CONSUMING THE PHAR MAKONThe critique of writing and rhetoric (i.e. media) in western thought has been held back in many corners by Plato’s dialogues. This is evident in the writings of two authors, who at first glance seem to have nothing in common: Richard Weaver and Anthony Cook. Plato set the scene for this critique in his dialogue Phaedrus. Phaedrus walks by Socrates after hearing a speech. The two venture outside the city. Phaedrus notices the change in scene and he quips to Socrates, “You don’t go away from the city out over the border, and it seems to me you don’t go outside the walls at all.” 1 This is a rather moot point, now that Socrates is outside the wall sitting under a tree by Ilissus River, but it shows Phaedrus’ naiveté. The dull character of Phaedrus is continued as he attempts to hide a copy of Lysias’ speech under his cloak. The two gather under a tree to discuss Phaedrus’ encounter. The tree is none other than a plane-tree(!"#$%&'(). Sitting under the broad plane-tree 2 the dialogue continues as Socrates prompts Phaedru s, shaded by the broad leaves, to remove the pharmakon, the text, from beneath his cloak. The medium, the text, in question is the pharmakon hidden under the cloak. Socrates insists that one’s trust in writing (i.e. media) invents a pharmakon, a remediable elixir or poisonous drug, not of memory but of reminding. 3 Yet, what of the pharmakon and the far- reaching texts of Socrates’ broad shouldered student? It is under these “broad shoulders” of Plato that the critique of writing and rhetoric in the west persists. 1 Phaedrus , 230d. 2 Plato is etymologically similar to the plane tree. Plato is a nickname from the word !"#$)( , which means broad. 3 Phaedrus , 275a-275b.
