Discussion: "Conversation - pure logos or mere yap?"
Details
What is conversation for, and what makes it good or bad? Is it our main tool for creating meaning? Or is it just social performance?
In this session of Marginal Thoughts, we go full meta by talking about talking. Before indulging in this mild crisis of purpose, we'll read these three short pieces:
- An essay by Ursula K. Le Guin: "Telling Is Listening" (~50 min read)
- A poem by Billy Collins: "Table Talk" (~2 min)
- A short story by Franz Kafka: "An Imperial Message" (~2 min)
In these, Le Guin compares conversation to amoeba intimacy, Collins survives a dinner TED talk, and Kafka obsesses over the second checkmark.
How to prepare
Please read all the materials in advance. As you do, try to identify at least one point of curiosity, confusion, or uncertainty - these will be natural starting points for our discussion.
What to expect
This is an in-person, conversational meetup in English. The goal isn't to debate, lecture, or "confess" - it’s to explore ideas and leave with better questions than we arrived with.
Optional stuff for the extra curious
Le Guin's essay is from the collection "The Wave in The Mind". And this time the honorable mention goes to Simon & Garfunkel's "The Dangling Conversation".