Anne Carson's Eros the Bittersweet

Anne Carson (1950–) is a Canadian poet, essayist translator and 2026 literature Nobel Prize winner. Eros the Bittersweet was her first book, a philosophical essay on desire, grown out of her doctoral dissertation.

Carson begins with a single word. Glukupikron, which we translate as “bittersweet” — but ancient poet Sappho put the sweet first: sweetbitter. From that inversion Carson builds a structural account of desire. Eros requires three points, not two: lover, beloved, and the gap between them. It is the gap that desire actually loves, which is why desire cannot survive its own satisfaction. The book moves from Sappho to the Greek novels to Plato’s Phaedrus, where the same geometry turns up in the account of how we come to know anything at all.

Is desire really an appetite for absence, or has Carson mistaken one kind of love for all of them? If eros depends on distance, what should we make of the long marriage? Read the book with us and let's explore desire.

The book can be found online, or in any good bookstore https://www.are.na/block/16964500

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Stockholm Philosophy Study group is a group for thoughtful discussion on philosophical topics. Everyone is welcome regardless of previous philosophical experience, but you have to read the text ahead of time. Everyone having read the text is essential for a good discussion, if you don't have time to do the reading, please leave those that do. This is a space were we learn from and listen to each other, our focus is on deliberation, not debate. If we are a large group, remember to leave room for everybody's voices to be heard. We read all sorts of philosophical texts, some are easier and some are difficult. If you don't understand everything, don't worry, we will make sense of it together. Our meetups are at a public café, so if you participate, please buy something from the café to support them.

Please note that this is a cross-post for an event being arranged [via the Discord](https://discord.gg/zZUdGmgUCf) server. Discussion between meetups happens on Discord, and this group may be unmonitored. If you join the server you also get to vote on our coming readings, so please consider joining.

Hope to see you at the meetup!