Refelct and Connect: Week 14

Connect:

Reflect:

This week we read the symposium and dealt with it all week. The first thing that popped out to me in this was when Diotima said, “Do not then insist that what is not fair is of necessity foul, or what is not good evil; or infer that because love is not fair and good he is therefore foul and evil; for he is in a mean between them.” (pg 284) I like this because it connects back to the beginning of the year when we were talking about arguments and the general opinion of the authors was that we see issues as black and white, there is no gray area in between but she is saying that just because something isn’t one thing, it doesn’t necessarily make it the other thing. There can be something that is a mix of both black and white. Tying into that, I like that she keeps stressing the fact that there is a mean, or a middle, in things. She uses the example that love is not divine but is not mortal either. Something else I really liked was from The Art of Courtly Love was in the section titled the Rules of Love. The quote is,

“No one can be bound by two lovers.” (pg. 301) This sounds simple enough and I used to think that this is false. I thought yes, you can love more than one person at a time; they both might have qualities that you like (which is still true… kind of). Then I came across a quote by Johnny Depp saying, “If you love two people at the same time, pick the second one. If you really loved the first one, you wouldn’t have fallen for the second.” This quote blew open the doors in my mind and made me see it from a different point of view because I totally agree with this. I connect this with the Symposium where Diotima says that not only your body, but your mind is always changing as well because maybe you did love the first but then you changed a little and the second became more appealing. The quote that ties in with this is rule number 17, “A new love expels an old one.” (pg.  301) It’s weird that I don’t agree with it, because I believe you can hold on to someone, but it fits with choosing the second lover over the first because you must not like the first one as much.

The Art of Courtly Love

The Art of Courtly Love

Andreas Capellanus (c. Late 12^th Century C.E.)

            In the section titled What is Love?, Andreas states what love is by saying it happens when you see someone of the opposite sex and are attracted to them and you want to embrace them and fulfill the commandments of love. From Whence Love is Named is an interesting section because it talks about the origin of love stating that it derives from amar (hook, love- amor) which then indicates captured or being captured which is interesting and he says it best when he states, “For he who loves is caught in the chains of desire and wishes to catch another with his hook.” (pg. 299) In the section What is the Effect of Love, I really like the quote, “…love makes an ugly and rude person shine with beauty…” (pg. 299) I think this is so true because when someone is freshly in love they tend to be all doe eyed when they walk around and they spread the happiness around by being nice to everybody and they can’t help it because they are in love. What Persons are Suited for Love is a very interesting section. Girls can be as old as 12 to be in love? Boys can be 14? I know this is a long time ago when that was custom but in this day and age, that is NOT ok. I don’t think there is an age limit of being in love (how people always say you don’t know what love is because you are too young) but when it comes to long lasting love, kids haven’t grown into themselves yet and that is the ripe age where puberty begins and they haven’t stopped changing and growing and going through stages to find who they are and who they want to be with yet. So I am glad when he goes on to mention that true love is at age 18 and under 60 (even though that part is absurd as well). When he says, “Age, blindness and excessive passion are all bars to true love.” (pg.299) I relate it to all of the discussions in class about people loving someone for their looks only and not personality. I feel like that is a very materialistic list for someone from so long ago. I love humor in these readings, “[he explains that his many years have enabled him to do more noble deeds than would be possible for a young man.]” (pg. 300) I just took this to be dirty and I like having an occasion laugh when I read things from class. In the Third Dialogue, he explains how a lower class man can be with a higher class women if he has great personality qualities about him but the noble lady says no, you have fat thighs and weird feet so you are not worthy of my love and he goes on to say a guy with nice legs isn’t all that great while the other royal has bad legs and yet the kingdom loves and adores him, therefore proving his point that the qualities one possesses within are more important than what the package holds on the outside. The Rules of Love: there are two rules that stand out to me that go hand in hand. The first is, “No one can be bound by two lovers.” (pg. 301) This sounds simple enough and I used to think that this is false. I thought yes, you can love more than one person at a time; they both might have qualities that you like (which is still true… kind of). Then I came across a quote by Johnny Depp saying, “If you love two people at the same time, pick the second one. If you really loved the first one, you wouldn’t have fallen for the second.” This quote blew open the doors in my mind and made me see it from a different point of view because I totally agree with this. I connect this with the Symposium where Diotima says that not only your body, but your mind is always changing as well because maybe you did love the first but then you changed a little and the second became more appealing. The quote that ties in with this is rule number 17, “A new love expels an old one.” (pg.  301) It’s weird that I don’t agree with it, because I believe you can hold on to someone, but it fits with choosing the second lover over the first because you must not like the first one as much.

Symptoms of love

Robert Graves (1895-1985 C.E.)

