Gentlemen Speakeasy

Book excerpt: This storybook explores a rustic boy's attempt to become a gentleman, first by folly, then by soliciting advice, and finally by adopting a mindset of listening to others. The boy travels to a city to seek advice on becoming a gentleman, and through a mishap, encounters famous Western philosophers in a secret speakeasy who variously compete with one another to impress upon the boy their own particular notion of a gentleman. The boy grows ever more perplexed until he encounters Socrates, who resolves the boy's confusion by listening and questioning rather than proscribing and declaiming. The storybook reveals that the nature of a gentleman is found in mutually beneficial dialogue-such as the dialogues of Socrates-and further suggests that the lecturing employed by many philosophers, if anything, tends to lead one away from becoming a gentleman.