In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

• The World as I Found It:Possibilities and Peculiarities about Speech and Conversation
• David Wemyss

In November 2002, a series of tutorials was advertised within the University of Cambridge. Neville Critchley—a lecturer in philosophy with a reputation for preferring literature—placed advertisements on college notice boards saying he wanted to hear from students not just philosophically or intellectually intrigued by language but literally made unwell by it. Four young people replied, one of whom subsequently provided me with an account of what passed in Room C28 at Emmanuel College. Almost thirteen years afterwards, the account was published under the title "The Weighing of Our Words."¹

Richard Salisbury, who had prepared the account, died in September 2016. His later piece, "A Report on Experience,"² was published in October 2018—and that was believed to be the last literary production connected with the 2002 tutorials. However, it transpires that Richard's wife, Carole, who had organized the publication of "A Report on Experience," was also in possession of an intriguing recording from June 2016—just months before Richard's death. Carole discovered an audio recording, on a set of old-fashioned, reel-to-reel tapes, of a meeting in the Bedford Hotel in Bloomsbury, London, between her husband and Neville Critchley—fourteen years after they had last met. The conversation was [End Page 210] clearly intended to be transcribed and published, and I remain grateful to Carole for her help and friendship in arranging this.

I

Neville Critchley and Richard Salisbury

Bedford Hotel, Southampton Row, London

June 2016

Neville Critchley:

Sitting here in Bloomsbury, I'm remembering the story about T. S. Eliot hiding in the lavatory at Faber and Faber to avoid small talk with colleagues as they left the office together in the evenings.

Richard Salisbury:

I think quite a lot of people do things like that. But I'm a good bit worse.

NC:

You have some remarkable illustrations of how much worse.

RS:

Before moving to Edinburgh (where I met David Wemyss, of course) I had a brief but enjoyable stay in Oxford, doing legal work for the city council there. One day, it was announced that my entire team, from senior executives down to administrative assistants, and one or two hangers-on, had been invited to Westminster for an "exchange of ideas" with civil servants there who were interested in a project I'd set up—to do with parking charges, of all things! Anyway, the plan was to go through to London by luxury coach as a day trip, but I could only think of the fragmented conversation on the journey—especially the conducting of conversations looking over my shoulder or half-standing up, or perhaps getting stuck for too long with one of my less-congenial colleagues. Carole found the answer: if I took the day before the visit as a holiday, and the day after too, I could be in London for the professional appointment but avoid the bus completely. I needed a reason, of course, but London being London I knew I'd easily find a concert that would sound like a convincing explanation for wanting to combine personal and professional objectives. Bruckner 8 did the trick. I needed a couple of nights in a hotel—here at the Bedford actually!—but it was well worth it. I'm never reluctant to have a day or two in Bloomsbury, having stayed here for six months, but the real motivation was the desperation to avoid my colleagues outside the carefully premeditated conversational tramlines I usually had in place. [End Page 211]

NC:

And that's just one of the many—quite different—ways in which you would characterize why you, like Eliot, would hide in a lavatory to avoid talking to people! But to an everyday, well-adjusted person, that would sound monstrous. Claustrophobically intropunitive—or narcissistic. There's even a case for suppressing the transcript of this interview, or destroying it altogether—but I don't think you'd like that! You assume completely that I'll bring it into existence. It'll be a middlebrow literary accomplishment—a literary coup that marshals the chaos of your experience...

