a dialogue

Second Paper

Self & Society II - Geoff Childers

Due Friday February 22nd, by midnight via email

Your task this time around is to write a dialogue involving 3-4 characters.

· Woolf, Sor Juana, Socrates, Thoreau, Malcolm X, King: pick 1-2

· One character or author from Fall Core (Sartre, Jesus, Shamhat, Freud, Laozi, et. al.).

· One additional character of your choice: could be a world leader, fictional character, another Core character, a celebrity, you… If there’s anything I might not know about this character that’s relevant to your dialogue, please mention it in a footnote.[footnoteRef:1] [1: Footnotes look like this. Please do not use endnotes; they are an abomination against all that is delightful and happy in the world. If you don’t know how to make footnotes in your chosen word processing program, Google it. ]

Get creative and come up with a scenario in which these characters have a conversation about themes relevant to their interests or writings. Here are a few sample ideas:

· Virginia Woolf is at the British Library researching women in literature and finds an enchanted copy of “La Respuesta,” though which Sor Juana is able to speak directly to her. Sigmund Freud recognizes Woolf, who appears to be having a conversation with a book, and psychoanalyzes her.

· Sor Juana has invited Socrates, King, and Shamhat to her monastery for a conversation about the role of religion in shaping the morals of society. The nun has one too many glasses of wine and sends Socrates and King on an errand to find another bottle so she can flirt with Shamhat alone.

· You think you could have convinced Socrates to escape his execution, so you set your time machine for 399 BCE to add your wisdom to his conversation with Crito, but first you need to pick up Nietzsche, whose insights on transcending slave and master morality could prove influential.

Format: 5-7 pages single-spaced with an empty line whenever the speaker changes. Make sure to include a cover sheet with your name and original title.

For each character, your challenge is to capture their diction and characteristic ideas accurately. Reread the texts with a close eye to how they speak. Quote or paraphrase their ideas and include at least two footnotes per Core character citing a page number and briefly explaining the relevance and context of the passage.

Use italicized text for scene-setting and stage direction. Create a detailed scene for the characters to interact. You can have characters come and leave, or even set a series of conversations that happen on different days, which develop a story and are tied to a theme.

Dashes are incredibly useful for portraying dialogue, and this is the paper where you are going to master using the dash. Please use at least 3 well-placed dashes in your dialogue—and make sure you’re not using hyphens when you ought to be using a majestic em-dash.

The best dialogue will get performed in class!

*Thanks to Caren Camblin for the idea for this prompt.

Here is a sample of dialogue that illustrates the format I’m looking for:

(Henry David Thoreau sits in a 2-man-cell, alone, lost in contemplation. A guard escorts another man down the hall, unlocks the cell Thoreau is in, and puts the new prisoner into the cell.)

Sartre (to the guard): Hang on, sir. Wait until they’re all in.

Guard (looking at Sartre like he’s mad): …

Sartre: Okay, go ahead and close the door.

(The guard closes the door and leaves)

Thoreau: What was that about?

Sartre: Nothing important.

Thoreau: Most men spend the vast majority of their time concerning themselves with nothing important. What were you arrested for?

Sartre: (looks toward the floor, then back to Thoreau, then back to the floor, then lets out a deep sigh) Possession of mescaline. It seems the state is never content to let a man exercise his free will.

Thoreau: Wait, is that what that was about, when you came in?

Sartre: I know you can’t see them. They’re there when I go to sleep, there when I lecture at the University, and apparently there when I’m in jail.

Thoreau: Who is ‘they’?

Sartre: The crabs.[footnoteRef:2] [2: Jean Paul Sartre had a long-lasting hallucination of crabs following him around after he used mescaline (Siegel). ]

Malcolm X (from the next cell): Look Daddy-O, I don’t care if you see the Virgin Mary on a pogo stick. I need some goddam peace and quiet. I’m trying to mentally communicate with my homeboy in the next cell block.[footnoteRef:3] [3: In his book The Other Malcolm, Malcolm “Shorty” Jarvis describes how he and Malcolm practiced telepathic communication while they were in the Charleston Prison (74-105). ]

Thoreau (to Sartre): You’re really seeing crabs in this jail cell right now?

Sartre: I don’t want to talk about it, it’s—

Malcolm X: I DON’T WANT YOU TO TALK ABOUT IT EITHER! I’m trying to concentrate. Crazy-ass crackers…

Sartre: Does it really matter if you can hear anything? You’re just going to decide what it means for yourself anyway.[footnoteRef:4] [4: Sartre believed that omens are always ambiguous and that we decide their significance (Marino 348). Here he applies similar logic to telepathic communication.]