Ritual

Revisiting this:

Lance contrasted the interaction between audience and teller at Carapace with that at Write Club. He called Write Club “the equivalent of going to a professional wrestling show.” The Write Club audience is

loud

they're obnoxious

the audience is cheering

and booing and

talking shit to whoever is

up there doing it.

But Lance said the organizers encourage it.

That's what they want

that's the environment

that they want.

The audience behaves this way because it is the way to behave in this space, at this event.

There are a number of people who go to both events (Carapace and Write Club) and they are able to shift how they play their role of audience member.

You’d see

a lot of these people at Write Club that are ahhh just totally-

They’d come to Carapace and they’d be

back to what we wanted

back to being the supportive

and the caring.

So it isn’t just about attracting the right sort of person to an event. The same person can behave in different ways for different events.

Finally, Lance asserted that the Write Club audience is actually supportive as well.

The Write Club audience is brutal.

They’re brutal in a loving way.

They are very supportive.

Perhaps this type of behavior from the audience would be too much for someone afraid of public speaking trying to tell a difficult personal story. But it sounds as if the speakers at Write Club can experience this reaction from the audience and understand that they do have their support. (August 18 memos)

It isn’t necessarily that “the right” people come to Carapace. It’s that there is a ritual and teller and audience play their parts in a way that creates the desired environment. But at another event, they play those roles differently. The audience is supportive according to ritual.