Session 8 Discussion

Discussion: Dubus, "Falling in Love"; Plato, Phaedrus, Lysias and Socrates’ first speech

• What does Ted learn in the course of the story “Falling in Love”? 
• Why is the story called “Falling in Love”? Why do we use the metaphor of “falling” for this experience?  Consider Ted’s response when he finds out Susan is planning to have an abortion: “He looked at her eyes, and knew that what was falling inside him would not stop falling till it broke” (Dubus, "Falling in Love" in Dancing After Hours, New York: Vintage, 1996: 38).
• Lysias says, as Phaedrus delivers his speech, that a non-lover will make you a better person rather than a lover (233a).  Discuss this idea in light of your answers to the previous set of questions.  In what ways does a lover make you better or worse?
• One difference between Lysias’ speech and Socrates’ speech defending the non-lover is that, according to Socrates, the non-lover is only pretending not to be in love (237b).  What other differences are there between the two speeches? 

At 239b, Phaedrus refers to a Greek myth about Boreas, the god of the north wind, abducting Oreithuia on the banks of the Ilisus River (right). Why does Socrates say that he must know himself before he judges the truth of this myth? Why does he refuse to demythologize?

Oreithuia's abduction by Boreas, ca. 360 B.C.; image courtesy of Marie-Lan Nguyen