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paintedgraybeard · 5 years

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Who the heck is Kenneth Burke and how the heck is that related to Roxane Gay?!

Hello again, friendos!

Y’all ready to mcfreakin learn again?

Good!!!

So, have you heard of the philosopher, rhetorician and technophobe Kenneth Burke before?

If not, no biggie. I’m learning about him too. He’s pretty important though. He wrote absolute giggle-fests like Definition of Man (aka Definition of Human (Gender inclusivity is rad, folks)) and about things like terministic screens.

You probably don’t fully know what I’m talking about yet, but fear not!! I’m gonna explain. I’m also gonna use Roxane Gay’s Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body to help me explain parts of Burke, especially the terministic screens bit.

So, let’s start!

Burke’s definition is pretty basic, so we’ll start there. There are five parts, beginning with

1) Symbol User: This is the most important one to Burke, bc he saw that humans create their reality using symbols and that we use symbols more than anything else, making everything we do and say symbolic.

2) The Negative: Negatives do not exist in nature, therefore humans developed the negative with our symbol systems and learned our morality with the negative.

3) Separation of Human from Nature by Tech: Burke did not like tech much, believing that the unknown consequences of tech outweighed the advancements.

4) Hierarchy: Humans are drawn to the organization of a class system, but agreed with Karl Marx that it this was also the source of disagreements and war.

5) Rotten with Perfection: Too much of a good thing, amiright people??? no? okay. Well, actually, yes. Motive is not present in nature, other than the one for survival, so what drives us? Being better, of course. This is… problematic though. We may get a lot of progress done in our strive for perfection, but we out ourselves and others in a lot of danger while on the path. Burke used the example of Nazi’s and their goal for a ‘pure race’(fuck nazis). They murdered millions of people for their goal of perfection (again i say: fuck nazis).

So… that’s what it means to be human, according to Burke.

Let's talk about it! I’m gonna use Gay to help illustrate now.

Symbol: What do you think of when you hear the word ‘police’? How about the word ‘work’? What thoughts come to mind when you think of those things? Perhaps donuts? Police brutality? Pigs? Heroes? Or maybe, for work, you think of monotonous, dream job, money, boredom, capitalism, ‘getting this bread’, etc. See how every word means something more than just it's basic definition? Everything has a weight to it, a different complex meaning, and it can change from person to person. We live different lives, giving different meanings to the same things. Pretty cool, right? This is pretty much what terministic screens are too, the way we hear words and their divergent individual meanings and the way we can use them to communicate better. This can be negative though, my friend.

More on terministic screens before we move on!

Two kinds: Scientistic & Dramatistic

Scientistic is the actual definition of a word, describing what it is and isn’t.

Dramatistic is the action that guides the taken meaning of a word, so context and current meaning in the moment.

Now back to your regularly scheduled content (lol as if i has a schedule) (i cri)

2. Negative: Roxane Gay writes in her memoir Hunger, “Sometimes, people who, I think, mean well like to tell me I am not fat. They will say things like, ‘Don’t say that about yourself,’ because they understand ‘fat’ as something shameful, something insulting, while I understand ‘fat’ as a reality of my body. When I use the word, I am not insulting myself. I am describing myself”(201).

Sometimes we give basic words negative meanings, like fat. Fat is not inherently bad, but we treat it as such. Diets, doctors, offhanded comments, lack of accommodation in public and in fashion… Being plus size is not easy, especially when you reach past a certain size. The negative connotation of fat is deeper than just a linguistic meaning, it's embedded in racism, patriarchal ideals, and economics but language is a part of the issue. Our morality and ideals are sculpted by the language we use. If we use certain words in a nicer way, they gain nicer definitions and vice versa. Language and morality are constantly changing.

3. Separation of humans from nature by tech: Yeah, I’ve not got much to say for this one. I love tech. Running water? A+, my friends. Electricity? Heck yeah. Sorry, Burke. Yeah, there are issues with tech, but we are benefitting from it far more than we would without it, in my opinion.

