Drinks at Plato’s: creating a contemporary Symposium, or: “My big fat Greek thesis”

To the philosopher and the screenwriter, The Symposium is a masterwork. The philosopher admires Socrates’ inspired thinking as he gives us a glimpse of the highest form of beauty. The screenwriter esteems the skill with which the characters are drawn and their sparkling dialogue. Both may feel that the event evoked in The Symposium is so real that, rather than having taken place over 2,400 years ago, it might have occurred last night, anywhere in the world. How does Plato transcend his Volkergedanken (Folk ideas) and touch the Elementargedanken (Elementary ideas)? What are his "mechanics of eternity?" Part One of the thesis is a theoretical essay examining the mythic landscape beneath The Symposium, revealing a “marriage” between mythos and logos that gives Symposium its transcendent quality. Part Two is a screenplay entitled Drinks at Plato’s, set in Los Angeles and demonstrating how the mythos-logos marriage transcends time and place.