political debate, the opinions of both sides may merely reflect the party-
line, though their own individual biases may sometimes show through the
cracks. Your dialogue might parody such interactions by subverting expec-
tations of how they are normally conducted. For example, you might want
to reverse the roles of television interviewer and interviewee so that the
interviewee gains the upper hand, or make the political debate descend
into an embarrassing litany of personal confession.
DIALOGUING ACROSS GENRES
Dialogue can also appear in less likely contexts, and in genres other than
drama or fiction (see Exercise 7). The prose poem, ‘The Sound’, by Amer-
ican poet Maxine Chernoff, takes the form of a dialogue. Instead of
incorporating it into a short story or play, Chernoff uses the decontextu-
alised dialogue form (which focuses on the exchange rather than the
characters behind the voices) to humorously depict the need to com-
municate about a difficult topic:
Example 6.6:The prose poem as a dialogue
—I hate it when we have sex and you make that sound.
—What sound?
—The sound you make when you’re about to have orgasm.
—What sound do you mean?
—I can’t describe it. It sounds like no other sound you ever make.
—But why do you hate it?
—It scares me.
—Why would it scare you?
—I guess it’s because we’re at an intimate moment, and you
—make an unfamiliar sound.
—It must be my intimate-moment sound.
—But it doesn’t sound intimate. It sounds ...well... brutal.
—I make a brutal sound?
—Yes, I think that’s how I’d describe it.
—Make the sound for me.
—I can’t.
—Of course you can.You remember it, don’t you?
—I’m embarrassed to make it.
—You’re not embarrassed to tell me, but you’re embarrassed
—to make it?
—Right.
—Just try.124 The Writing Experiment