4. Hierarchy: Gay has to deal with a lot of b.s. from assholes who think they are better than her because she is a queer, POC, fat woman. Online trolls target her, strangers make rude comments, all because people often judge her based on appearance alone instead of actually taking the time to know her. Humans can be jerks. We are often looking at others to see where we rank among them, conscious or otherwise. Sometimes it's about size, like with Gay, or it's on a much larger scale like religion or race. This hierarchy drive causes a lot of problems, but don’t worry! We can work together to make this better. When you find yourself judging someone on trivial stuff like looks, stop. Take a second to recognize your thought. Then correct yourself. “I know nothing of my fellow human being over there. I don’t know what kind of person they are. They could be the nicest person on the planet, but I’m afraid because of the way they look/worship/love? Heck nah, self. We’re gonna be kind today. We’re gonna wish that person well.” Judge people by the words they say and the actions they take. Are they tolerant, kind, funny, sweet, etc? Neat! Are they a raging jerk who hates for the sake of hatred? Gross!

5. Rotten with Perfection: There is no such thing as perfection, not for humans if we follow the sophist train of thought. We are inherently flawed beings, beautifully so. Unfortunately, we really love the idea of perfect and are often working towards perfection with little regard for our own or others safety. Burke’s example of the Nazi’s was useful, but we can relate this to Gay too. Gay developed an eating disorder for a while, like many people, and while her ed was not the usual, it still was. Many people starve themselves in the hopes to reach some standard of perfect beauty they feel they either aren’t at yet or hope to maintain. There is no such thing as perfect beauty. There is no such thing as perfect. Not here. Not for humans. And that’s okay. Our goal to improve the world for each other is good. Our goal to improve ourselves is good too, as long as we do so in a healthy way, not by starving or harming ourselves. Improve your relationships with the people in your lives, with yourself. Take your time. Seek assistance as needed. You’ve got this. We are perfectly imperfect and it’s wonderful.

Yup! That’s all I’ve got for this one. Message me if you see something that looks incorrect or if you have a question! I may not have the answer right away, but we can figure it out together. Until next time, check out Kenneth Burke’s work and Roxane Gay’s.

….

Sources:

“Definition of Man.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 26 Aug. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Definition_of_man.

Gay, Roxane. Hunger: A Memoir of My Body. HarperCollins, 2018.

“Terministic Screen.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 21 May 2017, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terministic_screen

Classes with Dr. Rory Lee. (not MLA, sorry)

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fatedreamt-blog · 5 years

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Every. Odd. Number. choose a muse i love you

detailed oc questions. / open.

1. What’s their full name? Why was that chosen? Does it mean anything?

cole’s full name - corazon lumaban - was chosen after the nickname cole! and cole came from broccoli bc it’s a… i don’t wanna say gag bc that doesn’t rlly fit but neither does theme? in their story. a lot of the names i choose for ocs are usually just names that fit right to me / the character. i don’t… put a lot of thought into them which maybe i should but? fhskjh either way, names are chosen based off a theme / aesthetic i want to convey ( cain / abel’s slight biblical themes and the story influencing cain’s, houston’s name being based off of houston, texas, and texas being, for me anyways, the first state you think of when you think of southern, etc ), or are just made up on the spot / randomly given based on the feel it gives. rhys’s last name, matthews, was an on the spot name, and so was katherine’s first name.

3. Did they have a good childhood? What are fond memories they have of it? What’s a bad memory?

monroe had a good childhood! they had hearing but supportive parents who made sure they learned asl at a young age. they attended a deaf/hoh school when they were younger, but switched to a regular public school when they got older bc they wanted to meet more people. of course, they have bad memories in relation to being hoh, but the good far outweighs the bad.

stribog had… a complicated childhood. his parents were there, but because he grew up in a large family and a large household, he eventually grew to get used to being excluded or forgotten. he likes to think it’s not his parents’ fault, and has fond memories of having cole over, or playing with his siblings. he had a good relationship with his siblings - with its obvious bumps of course - and is okay with the childhood he had.

5. Do they have any siblings? What’s their names? What is their relationship with them? Has their relationship changed since they were kids to adults?

leaf has 2 step siblings named tomone and masao. her relationship with them is… very strained, and the comparison made to them by her parents fueled her inferiority complex. she’s very bitter towards them and doesn’t really like to talk to her family, because while tomone and masao are friendly enough, something about them always digs up memories and makes her feel bad. it doesn’t help that when she still had contact with her parents, they still compared her to her step siblings even when she turned 18. she cut contact with them when she turned 19.

mk’s older brother and guardian is bryan admon! he was sorta… thrust into this older brother slash guardian figure because their dad started to become very busy and absent, and their mom died giving birth to mk. they have a close relationship, and while mk is omniscient, bryan still takes care of them as best as he can. he doesn’t understand a lot about them or their obligations because he’s just a regular ol human, but he tries his best to help out and support them. he’s a good.

