I looked and looked, but it’s been a slow day for bookish links. Then came a half-assed attempt at something resembling an essay, but I realized I was more pissed-off than inspired. I haven’t even felt like reading these last few days; I dip into Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice at a rate of about ten pages a day—twenty if I’m lucky. My conclusion: the holidays are emphatically not conducive to reading or blogging. Take a look downstairs; I’m still choking on holiday cheer. And that really fucks with my reading habits, which, in turn, makes me cranky. It’s like denying a smoker cigarettes for a week.

But Plato always gives me something to ruminate over. The Republic is nice, though I don’t entirely agree with it. And while I’ve always thought that the Apology would be a pretty good basis for a courtroom drama, my favorite dialogue is the Symposium. Really, you won’t find better relationship advice anywhere else.

A base man is that common lover who loves the body rather than the soul; for he is not lasting since he loves a thing not lasting. For as soon as the flower of the body fades, which is what he loved, “He takes to the wing and away he flies,” and violates any number of vows and promises; but the lover of good character remains faithful throughout life, since he has been fused with a lasting thing.

Well, now you know why he’s just not that into you.