中文翻译：

---

我发现的世界：关于言语和对话的可能性和特点

代替摘要，这里是内容的简短摘录：

• 我发现的世界：关于言语和对话的可能性和特点
• 大卫威密斯

2002年 11 月，剑桥大学内发布了一系列教程。内维尔·克里奇利 (Neville Critchley) 是一位以偏爱文学而闻名的哲学讲师，他在大学布告栏上刊登广告说，他希望听到学生们的意见，不仅是在哲学上或智力上对语言感兴趣，而且确实对语言感到不适。四个年轻人回复了，其中一个随后向我提供了在伊曼纽尔学院 C28 房间发生的事情的描述。将近 13 年后，这篇文章以“权衡我们的话语”为题发表。^1个

准备该帐户的理查德·索尔兹伯里于 2016 年 9 月去世。他后来的作品《经验报告》²于 2018 年 10 月出版——人们认为这是与 2002 年教程相关的最后一部文学作品。然而，据透露，理查德的妻子卡罗尔组织了“经验报告”的出版，她还拥有一段 2016 年 6 月的有趣录音——就在理查德去世前几个月。卡罗尔在一套老式的卷盘式磁带上发现了一段录音，记录了她丈夫和内维尔克里奇利在伦敦布卢姆斯伯里的贝德福德酒店的一次会面——距离他们最后一次见面已经过去了 14 年。谈话是[结束第210页]显然打算将其转录和出版，我仍然感谢卡罗尔在安排这件事上的帮助和友谊。

我

内维尔克里奇利和理查德索尔兹伯里

伦敦南安普敦街贝德福德酒店

2016 年 6 月

内维尔·克里奇利：

坐在布卢姆斯伯里，我想起了 TS Eliot 躲在 Faber 和 Faber 厕所的故事，以避免在晚上一起离开办公室时与同事闲聊。

理查德索尔兹伯里：

我想很多人都会做这样的事情。但我还差一点。

数控：

你有一些非常糟糕的例子。

回复：

在搬到爱丁堡之前（当然是在那里我遇到了 David Wemyss），我在牛津度过了一段短暂而愉快的时光，为那里的市议会做法律工作。有一天，有消息称，我的整个团队，从高级管理人员到行政助理，以及一两个随从，都被邀请到威斯敏斯特与对我的项目感兴趣的公务员“交换意见”成立——与停车费有关！反正计划是坐豪华大巴去伦敦一日游，但我只能想到旅途中零散的谈话——尤其是回头看或半站着谈话，或者卡住的谈话和我的一个不太和蔼可亲的同事在一起太久了。卡罗尔找到了答案：如果我把拜访前一天当作假期，第二天，我也可以去伦敦参加专业预约，但完全避开公共汽车。当然，我需要一个理由，但伦敦就是伦敦，我知道我很容易找到一场音乐会，这听起来像是对想要结合个人和职业目标的令人信服的解释。布鲁克纳 8 成功了。我需要在酒店住几晚——实际上是在贝德福德！——但这是非常值得的。我在这里待了六个月，从不不愿意在布卢姆斯伯里呆一两天，但真正的动机是不顾一切地避开我的同事，让他们远离我通常有的精心设计的谈话路线。d 很容易找到一场音乐会，这听起来像是对想要结合个人和职业目标的令人信服的解释。布鲁克纳 8 成功了。我需要在酒店住几晚——实际上是在贝德福德！——但这是非常值得的。我在这里待了六个月，从不不愿意在布卢姆斯伯里呆一两天，但真正的动机是不顾一切地避开我的同事，让他们远离我通常有的精心设计的谈话路线。d 很容易找到一场音乐会，这听起来像是对想要结合个人和职业目标的令人信服的解释。布鲁克纳 8 成功了。我需要在酒店住几晚——实际上是在贝德福德！——但这是非常值得的。我在这里待了六个月，从不不愿意在布卢姆斯伯里呆一两天，但真正的动机是不顾一切地避开我的同事，让他们远离我通常有的精心设计的谈话路线。【第211页完】

数控：

这只是您描述为什么像艾略特那样躲在厕所里避免与人交谈的众多——完全不同的——方式之一！但对于一个平常的、适应良好的人来说，这听起来很可怕。幽闭恐惧症内向或自恋。甚至有理由压制这次采访的笔录，或者完全销毁它——但我认为你不会喜欢那样！你完全假设我会让它存在。这将是一个中庸的文学成就——一个整理你经历的混乱的文学妙招……