7. Did they have lots of friends as a child? Did they keep any of their childhood friends into adulthood?

……i’m looking at my ocs list and i don’t think any of them really were popular as kids…? i’m sure they had the occasional friend ( ash, noah, monroe, etc ), but some of them were isolated and didn’t make friends easy. i’d say miriam kept some of her childhood friends well into adulthood!

9. Do animals like them? Do they get on well with animals?

synne, the druid they are, LOVES animals. they connect with them better than they do with most people, and in modern au, work at a pet store. animals usually like them. micah and monroe love birds specifically and are probably friends + part of the same birdwatching club. birds like micah, and a specific family of birds that made residence in 1 of their flower pots like monroe.

11. Do they have any special diet requirements? Are they a vegetarian? Vegan? Have any allergies?

katherine and rory are both vegetarians! the former also doesn’t like eggs, just because she dislikes the texture, and needs more protein in her diet. neither of them have allergies. rory makes Amazing veggie burgers and really goes out of his way to replicate certain food, but vegetarian. he tries to shy away from animal-based products, but isn’t super strictly vegan. katherine just… throws together whatever she can for dinner. she adjusts easily.

13. What is their least favourite food?

noah… does not like anything with a chunky texture, and especially hates cottage and blue cheese.

15. Are they good at cooking? Do they enjoy it? What do others think of their cooking?

ash is pretty good at cooking! so is micah, rory and andy. other people are in a general consensus that they make good food. toby… we know of his cooking and eating habits and no one approves of them

17. Do they like to take photos? What do they like to take photos of? Selfies? What do they do with their photos?

andy loves taking photos!! she likes remembering and commemorating events and will insist on taking pictures whenever she can. she likes to organize them into albums on her phone, or make them into scrapbooks. she seldom takes selfies of herself. as she is a model, she figures she has enough photos of herself out there.

micah, on the other hand, has no photos of him available. he tries not to get into pictures a lot, which andy is understanding of. it’s probably connected to the fact that there’s no information about him anywhere.

19. What’s their least favourite genres?

jo doesn’t like music that’s loud for the sake of being loud.

21. Do they have a temper? Are they patient? What are they like when they do lose their temper?

rory… has somewhat of a temper? he gets really protective which manifests in aggression, but it’s not angry. you can tell he’s angry when he’s oddly silent and quiet, a simmering kind of rage that bites at you. he’s really patient though. the same applies to toby - no one’s really ever seen him angry before, but when he is, he goes silent. it’s terrifying.

jo doesn’t have a temper, but she does have a bit of an explosive anger. when she’s really mad at someone - which doesn’t happen often, because she’s usually a chill and easygoing person - she just bursts and yells. it’s a lot.

leaf cries when she’s angry. she doesn’t get angry too easily, but there are things that poke at her, and she’s just sobbing when she gets mad.

23. Do they have a good memory? Short term or long term? Are they good with names? Or faces?

houston and mk both have excellent memories - it comes with being omniscient. they remember faces and names easily, even far into their life. leaf’s forgetful, and usually has to write things down to remember them.

25. What do they find funny? Do they have a good sense of humour? Are they funny themselves?

miriam loves videos like that one video of the girl asking alexa to play baby shark. it more makes her smile than anything else, but it brightens her day a lot. she also finds karma and irony funny, and has a pretty good sense of humor about things. she’s pretty funny! she has a very specific brand of humor.

27. What makes them sad? Do they cry regularly? Do they cry openly or hide it? What are they like they are sad?

as mentioned above, leaf cries a lot. it’s the first reaction that comes to her. not a lot of things make her sad enough to cry, though, but sometimes she’ll just randomly remember something or something will dampen her mood a lot and she’ll cry. she’s grown to cry silently, and will often hide out in bathrooms of public places sometimes. she has a game with herself that it’s her “goal” to cry in every public bathroom. it helps her cope. she’s a lot more cheery when she’s sad as an attempt to hide how miserable she is.

29. What do they do when they find out someone else’s fear? Do they tease them? Or get very over protective?

micah gets protective and tries to steer them away from their fear if it pops up. rhys’ll probably use it against the person if it’s not a loved one, and will likely use it as a part of his fear tactic.

