For a Valentines Day treat, we present a symposium on love in the company of author Roman Krznaric. Drawing on his scintillating new book, The Wonderbox, Roman will put our ideas about romantic love under the spotlight and reveal what history can teach us about becoming a good lover.
You’ll discover how the ancient Greeks were far more sophisticated than we are today: where we have one word for love, they had six, and believed that sexual love, or eros, was not nearly as important as other varieties, such as love of friends, playful love and self-love.
Roman will also explain why our ideal of romantic love and finding a soulmate is one of the most disastrous developments in the history of the emotions, a legacy that we need to put firmly behind us. Along the way you’ll find out why jousting knights wore dresses, Dutch fathers wore paternity bonnets, and why medieval Arab sex manuals recommended that ‘a moist kiss is better than a hasty coitus’.
Roman Krznaric by Kate Raworth
Roman Krznaric is a cultural thinker and founding faculty member of The School of Life. He advises organisations including Oxfam and the United Nations on using empathy and conversation to create social change, and has been named by the Observer as one of Britain’s leading lifestyle philosophers.
Roman's New Book
Roman’s new book, The Wonderbox: Curious Histories of How to Live, is published by Profile Books. He blogs on empathy and the art of living at www.outrospection.org. For further details visit his website, www.romankrznaric.com.
Date: Tuesday 14 February 2012
Time: 6.30pm for 7pm. Ends 9pm
Place: The Idler Academy, 81 Westbourne Park Road, London W2 5QH. Tel 0207 221 5908
Cost: £20/15. Free wine and dainty morsels. BOOK HERE.
