Line #9 Main/InstructionalDialogue


1	This is a work of thinly disguised (or sometimes entirely undisguised) nonfiction, written as a dialogue. Usually these dialogues feature a MrExposition, who either [[CharacterFilibuster explains the topic]] to TheWatson or debates it with a StrawLoser. In either case, MrExposition's partner is supposed to be bringing up the objections or points of confusion that [[AudienceSurrogate the reader]] might have. Compare RightWayWrongWayPair, where a StrawLoser shows what not to do, but ''doesn't'' always have dialogue with their "right way" counterpart.
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3	!!Examples:
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5	[[foldercontrol]]
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7	[[folder:Film]]
8	* Seen in ''Film/DodgeballATrueUnderdogStory'' when the Average Joes are being taught Dodgeball by Patches O'Hoolihan on a VHS tape.
9	* Parodied in ''Film/TheGreatMuppetCaper'', where Lady Holiday hires Miss Piggy as her new secretary, and in the process of telling her about her next appointment exposits on her crooked and irresponsible brother Nicky and how he's probably plotting to steal her most prized possession, [[MacGuffin the Baseball Diamond]].
10	-->'''Piggy:''' Why are you telling me all this?\
11	'''Lady Holiday:''' It's plot exposition, it has to go somewhere.
12	[[/folder]]
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14	[[folder:Literature]]
15	* ''Literature/GodelEscherBachAnEternalGoldenBraid'' starts each chapter with a dialogue like this, between Achilles (TheWatson) and the Tortoise (MrExposition). They're modeled on a similar dialogue, "[[http://www.ditext.com/carroll/tortoise.html What the Tortoise Said to Achilles]]", written by Creator/LewisCarroll (in which Achilles is more of a StrawLoser, though he comes round in the end).
16	* ''Literature/HowToTeachPhysicsToYourDog'' by Chad Orzel is a quantum physics popularization featuring the author himself as MrExposition with [[TalkingAnimal his dog]] Emmy playing TheWatson.
17	* Galileo's ''Dialogue Concerning The Two Chief World Systems'' combines the two forms; Salviati (MrExposition) is given both a Watson (Sagredo) and a StrawLoser (Simplicio). The Pope thought Simplicio was a caricature of himself, which was really bad news for Galileo.[[note]]Galileo later wrote that he intended the Pope to be the reasonably more flattering Sagredo, but had to concede that the Pope's touchiness had turned him into a Simplicio. [[/note]]
18	* Plato's writings about Socrates are probably the UrExample, and certainly the TropeMaker, which means this is OlderThanFeudalism. These include:
19	** ''Literature/ApologyOfSocrates''
20	** ''Literature/{{Meno}}''
21	** ''Literature/TheRepublic''
22	** ''Literature/{{Symposium}}''
23	* This is part of the concept for the ''Literature/HeadFirst'' books. Even if the speakers happen to be abstract objects.
24	* Creator/NealStephenson loves to deliver the {{Infodump}} in his novels this way, in ''Literature/{{Anathem}}'' and ''Literature/{{Cryptonomicon}}'' in particular. ''Literature/{{Anathem}}'' even has appendices containing bonus InstructionalDialogue for people who didn't get enough of it in the main text.
25	* Physicist George Gamow wrote a series of short stories, ostensibly about a man named Mr. Thompson but actually about quantum mechanics and relativity. Half of them are instructional dialogues where Mr. Thompson is playing TheWatson to a MrExposition generally referred to only as [[EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep the Professor]]; the other half are Mr. Thompson's dreams about what would happen if the physics described in the dialogues was noticeable on a human scale.
26	* ''Flatterland'' by Ian Stewart in large part is a series of dialogues between Victoria Line (TheWatson) and the Space Hopper (MrExposition) about various forms of geometry. It helps that they're traveling through all the geometric spaces that the Space Hopper is trying to explain...
27	%%* Creator/MichaelCrichton loves this trope.
28	* Most of ''Literature/SophiesWorld'' is taken up by a dialogue that summarizes the entirety of Western philosophy from the Pre-Socratics to Sartre.
29	%% * Creator/DavidWeber
30	* ''Philosophy in the Bedroom'', by Maquis de Sade, is both a instructional dialogue on his brand of libertarianism and hard core porn.
31	* Creator/OscarWilde's essay "The Portrait of Mr. W. H." is constructed as a lengthy conversation between an [[MrExposition older scholar]] and his [[TheWatson younger disciple]], to whom he is explaining his theory on the real object of Creator/WilliamShakespeare's romantic {{sonnet}}s.
32	* ''Literature/XanthippicDialogues'' is a bunch of instructional dialogues on, mostly, philosophy of dialogue (as in ethics, not rhetoric). [[spoiler:It also pretends to be a lost text from V century b.c. and is quite funny.]]
33	[[/folder]]
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35	[[folder:Webcomics]]
36	* ''Webcomic/TheEvolutionsOfHomosexualityAndSuicide'': Dialogue between the two scientists is used to explore theories, with the blond scientist asking questions and the bearded one answering.
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39	[[folder:Web Video]]
40	* The classic geometry video [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BVVfs4zKrgk "Turning A Sphere Inside Out"]] is narrated like this.
41	[[/folder]]

Context Main / InstructionalDialogue