For The Beautiful Minds

"No. Paradise Lost lacked the substructure of pessimism." She said.

This is just one gem by Woody Allen, from his NY Times bestseller.

The whole story deals with the possibility of intellectual prostitution. I must admit the idea is very alluring.

In this age of social networking, where does one get a decent conversation that is not peppered with idiotic abbreviations. Plus, the idea of two redheads explaining Proust is very, very tempting.

Imagine a custom made conversation that aims to provide intellectual stimulation. A tailor made talk between two people that titillates your mind. The topic of discussion can be varied. The genres diverse. Start of with a brief exposition of Macbeth, a study of the symbolism in Moby Dick, light banter about the merits of democracy and round it of with a discussion on the music of Dire Straits.

This is just an example. The possibilities are limitless. The conversations endless.
One might argue that the hunger for knowledge might be sated through the internet. This might be true due to the omniscient Google, but still it does not provide the modicum of humanity that the above method does. Plus, there is no guarantee that you will get satisfaction of any sort after reading it off the Net. Talking with friends is definitely not the same because of the emotional angle. Internet based discussions usually end up becoming flame wars and breeding grounds for smart alec types.
Man is ,after all, no island. More like a peninsula, probably.

And there is the slight chance that you might find someone who knows that J.R.R. Tolkien & Philip Pullman are better authors than J.K. Rowling.

{for the concerned, Woody Allen's story is named 'The Whore of Mensa'}