Or do you? I'm always alarmed by that phrase. It's usually tossed out to indicate assumed common knowledge, such as that shared between Married Men, or between the Roguish Streetwise Snitch and the Determined Law Enforcement Officer. No one's ever said that to me and meant it, though. I'm assuming this is because I don't seem like the sort of person who would have any knowledge in common with anyone else. If anyone ever said that to me, my most likely response would be, "No, actually, I don't. What do you mean?" I think that in the real world, You know how it is is actually verbal shorthand that means Let's build the hollow shell of an empathetic moment without actually communicating in any meaningful way. It's content-free dialogue! Sleight of mouth. A dodge.
I was intending to write a bit more about how good dialogue is never content-free even if it consists of nothing but a series of You know how it is-like phrases because that in itself, when deployed with skill, serves as an illustration of character, but it's late and I'm tired and the bed is making seductive noises even though there's no one in it. So I'm not going to do that just now.
I was intending to write a bit more about how good dialogue is never content-free even if it consists of nothing but a series of You know how it is-like phrases because that in itself, when deployed with skill, serves as an illustration of character, but it's late and I'm tired and the bed is making seductive noises even though there's no one in it. So I'm not going to do that just now.
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