Is it possible to fall in love simply by reading about how it feels to fall in love? And if the answer to this question is “yes,” what does that say about the nature of love or of the one who falls? Are the edges of the self similar to the edges of the written word? Abstract, arbitrary, and open to transformation? Does falling in love bring us closer to our truest self? Or, does love’s force have the power to annihilate the self, as our desire for our beloved takes over the whole of our being? Is the art of loving universal? Or is the experience of love always rooted in the mundane and the political? Over the course of the day, we will grapple with these enormous and wondrous questions by turning to Anne Carson’s Eros: The Bittersweet, a beautiful work named by the Modern Library as one of the most important non-fiction books ever written.

In our discussion, I will lay out Carson’s ideas about love, desire, and Eros through a critical feminist lens, and I will examine the possibilities she offers us for liberation via loss of self. It is not necessary to have read the work before you attend. We will explore short passages together. Advance reading is not needed; only a desire to understand more fully the nature of your desire.