            The part of the poem that stands out to me the most is the first verse saying, “Love is a universal migraine, a bright stain on the vision blotting out all reason.” (pg.  318) I like this because as we have talked about in class a few times, when people are in love, they tend to do crazy things or they can’t see the whole picture when a lover is involved. I relate this to countless movies about abusive relationships and how the girls always sticks up for the guy until it is too late and he ends up hurting her worse than she can imagine. The girls blot out all reason because of the lover.

Sonnet: Love is Not All

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950 C.E.)

            I like this because I think she is calling out people who think that they have everything when they are in love and she’s saying, hey, no you don’t. Love doesn’t feed you or clothe you or take care of your other needs. But I also like how she turns the tables and says that being in love is driving her crazy and she could sell his love for some peace but what’s the use of that? She doesn’t want to. It’s a good sonnet.

The Symposium

Sixth Speech- The Speech of Socrates: The Nature and Origin of Love

            The first thing that popped out to me in this section was when Diotima said, “Do not then insist that what is not fair is of necessity foul, or what is not good evil; or infer that because love is not fair and good he is therefore foul and evil; for he is in a mean between them.” (pg 284) I like this because it connects back to the beginning of the year when we were talking about arguments and the general opinion of the authors was that we see issues as black and white, there is no gray area in between but she is saying that just because something isn’t one thing, it doesn’t necessarily make it the other thing. There can be something that is a mix of both black and white. Tying into that, I like that she keeps stressing the fact that there is a mean, or a middle, in things. She uses the example that love is not divine but is not mortal either. In general, I like how Diotima describes the birth of love. His mother Poverty sleeps with a passed out Plenty to create him and I thought it was a very interesting story. I have a question though, if Poverty is such a pitiful, stupid woman, then how does she get the idea to sleep with Plenty to make a baby? I just thought it was clever thinking on the part of Poverty. The last quote I liked in this section was, “For the beloved is the truly beautiful, and delicate, and perfect, and blessed; but the principle of love is of another nature, and is such as I have described.” (pg 286) I like this because in my mind it just makes sense. To me it says yes, the one you love could be perfect but loving them could be very painful. Say you absolutely love someone but they have a drug problem or something. They could be perfect for you but what do you do about the problem? You love them but can’t be with them… that situation describes exactly what the quote says to me.

The Cause and Effect of Love

            This section is the part where they start off talking about beautiful women versus good women. Diotima challenges Socrates saying when you love something beautiful, what does it give you? When he has no answer, she says ok, let me replace the word with good. Now what do you have? And he says that you gain happiness by possessing the good. So beauty isn’t always the same thing as the good; what’s inside doesn’t always match the outside. A quote I liked was, “Yes, and you hear people say that lovers are seeking for their other half; but I say that they are seeking neither for the half of themselves, nor for the whole, unless the half or the whole be also good.” (pg 286) I just could relate to this because I always think of a mate or whatever as “the other half” so I thought it was interesting that it mentions that but it ties back into you are really looking for good on the inside, not necessarily the outside. I also liked, “…for conception and generation are an immortal principle in the mortal creature…” (pg 286) I have never thought of it that way but it’s totally true. Reproducing and passing on your genes is a way to stay alive forever because there will always be a part of you in someone else. So even if you are mortal, you can be a part immortal through recreation.

            I didn’t find anything very interesting in the last section of the Symposium but I will say this, after reading it, I felt like if they were having a debate, which they kind of were, she would have destroyed him. I don’t see this as a debate though and Socrates says so himself that he went to Diotima for knowledge. I see this as more of a teacher and pupil type setting. He knew nothing and she knew it all.

Reflect and Connect: Week 13

Connect:

Reflect:
This week we have been talking about love. We started with the intro and What is Love? In the article, Dr. Helen Fisher says there are three types of love; lust, attachment, and romantic attraction. I totally believe in the lust part, I think we all have experienced that, but I thought the other two were described as too broad of subjects to really make connections with. The second reading was Song of Songs and the Art of Love. I have a strong connection with a quote from the Art of Love. This is what it says, "Love, like war, is a toss-up. The defeated can recover, while some you might think invincible collapse; so if you've got love written off as an easy option you'd better think twice. Love calls for guts and initiative." (pg 295). I connect to this because I have been defeated, but I have also recovered. While at the same time, because of being able to recover quickly, I thought I was invincible. I found out that I wasn't and I collapsed. So yes, this quote rings very true for me.

Song of Songs and The Art of Love

Song of Songs

Anonymous, Hebrew Bible (c. 10^th Century B.C.E.)

