Speaking silently

Last night, out of nowhere, the blog paid off (again) in the way I have always, secretly hoped it would. What happened? another friend who had slipped out of touch found me, updated himself on what I am up to, and got in touch. And in doing that he triggered a train of thought, as I tried desperately to remember where I had quoted him in the thesis, and the name of the incarnation I quoted.

It was Olaru, who had played at Azhad, but before that had been the Prince to my Prince's Hand, the fair front to my sinister shadow, a companion through heavy online role-play for about a year. And so he had offered me some of the more interesting examples in the thesis, although I never interviewed him. He was not in the original Dragon Realms sample.

But he illustrated the act of speaking silently, which I in the thesis introduce as an inverse to Barthes' writing aloud. Where writing aloud depends on the body, speaking silently depends on the text, and Olaru did that eloquently. And for those who are curious, the passage starts at page 39 of my thesis (warning, big pdf), and Olaru appears at page 40.