Symposium - Blog Posts
Out of curiosity...
Just finished reading the Symposium, in which a guy named Phaedrus claims that Aeschylus is ridiculous for believing that Achilles is the lover and Patroclus the beloved. (i.e. that Achilles tops.)
Phaedrus argues that Patroclus was the lover (the top) and Achilles the beloved (the bottom), as Patroclus was older and Achilles more beautiful.
Hi all, here are some Diotima quotes from Plato’s Symposium that are making me lose my mind at 2 am. All quotes are from the Cambridge University Press (2008) Translation.
Image credit : Twitter
Soulmates. Better half. Portkeys. The love of your life. CMBYN & Vice Versa's plot at their core are essentially these aforementioned concepts.
Call me by your name is inspired from Plato's Symposium. In Greek mythology, humans were originally four-limbed, two-faced creatures; split apart by Zeus and condemned to spend their lives looking for their other half.
According to Symposium, one's quest for a female or male half depends on the nature of their original being. The relationship between the halves is subjective, but is ultimately companionship.
However, when one meets their other half, be it a lover of youth or a lover of another sort, the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy, and would not be out of the other’s sight, as I may say, even for a moment.” This is the highest form of love — “the people who pass their whole lives together; yet they could not explain what they desire of one another.”
"Call me by your name and I will call you by mine" implies that "you and I" are one being that was separated. Now Talay & Puen share parallels to Oliver & Elio.
Puen and Talay are going through something similar (as of ep 6) The duo find themselves naturally drawn to each other, but they do know what they desire from each other. They briefly even feign ignorance.
As for the concept of portkeys, it once again refers to the idea of 2 people who are destined for each other. Like a match made in heaven.
Puen is carefree like Oliver. It is very evident from his confidence when he says things like "I kissed you because I wanted to" or "I should simply marry my colorist then"
For a non believer of love, Talay treats love sacredly. He's quick to draw boundaries & teach Puen that love cannot & should not be faked. He's cautious, sensitive to language & doesn't take things for granted, just like Elio. Puen revealed himself to Pang in the first meeting but not to Talay who was practically joined to him by the hip on most days. Talay tries to hide his envy by telling Puen to get close to Pang by calling her his prospective portkey. This is parallel to Elio's jealousy over Chiara. And his attempt to objectify her to strike up a conversation with Oliver.
Although most Call Me By Your Name ends with Elio getting a little more cynical, here's to manifesting that Vice Versa will end with Puen feeling a lot less lonely & Talay losing his cynicism about love.
PS Call Me By Your Name is set in a town by the coast & a lot of scenes are on the beach. Talay happened to drown while playing at the beach. Not to forget his name itself means "Sea" (And the actor's nickname IRL is Sea lmao 😂)
(Some of the above information was sourced from Vox)