Kalithea: There is something non rational @ best or irrational @ worst about love...

I suppose that one could argue the idea of love has evolved over the ages. Historians date the history o' love into three groups generally.

The first being the Ancient Greek View on love and define it as asymmetrical and homosexual. (IE Pausania's definition of Divine Love in Plato's Symposium as: The love of an older man for the soul of a younger man.) There was this idea that women being uneducated couldn't understand what love really was, which I left them out of the romantic tragedies of that century... lucky them!

Courtly Love appeared in the middle ages and lasted until the 12th Century and was generally a description of an ALTERNATIVE to marriage. Arranged marriages proving that aristocrats don't make the best cupids ? We've heard it all before, Romeo & Juliet, lovers who are perfect for each other but alas the world has got in the way. Hell.. this story is still retold in sickening volumes all over Hollywood.

Contemporary Love, or 'Romantic Love' (17th C - NOW) is described as a symmetrical, ennobling, loyal grand passion for another person. An ideal progression from infatuation to marriage.

If you ask me, all three eras sound like a fairy tale to me. (C'mon Disney does it best... Cinderella was written for Courtly Love Lady & The Tramp for Contemporary Love.. I'm sure there are some homoerotic fairy tales out there that would describe the Ancient Greek view.. Forgive me, my knowledge in that genre is a tad bit limited.)

Hogwash. That's right.. Hogwash. :) Love's nothing but desire, and Immanuel Kant best described desire in 'Duties to the Body and Crimes Against Nature'

- 'The desire which a man has for a woman is not directed towards her because she is a human being, but because she is a woman; that she is a human being is of no concern to the man; only her sex is the object of his desire'

We're all objects and loves a lie which justifies our desires.

I'm a cynic, I'll admit it! And as a follow up to the last post, here are a few of my all time favorite 'Love Tunes' which perfectly encompass my lack of belief in all three eras of love!

Enjoy

xxx

Nada Surf- Your Legs Grow

Frightened Rabbit- The Modern Leper & Good Arms vs Bad Arms

Cut Off Your Hands- Still Fond

The Frames- Dream Awake

American Princes- Real Love

DC4C- Cath

Band of Horses- No ones gonna love you

TV on the Radio- Love Dog

Dear and the Headlights- I'm Bored You're Amorous

Wintersleep- Routine & also Avalanche