I want to thank one of my readers, Emily Hess, for her critique of a recent Socratic dialogue I wrote, describing it as “a little soulless.” I love writing both short stories and Socratic dialogues, but I suspect—though I’m not entirely sure—that she meant the interlocutors lacked personality.
I really, really enjoyed this. It almost feels like a radio play, especially towards the beginning. You did a fantastic job setting the scene; I could almost hear the background noise as they started talking.
The one thing I'm not sure about were some of the interruptions in italics. I get what you were trying to do, but other than the ones that described the character's body language/reactions to the dialogue, I almost feel like they were more distracting than immersive.
The content was really good, and I like these characters though. I hope you write more of these. :)
I really appreciate the feedback. Yeah, I know what you mean. Maybe I have to decide if this will be a socratic dialogue or a short story. Pick a genre. Not sure.
Brother, I think when you’ve written quite a bunch of these, you should publish a book which is a collection of short stories that each have a Socratic diploid, to cover the range of topics you cover. That would make a beautiful book. If you write it, you can update your other ones to have story and soul attached to them too.
We can’t have certainty, but we can know something. Isn’t this the common sense argument of G.E. Moore? I just finished Peter Kreeft’s series Socrates’ Children. Moore was one of the analytic philosophers that said that knowledge was possible even if certainty wasn’t.
I wonder if Renny’s argument has more purchase now because everything is virtual. Even so, it’s an experience (good way of putting it). I’ll have to keep that in mind.
Much more soulful. :P
I really, really enjoyed this. It almost feels like a radio play, especially towards the beginning. You did a fantastic job setting the scene; I could almost hear the background noise as they started talking.
The one thing I'm not sure about were some of the interruptions in italics. I get what you were trying to do, but other than the ones that described the character's body language/reactions to the dialogue, I almost feel like they were more distracting than immersive.
The content was really good, and I like these characters though. I hope you write more of these. :)
I really appreciate the feedback. Yeah, I know what you mean. Maybe I have to decide if this will be a socratic dialogue or a short story. Pick a genre. Not sure.
Brother, I think when you’ve written quite a bunch of these, you should publish a book which is a collection of short stories that each have a Socratic diploid, to cover the range of topics you cover. That would make a beautiful book. If you write it, you can update your other ones to have story and soul attached to them too.
dialogue* not diploid lol
We can’t have certainty, but we can know something. Isn’t this the common sense argument of G.E. Moore? I just finished Peter Kreeft’s series Socrates’ Children. Moore was one of the analytic philosophers that said that knowledge was possible even if certainty wasn’t.
I wonder if Renny’s argument has more purchase now because everything is virtual. Even so, it’s an experience (good way of putting it). I’ll have to keep that in mind.
Good job Matt. You got the suspense going there... I'm waiting for the next episode for these two dudes to continue their conversation.