摘要：i imagine many of the readers of The WAC Journal are familiar with the oft-quoted
“unending conversation,” or what is often called the Burkean Parlor:
Imagine that you enter a parlor. You come late. When you arrive, others
have long preceded you, and they are engaged in a heated discussion, a
discussion too heated for them to pause and tell you exactly what it is
about. In fact, the discussion had already begun long before any of them
got there, so that no one present is qualified to retrace for you all the steps
that had gone before. You listen for a while, until you decide that you have
caught the tenor of the argument; then you put in your oar. Someone
answers; you answer him; another comes to your defense; another aligns
himself against you, to either the embarrassment or gratification of your
opponent, depending upon the quality of your ally’s assistance. However,
the discussion is interminable. The hour grows late, you must depart. And
you do depart, with the discussion still vigorously in progress. (110–111)
