From: James Griffin
Date: 10/10/00
Time: 11:30:03 PM
Remote Name: 203.2.218.1
No, I don't think it's part of my persona - well, maybe it is if we seperate the concept of persona into private, intimate and public.
My private sense of self does not include stuttering. I make no allowances or compensations in my dreams and desires for the fact that I might stutter. I don't see it as a limitation. I would, by contrast, regard as more genuine limitations what I see as my lack of ability to consciously inject heightened expression and emotion into my voice - or my inability / reluctance to change the sound of my voice as one would when character acting or speaking a foriegn language.
By intimate persona I mean who one is when one is with intimate freinds and family - and here, stuttering is part of my persona. I do it sometimes when I'm relaxed and tired (but interestingly, not, I don't think, after consuming alchohol. It is also a topic of conversation in these contexts, because it is part of the narrative of my life.
Stuttering is not part of my public persona, because I just don't do it in public. I have speech mannnerisms that include hesitations and occasional stumbles, but I don't think most listeners would recognise what I do as stuttering.
So, all in all it seems to be something I acknowledge and try to accomodate. I would never for example, make a performance out of stuttering itself - unless I was recounting a funny anecdote - such as the milkshake story in my essay on stuttering - or unless I was talking specifically about my own experiences learning how to use the spoken word.
Cheers,
james