And another thing...
And another thing ...
Vi skvallrar f�r att skapa oss en kollectiv uppfattning om v�rlden om m�nniskorna, om vad som �r r�tt och fel, normalt och onormalt, f�r att h�vda oss, for att h�mnas, f�r att visa att vi litar p� varandra och f�r att ha roligt!
Or, to put it another way,
We gossip to create a consensus on the world and on people, about what's right and wrong, normal and abnormal; to assert ourselves, to take revenge; to show that we rely on each other and because it's fun.
[ from Paula Stenstr�m's review of Kerstin Nordenstam's book Skvaller (Gossip).]
Gossip, then, like linkage, is (amongst other things) the currency in the market of social consensus.
Which is to say that there are important theoretical reasons why I spend so much of my time wittering on about Princess Madeleine; she embodies a dialectic about the competing claims of responsibility and hedonism in contemporary Swedish youth.
And besides, it's fun.