August 27, 2004
Quotes From Plato
Here are two from "Phaedrus" that struck me this morning:
But if a man comes to the door of poetry untouched by the madness of the Muses, believing that technique alone will make him a good poet, he and his sane compositions never reach perfection, but are utterly eclipsed by the performances of the inspired madman.
And:
Pure was the light and pure were we from the pollution of the walking sepulcher which we call a body, to which we are bound like an oyster to its shell.
Now if I could only read Greek. I wish I had had someone force me to learn Latin and Greek from an early age so that I could already read these sorts of things in the original. As it stands, it will likely be decades before I can reach that point, if ever. I have to find the time to start learning them.
I can't say I remember Phaedrus that well. I seem to remember Socrates arguing that true poets are inspired by the gods. Is that supposed to be what he actually means, or is Socrates simply emphasizing pre-reflective impressions and concepts as the essence of art?
Phaedrus is actually something of a hybrid of Symposium and Gorgias since it deals mainly with love and rhetoric. He makes some off comments about poets (one of which I quoted), but that's not his primary topic at all. He does, though, say that poets are inspired by a divine madness while he delineates the four forms of madness, placing love at the top as the best and most conducive towards wisdom.
I don't know about Plato but this is one rhyme that I love. Its by Rakim:
Let's travel adventitious at speeds around the universe.
What could you say as the earth gets further and further away,
Planets as small as balls of clay?
Astray into the Milky Way, world's out of sight,
As far as the eye can see, not even a satellite.
Now stop and turn around and look.
As you stare into the darkness, your knowledge: took!
So keep starin', soon you suddenly see a star.
You better follow it 'cause it's the "R."
This is a lesson. If you're guessin' and if you're borrowin',
Hurry hurry step right up and keep followin',
The Leader.
The Phaedrus is one of the great Platonic dialogues, I've always thought, both because of the subject and the almost wickedly clever way the argument is developed — when Phaedrus asks Socrates to defend Phaedrus's would-be suitor's kind of cracked theory that the best lover for a young man is the lover who doesn't really love him because real lovers are nuts and thus untrustworthy, Socrates goes along and improvises brilliantly till a moment when he says, "Hey, this is crazy, I'm blaspheming against Aphrodite and Love - I take it all back" and proceeds to give the kid one of the most bizarrely beautiful descriptions and sort of explanation about love, its effects, its causes. Great stuff, and even better in Greek ('cause wittier).
Oh, welcome back. How's Dallas?
Yeah, it's great, but I've enjoyed everything I've ever read by Plato as well. Like I said, I really wish I could read Greek, though. I envy you.
Dallas is great. We're in a nice, central location in a cool little four-plex.