6 AUGUST 2010
tell you even more. You learn to listen with every faculty you possess. I find the process of interviewing people to be fascinating. Often times the interview is an introduction to someone and as the story unfolds, it is usually in the spaces in between the questions and the answers, where the story forms. This is where you gain the real sense of a person’s character, or their intent, their integrity, the quality and the substance. We are always telling our stories. Every action we take, every thing left undone, every word we speak, every thing left unsaid…these are shaded further with tone, volume, timing and movement. People will always read the words on the page and use that as a compass direction to find the person … from there it will be the follow through that finishes the chapter. The sense of betrayal when the story told and the reality, are miles apart often make it worse than if the truth was told in the first place. Second Life is a unique space in which to write and conduct interviews because on one hand you have an avatar which is a visual representation of some aspect of a real human being – to what degree you can only guess - and on the other hand you have a world that is built on social interaction, so people must type or speak words to connect to one another. Watching a movie in real life often necessitates you both are quiet and paying attention to the movie – or the other theatre goers
might object. Watching a movie in SL requires discussion as the movie plays or the other person might assume you have gone AFK. There are different dynamics at work. The question then is … how real are we, as we share ourselves in here? As we describe ourselves, in our profiles, our chat, our interviews …. the “avatar” us .. the one we created so we must know and own our avatar selves correct? ….how honest are we? If we are not honest, then it begs the question .. why create another illusion self? Why not be just who you are and own that? Where do you fit on that scale? How well do you read people? At any rate, this month’s interviews are sojourns into some fascinating personalities . We obviously have neither the time nor the space to tell the whole story but hopefully you, the reader, will be captivated enough to want to find out more!
Bliss Windlow Editor in Chief of EOS Magazine