one monologue might say kneecap Gus, another might say better he live in eternal shame. There are filters on most, not all mind
If you have kids you’re constantly planning ahead, you have to screen/parse tasks/schedules constantly. Most of my floating focus is with them even indirectly
Where my next thought comes from? Love to meet that bloke, talk to him about swearing too much
An inner monologue but different depths of wisdom, one monologue might say kneecap Gus, another might say better he live in eternal shame. There are filters on most, not all mind
If you have kids you’re constantly planning ahead, you have to screen/parse tasks/schedules constantly. Most of my floating focus is with them even indirectly
Where my next thought comes from? Love to meet that bloke, talk to him about swearing too much
If I narrated everything all the time, it would drive me insane. I've experienced it for a prolonged period during a bout of anxiety and it felt like my head was going to explode. Thankfully, that isn't the norm. It's much more fluid and fragmented than that.
WashYourHands
Cat Malogen
ego states
shiels
_
Go on…
I think the internal monologue makes itself felt in the absence of other input. It's your mind occupying itself. That's why it comes and goes based on whether or not you're really doing anything. It pops up when you haven't much to think about and can just sit and talk to yourself and consciously process and chew over things.
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
I am forever composing written articles that will never be published. If I'm not aware that anyone is in earshot, I literally recite them without even knowing I'm doing it. On many occasions I've been overheard, have realised I've been overheard, and freaked out over it a little.