2011

Erota Epistm:
Notions of Desire and Knowledge in Anne
Carsons Eros the Bittersweet
Religion and Sexuality. Louis A. Ruprect PhD, Georgia State University

Logan A. Kirkland

Logan Kirkland
Georgia State University
4/27/2011

Logan A. Kirkland
Religion and Sexuality
GSU, Spring 2011
Lou Ruprecht, PhD

Anne Carsons Eros the bittersweet is a truly remarkable piece of writingfluid,

velveteen, and indeed, bittersweet; it draws you in with ease as she weaves her
impeccable web of understanding, drawing deeply from the proverbial well of the
Classics tradition but infused with her own brand of subtle literary artistry for a moving,
and at times almost breathtaking, experience. Yet to really sing the praises of this book
one must remember a very essential piece of informationit isnt like other books. It is a
fusion of the artistic, the poetic, the linguistic and the philosophical; carefully crafted in
the most artisanal way that really does sidestep, to a certain degree, the classical,
formal sort of writing expected in Academiato create a more fluid, dynamic, and
beautiful format. Additionally, it is like few other academic books in another senseit is
moving to an exponential degree. It teases out human emotion with sensuous ease; in
both reading it and discussing it I found myself to be near tears remarkable number of
times. It was beautiful, but perhaps more appropriately, beautifully glukupikron. This is
why I feel a though I owe it to Anne Carson, and to the class itself, to craft in this piece
of writing something to which I too have put a bit more of myself into than I might
normally do for a formal piece of academic synthesiswithout a doubt, this simply feels
more appropriate to try and make something a little more dynamic when approaching a
theorist who herself is a commentator upon, and a crafter of, language and poetry.

Thus, I will attempt to put what Carsons book has meant to me into the context of this
writing, because it has been a very personal journey through this class and through
Eros the bittersweet, but a meaningful oneand I feel like the participant observation,
the lived experience of Eros, is certainly an essential component to understanding
Carsons work, and to really analyze ones personal experience of such a piece of
writing, one has to at the very least be cautious and aware of ones own bias and
experience in the topicbut why be limited unto caution, when one can simply embrace
this fact?
Glukupikron was a word created by the ancient and mysterious poet of
Lesbos (who we have come to know within the confines of English letters as Sappho). It
is often translated as bittersweet, but in actuality, is sequenced the other way around
sweetbitter. The notion of these two concepts, infused and intertwined, to describe the
experience of Eros seems appropriate, and as it was sufficient for Sappho it is
seemingly sufficient for Carsonlove is glukupikron. Semper in absentes felicior aestus
amante, as the Roman poet Sextus Propertius wrote in his Elegiesabsence makes
the heart grow fonder. Lovers do indeed love to wait, and equally despise every inch
and second of their separation from the beloved. These sweetbitter-paradoxes are of
the most intense interest to Carson, as they were to Sappho and have been to
countless others inflicted with erotic madness (desire, love, Eros) throughout human
history. Aristophaness speech in the Symposium illustrates this with clarity as well
the interplay between the two halves separated yet desperately trying to return to
wholeness.

The whole and the parts and the edges that separate them are essential to
understanding Eros, Carson also tells us. Everything is about edges, about boundaries
and separation. Eros is the desire to bridge the unbridgeable gap, and is the force at
play in the space between the lover, the beloved, and the forces that retain them as
separate. As puns toy with the edges of words, so does Eros toy with the edges of
between the self and the Other. She explores the notion that perhaps there is an
enormous dinstinction between the way pre-writing peoples and post-writing peoples
conceptualized, thought about, perceived, and fell into loveafter all, there is an
obvious distinction between the two in other parts of the ones psychological paradigm;
why, it is difficult to even imagine how to experience the world and the mind in a way
without visual language for the literate individual. Freuds theory of development (It, I,
Over-I) comes to mind, just on the level of culture instead of the individualwritten word
allows me to breach the edge of myself, and put I somewhere else. These edges, quite
physical incarnations of the epistemic break in a literal sense (edges between you and
knowledge), are illustrated in another breathtaking way by Carsonthe Greek language
was the first language to use vowels, a concept the Greeks were deeply proud of;
vowels acted as the empty space between consonants, linguistic zeros, modifiers.
Edges can be found between any thing, Carson wants you to see, but everything is
blurred.
Further blurring the edges of structure, let us rewind to the beginning of Carsons
book, to her metaphoric illustration with Kafkas Der Kreisel (The Top). The tale features
an old Philosopher who delights in trying to pick up childrens spinning tops, but is
always frustrated because one cannot hold a top in spinto catch it is to end its rotary

motion. This is linked to the idea that the Philosopher is one who delights in chasing
after knowledgebut the actual catch, the reception of knowledge, that isnt the good
partthe hunt is, the search, the dance; not the culmination, the success or the failure.
We also delight in chasing after Eros, but we must be careful in this respect if we mind
the metaphor of Der Kreisel in conjunction with Carsonto catch the top is the failure,
as to catch the lover is also a failure. The idea is to continue the spin, the motion, the
dancenot to allow it to become exhausted.
Plato was fond of playing with the Greek word Erota; a fascinating example of a
word if ever one has beenfor if one puts the emphasis on the first syllable, it means
Eros, desire, loveyet if the emphasis is on the second, then it means to know in the
epistemic sense; to go after knowledge. This interplay of edges is at hand in such a
word; and as the Philosopher loves to chase after knowing, the Lover knows to chase
after loving. Platos Phaedrus becomes Carsons crowning topic for the book; and with
good reasonit explores the fullness of Erota, of Eros and Logos, and their relation
between. It explores the dangers of attempting to control time, and the dangers of Eros
to both the lover and the beloved. Socrates shoots down the classical (Greeco-lyrical)
notion that experiencing a change of self was a loss of self, and that Eros is a madness
and madness is a bad thing. Phaedrus tries with his speech to both seduce, and to
encourage Socrates to seduce him, in both Logos and Eros, and by the time the
dialogue is finished the notions of Eros have vanished into Logoserotic, perhaps, for
the fear of losing love is the greatest of motivators to keep it, and indeed a symbolic
cautionavoid talking to much and loving to little, perhaps, for fear of love being lost to
words. Beware of controlling time through the art of writing, for while these frozen

crystal fragments of remembering are useful, it has its drawbacks, the written word
and the Philosopher and Lover both must be sensitive to this, to avoid hurting the self or
the beloved. To try to control the beloved, to keep them forever, is to end growth, to
end the spinning of the top. These are the messages that Carson invites us to explore in
the Phaedrus. Eros is the story of lovers and the differences between thembut those
differences are essential to maintaining the erotic state; certain distances of time and
space, tensions, risks, fears, control and loss of controlthese things are all part of the
complex equation required to maintain the triangle of Eros. But it is essential to
remember that Carson, Socrates, and Sappho all give us fragments of hope for Eros-when one is mutually afflicted with the erotic madness, and one has the best intention in
mind and is willing to work towards the best possible for the self and the beloved, to not
give into selfishness, and to work among the right amount of tensions, distance, and
risk; one can keep the top spinning. The secret is to keep the top in motion, to keep
chasing desire, and to continue to delight in the beauty and wonder of Erotabecause
love, love and knowledge, are both worth itSocrates knew it, and so did Anne Carson.