The Languages of "The Office"

Venkat Rao has followed up his analysis of office dynamics as reflected in The Office, which we discussed last month, with one titled Posturetalk, Powertalk, Babytalk and Gametalk. The Office is running a little thin of meaty examples to make his points in delineating the ways of PowerTalk — the language of the Sociopaths — so Rao reaches out to Goodfellas, Wall Street, The Boiler Room, and Making Jack Falcone. The entire analysis illuminates and is illuminated by a diagram of the disparate languages that Sociopaths, the Clueless, and Losers speak to each other and among themselves.

Comments

Re:Let me get this straight

[dave562]

Yes, you have it right. I made it about half way through the article before my eyes glazed over. I wonder what category the author puts himself in.

Tell the Guild

[Philip K Dickhead]

This article is about the sociological maladjustment of screenwriters.

It has nothing to do with real dynamics, or actual language used by anybody.

Re:not sure I totally agree with what he says

[LehiNephi]

And just like he did, you entirely missed the underlying meaning. The other party in that not-so-hypothetical conversation isn't a real man, precisely because that other party is female.

Re:The Office - movie or TV show?

[nexxuz]

And it's "TPS Report"

Just an FYI

Re:Let me get this straight

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Actually, the US version fits US Business even better- and if that scares you, well, it should.