Two writers, Andre and Jack, are sitting in a bar, discussing the nature of writing. The bar is dim, yellowed and needs new flooring. One man is young, one is old. Both love beer and dim, yellowed bars.

A: Writing is about life. (takes a drag on his cigarette)

J: Yours?

A: As a human being, yes… (exhales, a plume of wan smoke jets out, settles; curling and
     twisting beneath the table’s overhead light)

J: Ah, so writing is not about life, but about the human condition within it.

A: Sometimes…(sighs)

J: Think of different kinds of writing and their ends. Academic writing is for?

A: Education.

J: Letter to a friend?

A: Communication.

J: Stories like we write?

A: … Occupation.

J: Legal documents?

A: … Emancipation? (laughs)

J: Personal ads?

A: Gratification!

    They both laugh.

A: So perhaps writing is (inhales another drag, squinting his eyes) simply a means to an
    end?

J: Perhaps… (looks into his stein - drained to the half-way point - delicate froth clinging
    to the sides of the glass like a new swimmer to the edge of a pool. The amalgamation
    of smells heady beer, acrid cigarette smoke, oft-caressed leather of the chair –
    suddenly reminds him of his father)

A: No, no… it’s more than that! It’s something more…

J: But what? It communicates; it spreads a message from point A (stabbing the table
   with his  index finger near Andre’s elbow) to point B (stabbing near his beer) what
   else is there… magic?

A: Well… (crushes out his half smoked cigarette) no, of course not, but….

J: What?

A: It’s a feeling, it’s a… I don’t know. Good writing isn’t just words that get the point
     from here (stab) to here (stab). Writing can manipulate your senses, your emotions,
     your thoughts   … your life! Whether it’s an ad for a boat or a Pulitzer Prize winning
     book, there IS a sort of magic to writing. A telepathy, a communication that could
     reach anyone and anywhere, one human to another… my mind to yours. It is so much
     bigger than simply whether it’s been successful for its purpose. It’s as big as ….as….
     Time...

    Jack doesn’t know what to say. He looks at the clock behind the bar: “Molson”
    blazed in blue across the middle.

A: There is magic in all words. In good writing, the reader can feel it.

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