Abstract

This paper contains a long piece concerning the dialogue above, a pre-introduction before the introduction, which may be of interest. The paper considers departures from the norms of accepted essay/paper writing within one's discipline. Are they a good idea or a bad idea? I engage in a dialogue with a Hulk Hogan-like figure on some experiments of mine - specifically writing on a topic set randomly and also trying to write on your own preferred topic - and I also examine how Marilyn Strathern writes, which is different from our philosophy conventions, it casually seems to me, but provides a way of putting all the stuff I want to say in without losing coherence. Angela Merk-- also figures. (This was an attempt at a paper in Helen Beebee's style, but seems a total failure at this.) An appendix contains some ritual chat. NOTE: this is the abstract above; you probably need to download the PDF.