A diary entry on public lectures, audience passion, and one genuinely lively question and answer session
The talk itself went smoothly enough, a fairly standard overview of the specific literary intersection I’ve been researching, and then the question and answer session opened and two audience members, strangers to each other as far as I could tell, launched into a genuinely passionate disagreement about colonial legacy that had almost nothing to do with my actual talk.
How the Disagreement Actually Started
One question, seemingly innocuous, about how contemporary readers should approach texts from this period, prompted an immediate, sharp response from another audience member who clearly held a considerably different view, and within minutes the two were addressing each other directly rather than me, the actual speaker, entirely.
What I Did as the Nominal Moderator
Mostly, I let it run, genuinely, because the disagreement felt more alive and more substantive than most of my prepared talk had been, real, considered positions being argued with real conviction by people who’d clearly thought carefully about this material themselves.
Why I Think This Kind of Disruption Is Actually Valuable
Public talks too often become one-directional, polished delivery followed by polite, low-stakes questions. This genuinely unscripted argument produced considerably more substantive engagement with the actual complexity of the material than my own carefully prepared remarks had managed.
How the Evening Eventually Resolved
Not fully, honestly, the two never reached agreement, though both thanked me afterward, separately, for hosting a talk that had apparently given them enough shared context to finally have an argument they’d each apparently been wanting to have for some time.
What I’m Taking From This Going Forward
I’m going to build more deliberate space into future talks for exactly this kind of open disagreement, having learned tonight that the audience often has more genuine passion for this material than a single prepared speaker can properly represent alone. Further diary entries continue at bohiney.com, with the original piece live at prat.uk.
SOURCE: https://prat.UK/