Saturday, January 22, 2005

A homoerotic drinking party? I'm there!

Just finished reading The Symposium by Plato. It's for my senior English seminar on frame tales. Plato's funny as an author; I've had to read several of his dialogues and The Republic, with wildly divergent levels of enjoyment. Eurythro, The Apology, and the Phaedra death scene were all excellent. The Republic, though, was a nightmare. Dull, dull, dull, dull!!! Thankfully, The Symposium is in the former class of Plato's work.

The frame of the story is a big drinking party where Socrates and friends discuss Love. I don't agree with a lot of the philosophy presented (I don't agree with most of Plato's philosophy), but it's still a fun read. It's also, towards the end, an unexpectedly erotic and poignant depiction of unrequited homosexual love. It's really short and straightforward (it took me only about two hours to read); I highly recommend it.

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