342 RHETORICA dialogues comes to a definite conclusion, they all point to the need for further investigation and reflection, and they all have one or more "deliberate gaps" (pp. 18-19; 103-108). Szlezak does not argue for the general superiority of oral discourse over its written counterpart. Rather, he shows that oral discourse has a higher status but only for those capable of playing the role of a philosopher, more specifically a dialectician in the Platonic tradition. To play such a role requires that one identify significant topics for discussion (it is simply not the case that any one topic is as good as any other), expedite the discussion through poignant questions, refute objections, and defend doctrines committed to writing. Effectively, a Platonic dialectician possesses something of higher value (ta timiotera) than his philosophical writings (p. 49). This something consists of doctrines whose articulation happens orally and whose function is to support, defend, or extend written doctrines. Reading Plato is a good piece of scholarship, it guides the reader through Plato's dialogues carefully and thoughtfully. And it raises questions that expose the limitations of the disciples of Derridolatry. At the same time, however, it brings attention to several theoretical issues that Szlezak does not address. For example, how is a contemporary reader to "adapt himself to the perspective of the author, against all kinds of prejudices and resistance which are specific to modern times"? How can one identify the author's intention? Granted, "Plato's own devaluation of writing" (p. xii) has been devalued or inverted; but how are we to locate his oral or unwritten philosophy? What processes are involved in the move from the written to the spoken? Had Szlezak engaged these questions, his book would hav e been more interesting. Despite his silence on these matters, Szlezak renews the incentive for reading Plato and enjoying "the artistic perfection of his philosophical dra­ mas" (p. 1). Likewise, he tacitly reaffirms the notion that reading and inter­ preting Plato silently are only two steps of a three-step process; the third step involves participating in oral discussions of the written doctrines Plato left behind. John Poulakos University of Pittsburgli Greig Henderson and David Cratis Williams eds, Unending Conversa­ tions: New Writings by and about Kenneth Burke (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2001), xviii + 233 pp. Jack Selzer, Kenneth Burke in Greenwich Village: Conversing with the Moderns, 1915-31 (Madison: Wisconsin University Press, 1996), xx + 284 pp. These recent studies of Kenneth Burke make significant strides towards a reappraisal of Burke s theories by situating their arguments within a variety Reviews 343 of academic discourses. However, neither text does so at the expense of Burke's relevance to rhetoric. Selzer's study skillfully demonstrates Burke's wider literary relevance. Likewise, Unending Conversations publishes for the first time selections from Burke's unfinished aesthetic theory and compiles essays considering his inter-disciplinary relevance. Adopting current notions of a modernist period "less a coherent and lin­ ear movement today.. .and more a controversy or conversation" (p. 4) Selzer demonstrates his familiarity with current trends in modernist scholarship at the same time as he employs Burke's famous metaphor of life as an "unend­ ing conversation". Primarily using Burke's extensive correspondence, Selzer tracks his intellectual development throughout the 1920s. The text's first two chapters describe Burke's integration into a number of Greenwich Village's artistic cliques and present the text's thesis: Burke "shaped and was shaped by modernist ideas during the first fifteen years of his career" (p. 6) of his participation in the modernist "conversation". Chapter 3 contextualizes Burke's early "classroom" attempts at symbol­ ist poetry within its overall influence on modernist art and his sometimes contentious relationship with his friend William Carlos Williams. The chap­ ter continues to suggest that Burke's early interest in symbolist poets led to his first pieces of analytical criticism (p. 84). Chapters 4 and 7 examine Burke's short fiction and only novel respec­ tively. Among the most interesting aspects of the book are these chapters' description and analysis of his work, both in terms of their aesthetics and as a means of suggesting their theoretical anticipation of...