Today in-depth discussion on the Symposium began. The sticky-point that virtually everyone in the modern discussion of this work comes upon was touched on immediately. This would of course be the fact that the love discussed is not only homosexual, but operates on the understanding of a relationship between a man(the erastes or lover) and an adolescent boy(the eromenos, or beloved). This largely just comes down to accepting it for what it is, it seems to me.
However, it was pointed out that ultimately the highest form of love in the Symposium is philosophia, the love of wisdom--this Socrates is taught by an old woman named Diotima--. But how intriguing it is that erotic love is so closely connected with this love of wisdom(like that interesting play on words Mr. Sexson pointed out between "rhetoric" and "erotic").
Is it at all possible then that when eros is felt, that at least an element of it is aiming to get closer up the ladder to philasophia? That when you fall in love with someone there is(whether one is concious of it or not) the desire to know* something higher through and with them? And perhaps this desire for higher knowledge, which is gained through loving someone, goes hand in hand with a desire for wholeness, like Aristophanes thought.
I believe that. This isn't really worth much, and I very well could just be full of crap, but it is a truthful observation.
I also think I'll check out Raymond Carver's Everything we talk about when we talk about love, nonwithstanding my prejudice against short stories. A modern updating of the Symposium by an author who was one of the originators of film noir sounds greatly interesting.
And I'm off to the races...

*We are perfectly aware of the double meaning "know" has in this instance--"know" as in wanting to know something new and "know" in the sense of "Adam knew his wife Eve".