Superfluities Redux
On culture and theatre, by George Hunka
A new journal for theatre minima and organum posts exclusively can now be found here.
Thursday, 08 May 2008
Normally I don't participate in these blog memes that go around, but
when new-
1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.
This morning the book nearest to me is Anne Carson's meditation on poetry and eroticism, Eros the Bittersweet, and page 123 opens her discussion of Plato's Phaedrus, which I read myself a few years ago. The corresponding excerpt:
Desire stirs Phaedrus when he gazes at the words of this text (epethumei, 228b) and visible joy animates him as he reads it aloud to Sokrates (234d). Phaedrus treats the text as if it were his paidika or beloved boy, Sokrates observes (236b) and uses it as a tool of seduction, to draw Sokrates beyond the city limits for an orgy of reading in the open countryside (230d-e; cf. 234d). The reading elicits from Sokrates an admission that he himself is a "lover of logos" (andri philologo, 236e; cf. ton logon erastou, 228c). Eros and logos are fitted together in the Phaedrus as closely as two halves of a knucklebone.
That's four sentences, but there are no blog police I know of to come knocking at my door. In any case, I offer the challenge to any five visiting bloggers who care to take a crack at it.
Meanwhile, at better bookstores and magazine stands everywhere, you can
find the May 2008 issue of PAJ: A Journal of Performance and Art, in which
appears my brief review of Hans-Thies Lehmann's Postdramatic Theatre. In a week or so you
should also be able to find the May 2008 Theater
journal from the Yale School of Drama/
This meme's for you, bloggers. Have at it.
Posted at 8.25 am in /Miscellaneous
Permanent link to this story
