From Shakespeare: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd (2005):
The apparent ordinariness of extraordinary men and women is one of the last great taboos of biographical writing. It would not do to admit that nineteen-twentieths of a life, however great or enchanted, is plain and unexciting and not to be distinguished from the life of anyone else. But there should be a further admission. The behaviour and conversation of even the most powerful writer, or statesman, or philosopher, will in large part be no more than average or predictable. There is not much to differentiate the mass of humankind, except for some individual action or production.
Alex Good 
Not sure about that one,true for most I suppose but I bet I could think of some exceptions to that if I put my mind to it.
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It’s something interesting to think about though.
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It is, who would be notable exceptions do you think? I’m defo going for Henry VIII!
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Samuel Johnson’s conversation, at least as we have it from Boswell and others, seems to have been consistently very high rate. I can believe he’d be the kind of guy who almost everything he said was interesting.
Wouldn’t talking to Henry VIII be like listening to a loudmouth most of the time? I know he’s the kind of guy I wouldn’t want to be around, and he seems to have been a more regular “type” (the bully) than someone personally exceptional.
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I wouldn’t want to talk to him, but I think his convos with his retinue would be fun to listen to. He seemed interesting in The Tudors :D.
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I think, as a great man, my conversations with fraggle, Booky and to some extent, with yourself, are very much part of my legacy of excellence. Fact!
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Of course, the WP4 conversations are in the top drawer!
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I’m sure they’re being archived by the proper authorities so that they can be preserved for posterity. Along with pictures of actors’ heads appearing on other actors’ bodies.
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When we die they may pickle us in aspic and preserve us in see through plexiglass tubes for people to wonder at.
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