Dr Emerald Gibb
In which some tablets are thought to be harmful
Socrates is wondering in the Quad, with a companion, Extremelydullfilosofer, when he comes upon his old friend, Editorovfilosophytoday, lying huddled in a heap, with a pile of broken stone tablets around him.
SOCRATES: Editorovfilosophytoday! What has happened to your famous 'Nuseletter' tablets!
EDITOROVFILOSOPHYTODAY: (dejectedly) Oh Socrates, it seems you were right after all. Written records are greatly inferior to spoken ones, it seems. By trying to record things, we destroy the mental effort required for the process itself!
EXTREMELYDULLFILOSOFER: But what about all the future Nuseletter inscriptions! Society requires a permanent record of these important discussions and plans.
SOCRATES: But, come, come, my friends, why the dejection at this discovery - cannot we philosophers now return to a more open-ended dialogue, one in which all the members of society are free to create their meanings, and the points that they need to know are inscribed - not in Editorovfilosophytoday's tablets, but in their hearts and minds instead?
EXTREMELYDULLFILOSOFER: No, don't talk absolute rot.
(Start's picking up bits of broken stone tablet.)
Come, Editorovfilosophytoday, start sticking these tablets together again. There'll be another forum along in a minute, and people will want to know what it's on.
EDITOROVFILOSOPHYTODAY: But it will take ages to stick all these tablets together again, and I'm not even sure if it is possible to repair stone with just flour and water paste! You'll have to help me!
EXTREMELYDULLFILOSOFER:
(Drops the bits he has collected in a heap on the ground by Editorovfilosophytoday.)
Nonsense. Of course it's possible. And I most certainly can't stop here indefinitely to help - I have an important paper to give at an orgy in a few months. Come, Socrates, let us leave at once.
SOCRATES: But...