Devin.
"Bring a change of underwear, just in case."
"In case what?"
"Well gosh, if you have to ask!" Maggie said with a laugh. My face burned in the privacy of my apartment and I abruptly ended the call.
***
I showed up wearing jeans, a light blue tank top, and flip-flops, but brought no wardrobe changes. My hair had grown out quite a bit, almost long enough for a ponytail. It fell in waves and I kept it out of my face with a headband. Devin looked comfortable in his usual jeans and a faded U2 Elevation concert tour t-shirt. He was barefoot and sporting a salon-induced tan, his brown hair perfectly coiffed, as always, with a few orangy-blonde streaks in his bangs.
For my portion of the session, I introduced the concepts of argument and classical rhetoric, and we discussed Phaedrus , Plato's slam against the sophists and philosophical foray into provisional vs. absolute truth, which confounded Devin.
I explained, "The sophists were the talk show hosts, televangelists, and motivational speakers of their time. The Stephen Colbert s. Orators for hire--have quill, will travel. And they were regaled as rock stars with their grandiloquent ability to move the masses and make them swoon."
"Sounds like a good gig."
"Plato didn't think so. He's saying that sophistry is nothing more than 'cookery', a bunch of bells and whistles, and that rhetoric is not so much a pursuit of truth as much as a means of persuasion."
"So, when you called me 'a modern day sophist,' you weren't paying me a compliment?"
I started to open my mouth but then stopped short. Good fucking memory.
"But here's the cool thing," I said, ignoring his comment. "If you really study the text, Plato is teaching , and he uses metaphor and tropes used in rhetoric to do so."
"So?"
" So? Do you realize that this is the stuff that I'm still teaching to this day? Metaphor? Rhetoric as a means of communication and persuasion? He paved the way for guys like Aristotle who systematized the whole thing, modes of discourse and all."
"And truth?" he asked.
"What about truth?"
"Is rhetoric a means to truth or not?"
"Plato didn't think so. He thought sophistic rhetoric actually got in the way of the search for absolute truth, which sort of contradicts what I teach today. I say language is a way to make meaning, to express truth in many forms. Plato sought to use rhetoric analytically and dialectically. Read the text again and you'll see it--look at the dialectic between Socrates and Phaedrus."
He frowned. You'd think I'd offered him a second helping of liver. "I'll pass," he said in feigned politeness.
"It's an acquired taste," I replied.
When our writing session was finished (first I had him describe the Warhol painting without using any of the words typically found in an art review; then I had him write an impromptu speech--he even created a metaphor inspired by the Platonic "cookery" which impressed me further), Devin left the livingroom to prepare the bath, while once again I circled the loft to admire his art collection. He'd added a new piece--a small, square-shaped oil on canvas that featured various shades of hot red layers broken up by a yellow stripe running across the top, looking like torn paper. Very abstract.
"Ready," he called.
I entered the bathroom. The room glowed with votives strategically placed around the massive jet-stream tub brimming with suds, and smelled of lavender and vanilla. Thick, plush towels were folded spa style and relaxed at the tub's edge. Soft, jazzy music reverberated off the walls, and I couldn't even find the speakers. I sucked in my breath.
"Wow," I said, my voice barely audible.
"You like?"
I nodded. "Heaven."
"Well, get in."
I looked at him hesitantly.
"Am I supposed to get naked?"
"It would kill the mood to wear your clothes, don't you think?"
"Do I have other options?"
"Did you bring a swimsuit?"
My face flushed. "No."
"Then no, you have no other options. If you were so concerned, why didn't you bring a
"Bring a change of underwear, just in case."
"In case what?"
"Well gosh, if you have to ask!" Maggie said with a laugh. My face burned in the privacy of my apartment and I abruptly ended the call.
***
I showed up wearing jeans, a light blue tank top, and flip-flops, but brought no wardrobe changes. My hair had grown out quite a bit, almost long enough for a ponytail. It fell in waves and I kept it out of my face with a headband. Devin looked comfortable in his usual jeans and a faded U2 Elevation concert tour t-shirt. He was barefoot and sporting a salon-induced tan, his brown hair perfectly coiffed, as always, with a few orangy-blonde streaks in his bangs.
For my portion of the session, I introduced the concepts of argument and classical rhetoric, and we discussed Phaedrus , Plato's slam against the sophists and philosophical foray into provisional vs. absolute truth, which confounded Devin.
I explained, "The sophists were the talk show hosts, televangelists, and motivational speakers of their time. The Stephen Colbert s. Orators for hire--have quill, will travel. And they were regaled as rock stars with their grandiloquent ability to move the masses and make them swoon."
"Sounds like a good gig."
"Plato didn't think so. He's saying that sophistry is nothing more than 'cookery', a bunch of bells and whistles, and that rhetoric is not so much a pursuit of truth as much as a means of persuasion."
"So, when you called me 'a modern day sophist,' you weren't paying me a compliment?"
I started to open my mouth but then stopped short. Good fucking memory.
"But here's the cool thing," I said, ignoring his comment. "If you really study the text, Plato is teaching , and he uses metaphor and tropes used in rhetoric to do so."
"So?"
" So? Do you realize that this is the stuff that I'm still teaching to this day? Metaphor? Rhetoric as a means of communication and persuasion? He paved the way for guys like Aristotle who systematized the whole thing, modes of discourse and all."
"And truth?" he asked.
"What about truth?"
"Is rhetoric a means to truth or not?"
"Plato didn't think so. He thought sophistic rhetoric actually got in the way of the search for absolute truth, which sort of contradicts what I teach today. I say language is a way to make meaning, to express truth in many forms. Plato sought to use rhetoric analytically and dialectically. Read the text again and you'll see it--look at the dialectic between Socrates and Phaedrus."
He frowned. You'd think I'd offered him a second helping of liver. "I'll pass," he said in feigned politeness.
"It's an acquired taste," I replied.
When our writing session was finished (first I had him describe the Warhol painting without using any of the words typically found in an art review; then I had him write an impromptu speech--he even created a metaphor inspired by the Platonic "cookery" which impressed me further), Devin left the livingroom to prepare the bath, while once again I circled the loft to admire his art collection. He'd added a new piece--a small, square-shaped oil on canvas that featured various shades of hot red layers broken up by a yellow stripe running across the top, looking like torn paper. Very abstract.
"Ready," he called.
I entered the bathroom. The room glowed with votives strategically placed around the massive jet-stream tub brimming with suds, and smelled of lavender and vanilla. Thick, plush towels were folded spa style and relaxed at the tub's edge. Soft, jazzy music reverberated off the walls, and I couldn't even find the speakers. I sucked in my breath.
"Wow," I said, my voice barely audible.
"You like?"
I nodded. "Heaven."
"Well, get in."
I looked at him hesitantly.
"Am I supposed to get naked?"
"It would kill the mood to wear your clothes, don't you think?"
"Do I have other options?"
"Did you bring a swimsuit?"
My face flushed. "No."
"Then no, you have no other options. If you were so concerned, why didn't you bring a
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