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Drama Scripts
Two Poets
By William87
23 September 2007
I just had this linger in my head and had to get it out on paper. I'm happy with the Idea ( at least ).

Kind of a bad subject to pick, since I could've gone so much deeper with it. But that'd be really hard.

/William

Two poets sit down. About to talk about, life. As they do every Thursday.

One of the poets, originally born in Germany is called Harold Schneider. The other poet is born and raised in London, he is called James, his last name is unknown, and he never speaks about it. They are both young, thus inexperienced about life.

 

James: So, Harold. What is the meaning of life?

 

Harold: I guess, I think, there is no meaning. Life is a cliché. Everything you’ve said, thought or done, has been said, thought or done by anyone. Except of course, rare examples.

 

James: Yes, actually, what you just said, has probably been said by someone else.

 

Harold: Yes, probably.

 

James: But I disagree. I think, the meaning of life is-

 

Harold: Stop right there.

 

James: Hm?

 

Harold: There’s the human problem. We can only think. There is no fact about the meaning of life.

 

James: But, isn’t all the human has done & achieve fact enough? Haven’t we created our own meaning?

 

Harold: I do not believe that. Then the meaning of life could also be corrupt. Look at slavery, prostitution.

 

James: What I mean is. We have a meaning to life, which everyone is born with. It has to do about achieving something, often something great- though, that not many succeed with. But something great, can be something little. It is the drive of humanity.

 

Harold: If we are born with it, how come there is nobody that knows for sure. Is it different for different people, or is it the same for everyone? When not everyone sees life the same, how can we have the same sense of meaning to it?

 

James: Hmm. You have a good point.

 

Harold: I do believe that, some people are on the right path. And some on the wrong. But is the right path of life a defined one?

 

James: Maybe the meaning of life is about the present. This apple. That I hold in my hand. To eat this, is my meaning, right now.

 

Harold: The meaning is a lot wider than that. The meaning could be about the present, what you’ve done today, has been your meaning.

 

James: But the meaning must be something longer, It can’t be that short, if it only is about the present how come we can think so far ahead of time, dream, Ideas about the future?

 

Harold: I am starting to think that we’ve gone off our subject long ago. Have we been talking about the meaning of life at all? Or something else?

 

James: Maybe the meaning of life is something that is on the back of our mind all the time but is too hard to think about, too hard to understand. Or maybe we did not leave our subject at all.

 Both of the poets go silent, looking up at the sky. A sense of gratitude and belief fills them as they say goodbye to each other & walks in different directions, to different locations…

Reviews

Written by Fledermaus (3207 comments posted) 23rd September 2007
Hm... I'm afraid anyone who ponders about 'the meaning of life' will eventually find that the quest for an answer is doomed to be in vain. As such, upon reading the first lines, I did wonder about a definition of life (a semantic meaning) but even that seems hard to give. 
 
The idea of such a dialogueis a nice one, in line with the subject, as it is the same style in which the philosophers of antiquity present their views. Unfortunately, you did go a little fast here, which made it a bit chaotic. 
Have you read Plato's Euthyphro? There Socrates and Euthyphro have a debate over the concept of piety. Eutyphro comes with smart definitions, each of them Socrates proofs insufficient by sheer logic. You could have Harold play Socrates' role a bit more here...

Written by William87 (30 comments posted) 23rd September 2007
Thanks for taking the time to read it and review it. I haven't read Plato's Euthyphro, but it sounds very intruiging. 
 
I can agree that it becomes a bit chaotic since the text goes in a very fast pace. Maybe I should put in something more to give the dialogue a slower pace. 
 
/William

Written by ShouldKnowBetter (13 comments posted) 25th September 2007
This seems more like a scripted incedent than a short story. I've been puzzled to find what should be 'lengthier work' in the form of episode in this forum. Makes it kind of hard to review but this was an easy enough read if lacking any resolution.

Written by Jellybean (7 comments posted) 16th October 2007
I actually really enjoyed reading this; but big question - are you going to continue this, so this is some sort of really cool intro, or is this a concise argument about the meaning of life? I would like to see a story develope; it would be really interesting.  
I really like the idea of the two poets, and their argurments were really good and clear (though a tad confusing, though this is good because so is life!) and i think there is definate room for it to be carried on. 

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