The Republic Literature and Writing

Even before Socrates gets going on the poets, Adeimantus voices some concerns about what kinds of morals poetry communicates. Why do poets make justice seem so hard? Now no one wants to do it. So Adeimantus says, anyway. Is that how you relate to poetry and literature?

It's early on in the discussion of literature, but things are not looking good for the status of storytelling. Here, Socrates is specifically attacking fairy tales and myths that children are told because they are so blatantly false. There goes Little Red Riding Hood...

Sounds like these guardians are going to have a lot of things to regulate. Who knew storytelling was a political issue? Does that seem reasonable to you? Also, what criteria are these dudes going to use?

Gods fighting with gods? That sounds like pretty much every Greek myth ever. Guess there are going to be a lot of stories banned in this city. Is Socrates right that people end up emulating stories all the time? Is that too simplistic of an idea about how we experience art?

You might be noticing a pattern here, since Socrates is particularly worried about how poetry represents the divine. He doesn't like the idea that gods might be considered foolish. Does representing them that way make them so? Do these stories confuse people? Is it better not to have the stories at all?

Socrates thinks bravery in his soldiers is super important... so he's not too happy that so many stories about the afterlife are all doom and gloom. How will people be brave if they hear these kinds of stories?

Socrates says that his desire to censor most of Greek poetry is completely reasonable. He worries that the power of poetry, particularly beautiful poetry, totally overwhelms people and makes them unable to make the right choices.

All right, sometimes Socrates thinks Homer has good things to say. In this case, Socrates is down with Homer's depiction of the diets of soldiers. Fish is too complicated, but meat makes sense. Well... okay, that's one thing to read for, we guess. But let's just say we wouldn't advise taking the Socrates approach when writing your next term paper on The Great Gatsby.

Socrates is 100% against tyranny, so goodbye to tragedy, which is a genre that tends to depict a lot of bad rulers. If Socrates's new city is going to start out right, there can't be any of that going on, even on the stage.

Even though Socrates ultimately finds much to blame in Homer's poetry, we can't help but notice that this moment might be one of the most touching in the entire Republic. Socrates admits that Homer has been a meaningful and moving part of his childhood—and he seems very human here. Sniff.