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I was listening to the latest Writing Excuses podcast about dialog, and a question came up about the issue of two characters having an extended conversation that was essentially a back-and-forth logical argument. And it made me go off on a tangent...
...which is that "and now, a Platonic Dialogue was Very Much A Thing for a certain brand of Science Fiction that was very popular among some Elder Giants in the field.
It was very common, at least as I remember it, for the stories of certain Writers of Reknown to have a chapter that... stopped. And during that chapter, the protagonist and one or two side characters would Argue About Life, and Also What Is Generally Proper.
And when I put it that way it sounds like I'm dinging it, and maybe I am a little on principle, but I usually genuinely enjoyed reading those chapters, because I took at as a chance to look at the writer's brain, warts and all, and see how it wove the story universe.
And I think a number of us who read those Writers of Reknown had that imprinted on our brains, at least a little bit, so when we write we find ourselves recreating the And Now, a Dialectic portion of the Olde Spayce Storeys.
I certainly do a bit of that in Curveball, though I try to focus on the character dialectics instead of my own. I think in some parts of the genre (certainly not all of it) it's expected. Slightly more respectable than the Wilhem Scream in movies, but just as obligatory.
Anyway, I like when that podcast gets me thinking but it's kind of unsatisfying to shout at steaming audio, hence this thread. :D
