Truth and Beauty Bombs

k want to learn from examples of people that have made interesting books that
are made mostly of dialogue/discussion
Banks is very good at this in his more talky sci fi but I was hoping to
pick up some more tricks from other authors

basically want things where
discussion is actually two sided(so no platonic dialogue sort of shit) or
discussion is relevant/related to/a natural progression from the plot or
discussion is presented in a way that remains interesting even after you have read it once

[02:54] <Drew> when I meant two sided I meant re:
[02:54] <Drew> the author not portraying either cahracter as
[02:55] <Drew> being obviosuly right or
[02:55] <Drew> the protagonist

Kiss of the spider woman might meet these criteria

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval_debate_poetry

I don't really remember what parlement of foules is like but iirc it was good
because chaucer is good

woah if we are going to bring up poetry might as well recommend some fricking stage plays

stage plays don't count as fiction re: they actually happen

Uh, how else would you read Kiss of the Spider Woman?

k I'll come clean

this one time a girl in my high school was reading kiss of the spider woman

and I asked her what it was about

fun facts

i studied under puig's daughter and she used to say native americans (we have those down here too) (i guess i should call them indians) anyway the point is that she said it was objectively proven they were subhuman

Any y'all ever read J R by William Gaddis? It's pretty good! David Foster Wallace taught a course on it a while back (while he was still alive [I wasn't there ]). Gaddis called it a "novel of voices" and it's told mainly through dialogue. He very rarely says outright who is saying what, but each of the characters have a pretty distinct voice, so it isn't too hard to follow. It's kind of "post-modern", but it's surprisingly easy to get into (or at least it was for me)! After a few pages you'll get into the rhythm and the whole book goes by like nothing!

Whoah welcome back

yes I suggested J R right when the thread started but immediately deleted the post for no reason
I like it

Haha, thanks! I didn't even know TaBB was still around for the longest time! I tried to follow the link from Dinosaur Comics, but that just takes you to the old forum.
HERE I AM, THOUGH
I FINALLY FOUND YOU AGAIN

ALSO: Since I mentioned David Foster Wallace, I might as well also mention the Brief Interviews With Hideous Men cycle, even though it's not really dialogue since all you see is the interviewees responses. It's really good anyways!

Dorothy Parker and Jane Austen both do this a lot. Also, it's not really what you mean at all, but Virginia Woolf's The Waves is written almost entirely as a series of lengthy soliloquies.

The Screwtape Letters by CS Lewis is written in this style. It is very heavy handed and annoying, though.