            The Song of Songs is a part of the Hebrew Bible used to describe love and lust between a man and a woman. A quote that I liked from this was, “His left arm is under my head, his right embraces me.” (pg. 282) I liked this quote because when I cuddle with someone, I like when they have one arm under me and the other around me, I feel very protected, comfortable, and safe when I am in that position with someone else and I love it the most I think.  Another quote that stood out to me was, “My beloved is mine and I am his.” (pg. 282) I like this because this pretty much explains how I think a married couple should look at one another. They should have this saying to live by and it should be true. They shouldn’t have eyes for anyone else than one another. The last quote I really liked from the Song of Songs was, “Scarcely had I passed them than I found him whom my heart loves. I held him fast, nor would I let him go till I had brought him into my mother’s house…” (pg. 282) I like this because I feel the same way, if I find that person, I always want to be holding onto them and I don’t want to let them go.  There was nothing else that spoke to me and I thought the words were nice, saying how beautiful the beloved was but I didn’t like how they were always compared to things in nature that AREN’T ATTRACTIVE. Like mountain goats and ewes. Maybe back in the day those things represented beauty but not to me.

The Art of Love

Ovid (43 B.C.E. – 18 C.E.)

            The Art of Love is by a man who was hilarious but probably looked down upon in the old days. Well, he was banished to the Black Sea shores in Rumania in 8 C.E. so he was looked down upon. I really liked this story the most because it had more things in it that I could relate to. For example, I really liked this section, “Love, like war, is a toss-up. The defeated can recover, While some you might think invincible collapse; So if you’ve got love written off as an easy option you’d better think twice. Love calls for guts and initiative.” (pg. 295) I LOVE this quote because it is so true. I can relate to almost every part of this quote. I have been defeated before but I have bounced back and been better for it by learning a lesson. While at the same time because of bouncing back every time, I thought I was invincible. This has been proven horribly wrong recently and I think that the great invincible me has finally met her match. So I know perfectly well that you do need to think twice and in order to move on and meet someone new, you need guts to get back out there. Another quote I liked just because I saw the authors true personality was, “(warning to Puritans: This volume is not for you).” (pg. 295) I love this because it reminds me of something I would say. I just think it’s so funny how he put that in there because it got a little graphic. It made me laugh out loud as I read it. The last thing I really liked was the section titled A Hot Afternoon: Siesta-Time. I liked this because I thought it was going to be another section that made sense but I didn’t really understand to the fullest but then it got pretty graphic and was kind of shocking but also a nice cool surprise. I loved it all so I won’t bother quoting it but it was great for a school reading. It even said nipples! I like how he ends it the most though, “But why catalogue details? Nothing came short of perfection, and I clasped her naked body close to mine. Fill in the rest for yourselves! Tired at last, we lay sleeping. May my siestas often turn out that way!” (pg.  296) I like this because I feel like he’s speaking in such a futuristic way. I understand exactly what he is saying and it’s funny. I like that by saying tired at last, he makes it sound like he took a long time. Also, I like that he implies that this happens a lot when he takes “siestas”, if that’s what you want to call it.

What is Love?

The general argument made by Helen Fisher in her work What is Love? is that there is many kinds of love. More specifically, Fisher suggests that there are three main types of love: lust, romantic attraction, and attachment. She writes, “…human beings evolved three basic brain networks for loving as they courted, mated, reproduced and reared their young: lust, romantic attraction, and attachment. And as days turned into centuries and nature weeded out those who failed to reproduce, natural selection hardwired these three distinct systems into the human brain.” (pg. 334) In this passage, Fisher is suggesting that these three concepts are in fact part of our brains because they have evolved that way over the centuries of human existence. In conclusion, it is Fisher’s belief that as humans, we love in three ways: lust, romantic attraction, and attachment.

            In my view, Fisher is neither right nor wrong because I think it is a very interesting theory that she presents in this article. It does make sense that these are the three ways we could love each other and I know for a fact that lust is real, but the other two I think could be explained better. For example, I feel that romantic attraction is too broad of an idea.  Just because you express romantic gestures for someone, doesn’t mean that the two of you love each other. Take Peeta and Katniss for example, at first Katniss has to pretend to love Peeta, she wouldn’t have noticed him if the bread wasn’t involved. Also, I feel that the way she describes attachment isn’t very romantic. It sounds more like a contract someone would make with someone else saying, “Hey, do you think we could raise a kid together for at least eighteen years? After that it doesn’t matter.” Although Fisher might object that these two stages can be romantic situations, I maintain that the second and third ways to love are not convincing. Therefore, I conclude that Helen Fisher is neither right nor wrong, this is her opinion and I agree with it to some extent and it was also very interesting to read about.

Reflect and Connect: Week 12

Connect:

Reflect:
In class this week we discussed the Koran. We had a list of questions to answer regarding the Koran, we were to go around the room and say how we answered the question. The question I answered was compare and contrast the views of god and morality described in the Koran with those found in the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament. I said that in the Koran, the way they talk about Allah is very respectful and they are very grateful to him for making the world around them but in the Bible, the people almost fear their god. They make him sound like a being who created the earth and then isn't happy with it so he destroys everything he made. The people don't seem thankful, they seem a bit frightened. You can sense the dictatorship almost, in the way god behaves. You can tell there is fear in the Bible were there is only love and devotion in the Koran.