Talking Cure: an Essay on the Civilizing Power of Conversation by Paula Marantz Cohen (2023)

In this book, Talking Cure by Paula Marantz Cohen reveals how conversation connects us in ways that social media never can and explains why simply talking to each other freely and without guile may be the cure to what ails our troubled society.

Drawing on her lifelong immersion in literature and culture and her decades of experience as a teacher and critic, Cohen argues that we learn to converse in our families and then carry that knowledge into a broader world where we encounter diverse opinions and sensibilities.

She discusses the role of food in encouraging conversation, the challenges of writing dialogue in fiction, the pros and cons of Zoom, the relationship of conversation to vaudeville acts, and the educational value of a good college seminar where students learn to talk about ideas.

Cohen looks at some of the famous groups of writers and artists in history whose conversation fed their creativity and details some of the habits that can result in bad conversation.

Blending the immediacy of a beautifully crafted memoir with the conviviality of an intimate gathering with friends, Talking Cure makes a persuasive case for the civilizing value of conversation and is essential reading for anyone interested in the chatter that fuels culture.

Credit: Adapted from Amazon

Conclusion to the preface

The reason we converse is to forget our existential aloneness, to get out of our own heads, and replenish our sense of connectedness to others.

When a conversation works, nothing is more joyful, more satisfying, and more affirmative of life.

Now, more than ever, if we are to preserve what is best in ourselves and in our society, we need good conversation.

In this book, I explore why that is and how we can try to make it happen.

Reviews

• The New Yorker: What conversation can do for us
• Law & Liberty: The Meeting of Minds by Todd Breyfogle

 
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