The Southbank Festival of Love: seven ways to express your passion
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Version 0 of 1. Love is, of course, a many splendoured thing. It lifts us up where we belong, you might say. Love is kind, patient, all you need, the sweetest thing and never having to say you're sorry. It is also, London's Southbank Centre announced last week, the subject of a festival to be held this summer, which will celebrate seven of the most powerful types of love, out of the 30 or so defined by those diligent ancient Greeks and Romans. (For the other 23, consult a classical dictionary or – more warily – Google). The Southbank will host themed weekends throughout the season stuffed full of debates, readings, exhibitions and screenings of Brief Encounter, and the Festival of Love will end with the Big Wedding Weekend, in which up to 20 couples will get married or renew their vows in communal ceremonies. But for those of you still sitting there mouthing "Seven? There are seven?" like Chandler Bing when he first learned the full number of a lady's erogenous zones, here they are: ▶ Agape This is the love of humanity. Who knew? ▶ Eros The love of statues in Piccadilly. No, not really. I know you know this one. It's romantic and erotic love. Love that involves the exchange of bodily fluids and, if all goes well after that, phone numbers. ▶ Ludus Love of board games? Adoration of Ludovic Kennedy? Alas, no – it means playful affection or flirting. At the festival there will be flirting workshops held by something called a flirtologist, so consider yourselves warned. ▶ Storge Love of family. Again – who knew? Not to be confused with love of storage – that's the impulse that keeps us returning to Ikea, over and over again, long after we should have learned better. ▶ Philia The love that arises from shared experience – the bonds between members of the same sports team, or soldiers who have fought together or friends who have sat through the whole of Game of Thrones together. ▶ Pragma Enduring love. The solid, immutable, irreplaceable, irreducible stuff that exists between a long-married couple until one of them decides what they really want is to pork someone younger than the Volvo. ▶ Philautia Love of the self. Not self-love. That's different. This refers to the joy of being true to one's own values – think "legitimate self-esteem" rather than vanity or vaingloriousness. But you're still thinking of masturbation, aren't you? I give up. This septet of antiquarian terms holds up fairly well in the modern age. Most of us have at least a passing acquaintance with all of them, even if we now get most of our ludus done on dating apps. All it's really missing are words for "love of internet cat videos", "unplumbable depths of longing for George Clooney" and "inexplicable, inexcusable heart-swellings at the sight of William, Kate and George". Maybe next year. |