While I agree that Dean is an aspiring intellectual and does seem eager to learn more about life and grow as a person, it still just seems unusual. Their format of conversation is also a little unorthodox, most people just sit down and talk. They have a strict way that they talk which I found odd. I also did not think that it was weird that Dean was interested in Marx's conversation, I was more focused on the fact that he left his wife/other woman to go have these deep conversations. His relationship with the two women was very strange.