The Crawdaddy conversations
Conversation, said Montaigne, is "the most fruitful and natural exercise of our mind". That being the case, those who can converse in Dublin should make a beeline on Thursday evening to Crawdaddy on Harcourt Street, where David McWilliams will be hosting another "Leviathan" evening of politics, comedy, music and conversation. "What will the country look like after the property bubble bursts?" is the provocative topic of debate. The quality of Leviathan conversation was acknowledged in this New York Times article last week. Quote:
By the time Leviathan concludes around midnight, the audience is worked up. Instead of going home, the crowd ends the night with more drinks at the bar. And more debate. On his way out the door, Mr. McWilliams, with his shock of red hair and impish smile, tries to explain Leviathan's appeal."It's about trying to recapture a bit of public space in this town," he says. "People here are educated," he says, but they like getting drunk. "There's nothing worse than a sober group taking itself too seriously."
If you can't get to Crawdaddy on Thursday night, don't despair, the Leviathan podcast should tide you over until next in Dublin. Talking of talking, in 18th-century England, the word "conversation" was sometimes used to mean "sexual intercourse," and "criminal conversation" was a legal term for adultery. After the Earl of Halifax willed his mistress Catherine Barton £20,000, a wicked wit said Halifax had shown his appreciation of Miss Barton's "excellent conversation." That anecdote may strike you as irrelevant, but it belongs to a current of ideas about good talk in which the great Dr. Johnson said, "there is in this world no real delight (excepting those of sensuality), but exchange of ideas in conversation." And it was Swift, who did so much to enliven Dublin life, who noted that conversation is the "greatest, the most lasting, and the most innocent, as well as useful Pleasure of Life."
