I took a philosophy class once in which we discussed Plato for much of the first half of the semester. I think we spent two weeks discussing nothing but The Symposium, especially Aristophanes speech examining love. At the end of the course we were to watch a movie and then write a paper discussing the philosophy in the story. I wussed out and did The Matrix, falling back on Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave with a little bit of Descartes thrown in to round it out. So when I finally saw Hedwig and the Angry Inch I immediately recognized the inspiration for the song “The Origin of Love” and knew that I wrote about the wrong movie.

Stephen Trask, who wrote the music and lyrics for the film, modified the story slightly but ultimately stayed true to what Plato originally wrote. If you haven’t seen it already here is the Angry Inch performing at Bilgewaters: