Plato's Symposium: Part 1

I've started reading Plato's Symposium without knowing what to expect. I have so far found the book a little hard to understand at times, but overall I have discovered that many of the ideas discussed in the book very interesting.

First of all before they starting their discussion of love Socrates says that he wished wisdom could be absorbed, because Agathon has so much wisdom to offer him. Agathon is confused, he sees Socrates as extremely intelligent; much more intelligent than him. However, I agree with Socrates. Socrates has realized something that Creon would have done well to understand. All humans can learn something from all other humans. No matter who you are, everyone around you can teach you something.

Another thing that I found interesting about what was said about love is that many of the ideas expressed are things we still believe today. One of these ideas is that the love of young boys should be forbidden because no one knows how they will turn out. This lends itself to the modern idea that teenage boys will break hearts and that they need to "grow up" in order to become proper mates for women. Another topic discussed is that "...in the pursuit of love the custom of mankind allows him to do many strange things, which philosophy would bitterly censure if they were done from any motive of interest..." This speaks of the idea that 'love makes us do crazy things.' Finally, at one point it is said that "Evil is the vulgar lover who loves the body rather than the soul..." This is the same as the modern idea that love is better when you love the person for their personality rather than their body. This kind of love is supposed to be more pure and long lasting than the "lust" kind of love that is thought to come from loving a person's look.

I also enjoyed the discussions of how harmony comes to the world when the two kinds of love are equal and not in competition with one another. I found this a very interesting idea. Also the idea discussed that love rules all the other gods was something that I really enjoyed reading. I have always believed in the power of love and this is also very much like the modern idea that love conquers all. Finally was the idea that we are looking for our other half. This is the same as the phrase that lovers often utter: "He/She is my better half."

All of these modern ideas discussed in the book were a pleasant surprise. I didn't expect the book to speak so much to modern ideals. They were discussed in a slightly different way, but as is the mantra of the class all that is past possess our present.

Here is an article I found on the internet. I thought it has a lot of interesting, helpful ideas that helped me in understanding what was going on a little bit better.

http://condor.depaul.edu/~dsimpson/tlove/symposium.html

Cultural Influence

Last Wednesday we talked about how we have a very linear sense of time and that opportunities only come around once. I'm taking a class in Linguistics and we have also talked about this. Many Native American and Indigenous cultures have a cyclic view of time. They believe that if you miss out on something it will come around again.

Our view of time I believe creates a much more fleeting view of time. I have heard it said many times that life is fleeting and short. We are supposed to live life to the fullest and make everyday count. This creates a society that is always in debt. We believe that life doesn't last long so we have to buy cars, boats, houses and trips before our time runs out. The more places you've been and the more objects you have the fuller your life has been. I don't believe there is anything wrong with this but with a more cyclic view of time would probably create less stress. Choices and objects will often come around again or we will have another chance to take advantage of them. Culture influences how we think and feel. This example of how our idea of time is influenced is just one example. Many times culture influences other things, but it really is a truly powerful thing.

Sophocles over stepped his own cultural bounds by creating the character of Antigone. She was culturally different than any normal Greek woman and thus caused many Greek people to hate her. Overall Antigone is a very interesting character and one that I enjoy because she never makes excuses and is truly a strong female character.

A Lost Pet

When I was young I had at least a couple pets die, but there is that I remember clearly as my first experience of death. It happened when I was about 5 or 6 and it was with a horse named Eagle.

I’ve been riding horses since before I could walk, but the first horse I got to ride all by myself was called Eagle. He was about 18 when I started riding him which is pretty old for a horse. He had seen just about everything and so my parents felt pretty comfortable with me riding him because he wasn’t going to spook or do anything to cause me to fall off. I remember one of the first week-long pack trips that we took I rode Eagle. At the beginning of the trail there was a bridge that we all had to cross and all the horses were freaking out and none of them would cross it, except of course Eagle. I rode him for a couple of years and we really struck up a close bond.

In the winter we don’t ride, because the snow in the mountains gets too deep to go anywhere so typically any horse that isn’t going to make it through the winter is put down in the fall after riding for that year is over. When we were younger our parents never told us, when or which horses were going to be put down in the fall. As a result of this my first experience of death was a little different. I wasn’t around the horses much in the winter, so it wasn’t until spring that I noticed that I hadn’t seen Eagle for quite some time. When I asked my mom where he was she told me that he had gotten too old and dad had sent him to horse heaven. I was sad that he was gone, but my parents had constructed horse heaven to be a much better place than Earth so I was satisfied with that answer. Since then I have had horses, cats and dogs die and each has affected me in a different way. When a pet dies another usually takes it place, but each pet is unique and can never be completely replaced. Parents try to shield children from the reality of death, but eventually we all must face this part of the life cycle.

America's Funniest Home Videos

Today in class we talked about laughter in response to suffering and how the laughter takes away some of the power from the suffering. One thing I think of that has to do with laughter at other people’s suffering is America’s Funniest Home Videos. People send all kinds of videos into AFV, but undeniably the most popular are the ones of people getting hurt. Some of the classics are dads getting hit in the crotch with baseball bats, or people getting accidents on bikes and roller skates. We know that we shouldn’t be laughing about the suffering of other people, but we laugh anyway. The ability to laugh at other people’s suffering is also why shows like Jackass have such success. Watching other people get hurt is funny as long as it’s not happening to us. However, even when bad things happen to us we have to learn the laugh because it’s the only way to deal with our pain and get on with our lives. Here is some of those classic AFV videos hope you enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S060AmYejjM&feature=related and this is one of my all time favorite AFV videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pE42Gn74m2k

Gift Giving

In class on Friday we started talking about the importance of gift giving. We talked about how Hermes understood the importance of gift giving and used it to get what he wanted. So I started thinking about how it has changed and its role in today’s society.

The last gifts I gave were at Christmas, where I gave my parents and little sister a TV and gave my boyfriend a few shirts. I didn’t give these gifts in order to gain anything although I did get gifts myself. I think today the essence of gift giving has changed. Today gifts aren’t really given in a spontaneous manner; instead they are given on specified holiday occasions like birthdays and Christmas. Holidays, especially Valentine’s Day and Christmas have become very commercialized. Christmas is a time when major big box stores try to make the “big bucks” and make up any money they may have lost during the year. Christmas is also seen as a very stressful time. People have long lists of people to buy for. As a result of this the magic of gift giving is really ruined. Instead of really thinking about what the recipient would really enjoy, people are just looking for a quick out. Hermes knew what Apollo would want and really demonstrated how the gift worked. Today expensive gifts are many times considered the “best” gifts and lots of money is wasted on gifts people will never use. I think often times the best gifts are well thought out and inexpensive…gifts that really come from the heart.

Athena in the Odyssey

As a high school senior I was asked to read the Odyssey as a class assignment. I’m not going to lie; I was pretty reluctant about reading it. It was long and it was written a long time ago. However, as I started reading I was totally taken in by the story. Even though the story was written a long time before I was born I still found the story intriguing and easy to understand and the characters relatable. Penelope had lost the man she loved, but she had remained faithful to him for 20 years and his son who held on to the belief that somewhere his father was still alive.

However, the character that most intrigued me was Athena. She was so devoted to getting Odysseus back to his family no matter what and she went up against many of her fellow gods to do it. Now as previously discussed in class Athena was the quite the daddy’s girl so he stood behind her in her quest to return Odysseus but there were still some major obstacles to overcome like the Cyclops and Calypso. Why was Athena so attached to Odysseus? It wasn’t sexual, she never tried to seduce him, so did she want to return him to his family? But that doesn’t really fit either since she’s the goddess of war. So why did she care so much for Odysseus? He was a great soldier, but is that all you have to be to earn the respect of the great goddess of war?

Stewie=Hermes

I was scanning the new blog entries to see what other students had written about recently and to see if any caught my eye when I noticed Luke’s short entry about the connection he had made between Hermes and Stewie Griffin from Family Guy. I’m surprised I hadn’t made this connection myself. I’m an avid Family Guy watcher and to me I think it is clear that Stewie is a very good version of Hermes.

For those of you who don’t watch Family Guy, Stewie is the baby of the Griffin family but he has already developed a talent for diabolical plans. His ultimate goal is to take over the world, of course, but normally he simply focuses on killing his mother Lois. Stewie doesn’t steal cattle, but he’s often hatching plans to make the lives of his family very difficult. Like Hermes Stewie is a baby, but he, like Hermes, is not the typical baby. He walks talks and wields various weapons in an attempt to kill his mother. Stewie really is a trickster and a trouble maker, the Star Wars spoof of the show says it all when, Stewie, of course, plays Darth Vader. Here is a link to part of this particular episode: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcL6DwSufMI&feature=related