“We have no language to express that it was both / ravishing, ravishing / destructive, and most of all, most of all / absolutely necessary.” – Jenny Hval, “The Secret Touch”
“Communication, a telephonic invasion / I’m planning my escape” – Gwen Stefani/No Doubt, “Spiderwebs”
This is my column in the S&B. I am Kelly Page, third year. This column is about communication. I have written for The S&B a lot but have never been interviewed for The S&B, so what I’m about to attempt is to interview myself about this column.
So why are you writing a column about communication?
Lately, I’ve become really conscious of how so much of our reality hinges on how we express ourselves to one another. Within the sociology major, we talk about that as the social reality that governs our perceptions. We think so many things because someone told us something once. We have so much conflict in our lives because people say things that we don’t like.
Realities I’ve absorbed through communication: My political views began to form because of things I read on Tumblr when I was 14. I began to think of myself as genderqueer when I learned more about queerness at Grinnell. I have a sense of hope because of what musicians communicate to me in songs. I have a sense of my place in the world because of the conversations I have with friends and family. A lot of what grounds me in my identity as Kelly Page is my internal monologue, a conversation I have with myself, my deep story. I have words with meanings that I have attached to my name: student, dog walker, leftist, writer.
Where would I be without what other people have communicated to me, from the fundamental level of language acquisition to the more nuanced ideological reality from which I perceive everything around me? All I know for sure is that without communication I’d be somewhere completely different. Without communication, I’d be an alien from a sci-fi novel. Everyone would think, “How could that ever be real?”
I also love art and music and television and writing and thinking about all of those things. I will do some unpacking of the mass media here as well.
What topics do you want to cover in this column?
I want to explore how we talk to one another at Grinnell. I want to explore how the Enneagram and astrology have become ways we understand each other. I want to write about consent as an overarching way of looking at our interactions with others. I will write about the 2020 election and how communication can break down between us when politics is involved. I will try my best to write about neurodiversity. I will write about pop culture – fashion magazines, punk music, protest music, and art museums – always trying to answer the question: how do we try to help other people understand us? What are the limits to self-expression within the languages we have been handed?
How will you go about writing about all of those topics?
By talking to my friends and reading stuff on the internet.
Why do you think someone would read this column?
You tell me. [pagekell].
Are you afraid of what it means to overshare in the S&B?
It’s only oversharing if people actually read this.
Anything else you’d like to add?
Application for Brockhampton:
Hey boys. I’m trying to figure out if it’s valid to be kinda bored by the new music. I can spice your group up a bit. I would like to be the first non-male member of Brockhampton. Sorry, I guess, that you were making music with a sexual predator and you all “lost a part of me” (you said that in “No Halo”).
But I could be your canary in the coal mine for future endeavors (a benefit of adding a woman-aligned person to the gang is that my general desire to not be a victim of violence makes me very perceptive).
I wanna join Brockhampton. I can do female stuff for you, like cooking, cleaning and never getting a verse. Also, I think it’s fucking hilarious that you are literally getting group therapy from Shia Labeouf. I wanna come. Can I take the open slot?
