ari_ormstunga (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
ari_ormstunga) wrote2022-01-20 08:37 pm
ari_ormstunga) wrote2022-01-20 08:37 pm
My Insomnia Cure
When I am ready to fall asleep at night, I read Plato. This is not really a ringing endorsement of Plato I'm afraid. Sometimes I like to do "smart person stuff" and I figure reading Plato is a smart person activity. Holy crap is it boring trying to read the bulk of his dialogues.
I read the Death of Socrates in college and I thought it was good, so I figured tackling his other dialogues would be easy, but it isn't. Not for me. I have to force myself to read and re-read and try to understand what the hell he's getting at. I wouldn't go so far as to say I hate Plato, but trying to read him is a good reminder that I am not exactly a world-class intellect.
I haven't been sleeping well so I'm grateful that I have a dense and confusing set of works to perplex and frustrate me until my brain goes to sleep just to make the torture of reading them stop.
I know it's not that his works are bad or ill-conceived or bereft of brilliance; I'm sure they are really great and I just don't appreciate them because I'm basically a peasant dunce.
I'm committed to reading his work now but I regret committing to read his work. I hope it somehow makes me a wiser and better person, because I find studying him just awful. If I end up in Hell, I'm pretty sure the Devil will make me perform discursive meditation on Plato's dialogues for all eternity, without ever having the relief of falling asleep to escape the sheer boredom.
I read the Death of Socrates in college and I thought it was good, so I figured tackling his other dialogues would be easy, but it isn't. Not for me. I have to force myself to read and re-read and try to understand what the hell he's getting at. I wouldn't go so far as to say I hate Plato, but trying to read him is a good reminder that I am not exactly a world-class intellect.
I haven't been sleeping well so I'm grateful that I have a dense and confusing set of works to perplex and frustrate me until my brain goes to sleep just to make the torture of reading them stop.
I know it's not that his works are bad or ill-conceived or bereft of brilliance; I'm sure they are really great and I just don't appreciate them because I'm basically a peasant dunce.
I'm committed to reading his work now but I regret committing to read his work. I hope it somehow makes me a wiser and better person, because I find studying him just awful. If I end up in Hell, I'm pretty sure the Devil will make me perform discursive meditation on Plato's dialogues for all eternity, without ever having the relief of falling asleep to escape the sheer boredom.