Daily Dialogue — June 9, 2017

Scott Myers
Go Into The Story
Published in
2 min readJun 9, 2017

NOLAN: Gentlemen, turn to page 21 of the introduction. Mr Cameron, read aloud the excellent essay by Dr. Pritchard on “Understanding Poetry.”
CAMERON: That page has been ripped out, sir.
NOLAN: Well, borrow somebody else’s book.
CAMERON: They’re all ripped out, sir.
NOLAN: What do you mean, “They’re all ripped out”?
CAMERON: Sir, we… Ac…
NOLAN: Never mind. [Slaps Book] Read.
CAMERON [reads]: “‘Understanding Poetry’ by Dr. J. Evans Pritchard, Ph.D. To fully understand poetry, we must first be fluent with its meter, rhyme and figures of speech. Then ask two questions. One: How artfully has the objective of the poem been rendered? And, two: How important is that objective? Question one rates the poem’s perfection. Question two rates its importance. And once these questions have been answered, determining a poem’s greatness becomes a relatively simple matter. If the poem’s score for perfection is plotted on the horizontal of a graph…
TODD: Mr. Keating! They made everybody sign it.
NOLAN: Quiet, Mr. Anderson!
TODD: You’ve got to believe me. It’s true.
KEATING: I do believe you, Todd.
NOLAN: Leave, Mr. Keating.
TODD: But it wasn’t his fault!
CAMERON: Sit down, Mr. Anderson! One more outburst from you or anyone else, and you’re out of this school! Leave, Mr. Keating. I said, “Leave, Mr. Keating.”
TODD: O Captain, my Captain.
NOLAN: Sit down, Mr. Anderson. Do you hear me? Sit down! Sit down! This is your final warning, Anderson. How dare you. Do you hear me?
KNOX: O Captain, my Captain.
NOLAN: Mr. Overstreet, I warn you! Sit down! Sit down! Sit down! All of you! I want you seated! Sit down! Leave, Mr. Keating. All of you, down! I want you seated! Do you hear me? Sit down!
KEATING: Thank you, boys. Thank you.

Dead Poets Society (1989), written by Tom Schulman

The Daily Dialogue theme for next week: Triumph, suggested by Shannon Corbeil. Today’s recommendation by Gisela Wehrl.

Trivia: In the very last scene, Cameron was supposed to stand on his desk as well, but actor Dylan Kussmann vetoed the idea because he did not think it was in character. He was surprised when director Peter Weir agreed.

Dialogue On Dialogue: Commentary by Gisela: “With ‘O Captain, my Captain’ the free-minds triumph. The whole scene shows that’s a thin line if those succeed who stands for an open society — or not. The triumph due to the ripped out pages don’t last long, as you could never rip out every bad page nor every narrow-minded thought. One single copy can spread the word as well. But this accords evil AND good. One single man can spread the word as well and he will succeed if others follow him standing up, speaking up, against all odds.”

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