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Philosophical Fan Fiction: Writing Discourse for the 21st Century
One of my favorite exercises in college was reading and writing philosophical discourse. For those unfamiliar with the form, philosophical discourses are writings in which two or more individuals or characters are conversing with each other. Usually, this philosophical discourse includes the theoretical perspective of each thinker or philosopher depicted through a debate around a topic or question. For example, the philosopher Plato utilized discourses between the figure Socrates and other characters to explicate various concepts and ideas. Most recently, I was quite taken by the fictional discourse between W.E.B. Dubois and Emile Durkheim that was penned in the book Racecraft: The Soul of Inequality in American Life by Barbara Fields and Karen Fields.
And, while this history may make this style of writing seem serious, my own writing in philosophical discourse always reads more like a piece of fan fiction than anything else. Because, like fan fiction, a discourse works best when the thinkers are written in a casual setting or narrative where conversation or sharing ideas…
