Quartz: So you’re the futuristic version of a jester or a fool.
Aristophania: (smiles) Oh, they call us comedians during my time, but yes, I am a fool. I am after all the other half of your soul.
Quartz: What?!
Nimmie Not: (hidden behind the curtain, but his voice can be heard) What??!!
Aristophania: Just joking! I do that a lot. I was just looking at you, a funny little man with a beard and thinking how absurd it would be if you were the other half of my soul.
Quartz: Absurd is right. And just what’s wrong with my beard? (He strokes it in a fussy manner.) I’ll have you know I took good care of it before you died.
Aristophania: Oh, you died? (She inspects him from head to toe.) That’s reassuring. You seem quite energetic for one dead. It gives me hope that there’s life after death.
Quartz: Gah, no, I’m not! Not really dead. Bloody scribbler. She’s been off on other projects for so long I wonder if she isn’t going to leave me for dead. I refuse to stay that way, though, even if I have to pound my way out of this bloody coffin! Stupid fanfics and prior obligations! They keep distracting her! Never mind, no, sorry to dash your hopes. Not that I’m really sorry, any more than I’m really dead.
Aristophania: Ah, I had a bad feeling that was the case. There go my hopes.
Quartz: Er, let’s leave that aside. Today is the release day for your story, A Symposium in Space, right?
Aristophania: Well, technically it was published in a short story form back in 2016. It’s been picked up by Nine Star Press and extended to its current tragic form.
Quartz: Huh? I didn’t know A Symposium in Space was a tragedy.
Aristophania: It is for me! Sweet young things hook up sweet ships and each other, old loves reunite, and what happens to the comedian? A chandelier falls upon her!
Quartz: Eh, that sounds rough. Looks like the scribbler giving all the happiness to the main characters while the secondary ones get the dregs. Again.
Aristophania: Well, I don’t know about that. One could argue Sokrat and Alkibiadea are secondary characters and they may have gotten the happiest ending of all in their demented way. At the same time, I wasn’t the worst off after the chandelier crash, heh.
Quartz: Now, now, spoilers! I don’t suppose something like that happened in Plato’s original Symposium.
Aristophania: No, a bunch of drunks crashed the party with Alcibiades being the biggest drunk of the lot.
Quartz: Heh, yes, I’ve noticed many of the characters in A Symposium in Space have similar names to those in the orginal Symposium.
Aristophania: Just a bit. Not that all of us would admit it, heh. We are quite different than the original party members were, as you’ll find if you read both books. I’m probably closer to be like my counterpart at the original party as is Sokrat. Pausania is like an inverse reflection of hers while Agathea and Eryximachia are monstrous distortions. Phaedra is the biggest departure, being very much her own girl.
Quartz: Eryximachia and Agathea are distortions? How so?
Aristophania: Eryximachius was only a pompous windbag while Agathon was a pretty bit of fluff with no substance to his words. What the scribbler created, inspired by bits and pieces of their speeches is quite terrifying. I’ll admit, I’m a bit afraid of Agathea and Eryximachia.
Quartz: Yet you openly mock them.
Aristophania: Of course! Fools go where the wise would never venture and dare what the sensible know better than to try.
Quartz: Yet Sokrat is going to this symposium, too. (His nose turns red.) Isn’t she what you’d call wise?
Aristophania: I wonder. She herself would deny it. And who I am to tell a life giver who and what she is? (She winks at Quartz.) I am, after all, just a fool.
Quartz: Only you yourself said you were a comedian. You’re called a comedian in your time.
Aristophania: That, too! See you at the Symposium, dear readers! (waves)
Want to go to the Symposium, see what’s up? Here are some buy links!
Nine Star Press: https://ninestarpress.com/product/a-symposium-in-space/
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/928136
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