Eros: The Geometry of Desire

​Between every thing that calls itself “I” and every thing that is known as “You,” a third entity exists. Neither an I, nor a you, the nameless non-presence is the axis of our desire. Indeed, it may be desire itself. It is the thing that animates us. That drives us to reach, to cross the boundary of ourselves, to long for the one we call You. This Olio will explore this mercurial creature, the Devil-God Desire. Through a close reading of Anne Carson’s work Eros: The Bittersweet, we will question how we have come to believe that love requires the number two, when logic demonstrates that the answer is three. Triangles, not lines, are the vehicles for our most precious longings and the engineers of our most devastating voids.

You don’t need to be familiar with the text to join in. We will read passages together and we will leave the event different people than we were when we arrived. Because that is the power of Eros. It transforms. It wreaks havoc. It delivers us into time.

Teacher: Jamie Warren

Moon Rise Studio

614 Lorimer St., Brooklyn, NY 11211 // Please enter through the side entrance (the black door with disco tiles).

Jamie Warren has a Ph.D. in American History from Indiana University, and she is an Assistant Professor at BMCC-CUNY where she teaches American history, the history of women and gender, and women’s studies. Her research focuses on slavery in antebellum South with a particular focus on death, the body, and the philosophy of history.