There’s a particular kind of uncharity belonging to people who talk endlessly without offering any breaks in the conversation, because they know that you’d use the first one to get away. They don’t stop to get a response, they don’t seem to inhale, and they even maintain multiple plots, so that if they happen to reach a paragraph in one, you still can’t escape from the others. Then at the end, they always apologize, thus betraying that they knew all along that you weren’t interested.
Can anyone tell me what to do with such people? They’re usually the sort you feel sorry for, and so want to humour. This pretty well rules out interrupting in the middle of sentences, even hour-long ones, looking at your watch, or just walking away. But these conventions are based on polite conversation, which the ranter has already thoroughly trampled. They’re wasting both your time and their own. And yet I just can’t make myself cut them off at fifteen minutes. What to do? Maybe I should ask Max Fox.
you should (although it’s not too tough to guess what his answer will be.)
Maybe drop a joking line, like, “Whew, don’t forget to breathe,” or, you could even interrupt, freaking out like you’re actually worried, and say “You’re turning blue!” It’s easier if this happens on the phone. My mom’s best friend is the mother of all hypochondriacs & when she goes on a rant (“talks at me,” as mom says), my mother puts down the phone & does a load of laundry, checks back, and since her friend still hasn’t noticed, mom’ll put the phone down again & clean the kitchen or something.
This actually happened to me yesterday. I just kept interrupting to tell her that a) she had the wrong person and b) the right person was over there and c) I’d introduce her to him. She didn’t seem to notice that I was being “rude”, because she was too busy talking over me. But she DID process enough of what I said to follow me when I walked away from her and toward the right person. Or maybe she would have done that no matter where I went?