Every week by Thursday, the GIS papers will be uploaded here for pre-reading

On Friday at 4.30pm we will hold GIS online

The speaker will give their presentation, followed by discussion

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S.R. Greaves

Apr 28, 2020

Melissa Paper and Texts

in Melissa and Sarah 1/05/20

6 comments

6 Comments

S.R. Greaves

May 01, 2020

Thankyou so much Melissa - All this natural and productive imagery was v interesting to me as I am researching depictions of the city as an organism (in the 19thc). They get many of their ideas from ancient philosophical writings. If the space outside the city is fertile, green, true, productive.. is the city ever contrasted in such biological terms (arid..)? It struck me that here the over cultivated city mechanically gives birth to dead subjects (am I right?)

Melissa Jones

May 05, 2020

Replying to

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the paper :)

The city as an organism is so interesting! There are actually references, but they're usually implied. Towards the end of the Phaedrus (260a-) the discussion turns to rhetoric/speech, and there Socrates is very keen to align speech (dialectic) with a zwon. This is contrasted with the speeches which emerge from the assembly, which are written down, and so dead – Derrida is very keen on this in Plato's Pharmacy and Writing and Difference. Socrates talks about the 'correct' i.e. natural way to construct a speech in 267-269.

The city is implied to be a place where nothing true or natural can grow, particularly in the political sphere. The most explicit mention is the husbandry metaphor at the end (276-7), where Socrates talks about sowing seeds in the correct place. He contrasts those who plant their seeds/speeches in the gardens of Adonis and expect them to grow fully in 8 days, with those who plant them in good fertile soil and see them grow in 8 months. Apparently there was a festival of Adonis in the city where they forced plants into effectively window boxes for show; the parallel here would be the sophistic rhetoric of the assembly/agora which is pure style over substance. This, I think, works nicely with the city as an organism: the unhealthy organism of the city gives birth only to invalid/infertile plants/speeches/intellectuals. So I think you're right about the over-cultivated city giving birth only to dead subjects.