LOVE that song. So in our discussion of love in Plato's Symposium in class today, it really got me thinking about what my view of love actually is. Given sooo many different perspectives of the Symposiasts, my view of what i thought love is was washed away like a newly hatched baby turtle on the beach. (horrible simile) And today, after Sterling's great insight on the transformation (in a sense) of a lover from loving beautiful bodies to loving the soul, I realized how little experience I have on the subject (thanks a lot, but call me Aristophanes).
(the oganization of this blog posting is OFF) But I was reading a book for my history class today called The Assault (a story about people in post WWII Germany) and I read a passage regarding love and the consequences that may come about for the individiual. The main character of the book notices that his old friend, the son of a late fascist, saw hisfather as a good man that the Communists murdered because of their own selfish beliefs. He was in disbelief after they reunited because of the ignorance that his friend possessed because of LOVE. That's right I said it: LOVE. Many of the Symposiasts explained what love is in universal claims. Many people say that love heals the world, but I think its WAY more complicated than that. As demonstrated in this book, love has consequences as well (that may be a given, but let me go a bit further). I see love as something that everyone strives for (like Socrates) and it is something that many people believe they have found but in reality (that's relative i guess, but) it is not. But what is love really?? It means different things in different cultures, different things to people of different backgrounds. Love is something that is really hard to put a finger on and I started writing this without thinking about how intense the discussion of love is.
WOW, I've really opened up pandora's box so this will definitely take a few bog postings...
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Looking forward to seeing what's in the box...
ReplyDeleteBethany,
ReplyDeleteFirst, I love the blog title. Second, where's the box?! It looks like you were really onto a number of subjects, and I am particularly looking forward to seeing your extrapolations from "The Assault". Also, I really enjoy discussing communism (so it's a really good thing that I'm in this era, not the McCarthy era) and I wonder what your thoughts are about love in different political societies.
One thing that surprised me about our class discussion regarding the Symposium was how absent a discussion of "love" in other cultures is different from love in the U.S.
For example, the Japanese rarely use the word "love" except in extremely serious, deep, and meaningful ways. English language uses love to describe feelings of intense like for objects, places, people, ideas, (like I "love" the name of your blog). Yet in other languages such as Japanese, there are different words for each expression of what we would translate as "love" in the English language.
I seem to fall into language quite often. But it's interesting. What are your thoughts?
I really enjoyed reading this blog! You make an interesting point when you say that love means different things in different cultures. I've thought about this on occasion myself and have repeatedly come to the conclusion that the American culture has become de-sensitized to the idea of love. I think our language is seriously lacking when it comes to expressing ourselves in this area as bkleinemas seems to suggest. Having one word to describe all the different forms of love doesn’t make sense. In fact, now that you’ve opened Pandora’s Box you’ve inspired me to right a blog posting on the subject. I look forward to reading what else you have to say on love.
ReplyDeleteI think I'm just as confused on the subject of love as you are. It is truly one of the most complicated things to think about. Also, I'd never really thought about the fact that not every culture uses the term "love," and so they may or may not have an equivalent to it. Is our culture too focused on love, or what most people think is love?
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