“That’s when you know you’ve found somebody special. When you can just shut the (expletive) up for a minute and comfortably enjoy the silence.” — Mia Wallace, “Pulp Fiction.”

Though I’ve seen this classic Quentin Tarantino movie countless times, the above quote remains one of my favorites.

To me, and many others, I’m sure this quote also holds a lot of truth. All day, every day, we are constantly surrounded by noise, whether it’s traffic, music, construction or people gossiping around you in lecture hall. It seems as though moments of genuine silence can be hard to come by in the daily grind we call life.

However, sometimes the constant noise is within our control.

In the context of the movie, the silence comes when the characters played by Uma Thurman and John Travolta run out of things to say during a dinner conversation. Although it’s somewhat ironic that the silence is broken by this quote, the character continues by saying that she doesn’t understand why people feel the need to fill the day with meaningless conversation.

While I certainly don’t oppose the idea of small talk in general, I do agree with the idea that sometimes it’s better to just enjoy the company of the person you are with rather than just filling the air with meaningless conversation.

But this begs the question: What is meaningless conversation?

This question brings to mind another famous quote by Eleanor Roosevelt (although the original source of the quote is disputed, it has been attributed to her):

“Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.”

While I don’t necessarily buy this quote unconditionally, I do think it has a very valid point.

Why do great minds discuss ideas? Probably because ideas can propel society forward and improve the world.

Why do average minds discuss events? This one is a little harder to figure out, but my guess would be because doing so is neither beneficial nor detrimental to society.

Why do small minds discuss people? Probably because discussing people accomplishes very little, which brings me back to my point about meaningless conversation.

In my opinion, conversation is meaningless when all it accomplishes is talking about people — probably behind their back and in a questionable manner — without any purpose whatsoever. Although talking about people is very likely the most common form of meaningless conversation, I think that meaningless conversation can take many forms. Although “great minds talk about ideas”, that doesn’t necessarily mean that all ideas need talking about about. We have all had that one person in class who loves the sound of their own voice and always has to chime in with their opinion about some abstract idea. Does the fact that they are talking about an idea rather than a person make the conversation any more meaningful? If they are talking just because they feel a need to be heard, I would argue that it doesn’t.

Maybe what it comes down to is that if conversation accomplishes nothing and can go without being said, then it’s meaningless, and we should instead just enjoy the silence. Perhaps I am proving my very point with this rant. Am I really accomplishing anything by talking about meaningless conversation, or is my promotion of silence meaningless conversation in itself?

At the end of the day, maybe all we should do is think more before we talk and really decide whether what we are saying is accomplishing anything. If something can go without being said, sometimes it might be better to just enjoy the peace and quiet we all have so very little of as it is.

Larry Philbin the the News Editor of The Dakota Student. He can be reached at [email protected].