31. Do they drink? What are they like drunk? What are they like hungover? How do they act when other people are drunk or hungover? Kind or teasing?

stribog drinks to cope, but it’s not that often. just when he’s really stressed. he gets very quiet when he’s drunk, very emotional and honest, and doesn’t really get hangovers. he comforts other people when they’re drunk and tries his best to be kind towards them. rhys has no alcohol tolerance and tries not to drink in the first place.

jo refuses to drink at all. it’s not her thing, and she doesn’t want to be involved in it.

33. What underwear do they wear? Boxers or briefs? Lacey? Comfy granny panties?

andy wears all sorts of underwear! nothing else to say about that - they’re usually very cute and pretty though, and typically patterned.

35. What’s their guilty pleasure? What is their totally unguilty pleasure?

cain’s guilty pleasure… bad sitcoms. he finds them fascinatingly enjoyable in a weird, sadistic way. they’re so bad they’re funny to him. he also likes things that remind him of his childhood - stuffed animals, for example, are one of them. his unguilty pleasure is long, detailed novels.

37. Do they like to read? Are they a fast or slow reader? Do they like poetry? Fictional or non fiction?

ash is a fast reader! she likes reading, and definitely likes poetry. mary shelly’s one of her favorite authors - or at least, good to read - and she likes the last man and the mortal immortal. she enjoys books that deal with moral dilemmas and reality, but is also a sucker for romance novels. she tends to lean towards fiction, but will read nonfiction sometimes. being a librarian, she has a wide array of book to choose from.

39. Do they like letters? Or prefer emails/messaging?

monroe likes the aesthetic of letters! while emails and messaging are quicker and easier, they like receiving and writing letters. there’s something so weirdly nostalgic and heart fluttering about getting a hand written letter in the mail to them.

miriam prefers emailing and messaging, but will always send hand written thank you notes whenever she or her kids get a gift.

41. What’s their sexuality? What do they find attractive? Physically and mentally? What do they like/need in a relationship?

cole is pan! they don’t really have any specific type, but they do tend to fall in love with sweet, kind, quiet people. people who are unassuming, but try to do good. they like and need trust in a relationship, as well as understanding. sometimes they’re not doing so hot and they need their partner to know that they need distance. i’ve got a Whole meta about leaf and love/relationships in my metas tag, so i don’t think i need to touch upon that hgkjsh

43. Are they religious? What do they think of religion? What do they think of religious people? What do they think of non religious people?

miriam is christian, and has definitely used religion as an anchor. her faith’s helped her during hardships in her life, and thinks it’s a good stability to have in life, but understands why other people may not believe in god and respects that.

45. How do other people see them? Is it similar to how they see themselves?

mk describes themself as an oddity, an ethereal abomination. they know they’re not ordinary, and fully embraces that, even using it to freak people out sometimes. a lot of kids - and adults, occasionally - do think they’re weird and a freak, which isn’t something they really… like. they don’t like being called a freak. mk thinks that they’re a pretty okay kid.

rhys sees himself as… well, a machine. he does think highly of himself, but it’s more that he thinks highly of his origin than of himself. it’s not oh, rhys is better, it’s oh, robots are better. he really has no opinions on himself otherwise. people see him as a charming person, usually, because that’s what he presents himself as. but y’know. We All Know The Truth

47. How do they act in a formal occasion? What do they think of black tie wear? Do they enjoy fancy parties and love to chit chat or loathe the whole event?

micah likes dressing up! he likes making it a thing and going all out. he seldom gets to wear suits and the like, so wearing them and going to a party or something is fun to him. he likes to chit chat, and what he does puts him as someone important and charitable to a lot of people. not only does he donate a lot of his earnings, he also has a mansion / penthouse where he lets people stay if they’re refugees, homeless, coming from bad situations, etc. he gets invited to fancy charity events often, and likes going to them occasionally.

monroe finds them stuffy and boring, and stribog gets nervous at them. rhys is practically used to them, though.

49. What is their most valued object? Are they sentimental? Is there something they have to take everywhere with them?

cain doesn’t like holding connections to his past, but he does have a very ratty, very old teddy bear from his mom. it sits in a drawer in his desk that’s locked, and he’s very protective over it. he doesn’t want anything bad happening to it.

synne has their circlet, which is something they enjoy for aesthetic reasons, but it’s also a reminder on why they’re going out on adventures and the such. it helps them not lose sight of their goal. of course, their adventures and the reason for doing them have changed and advanced, but still. they take it everywhere with them, as it is part of their outfit, and is relatively sentimental.

#useknives #THANK U ILYSM!!!!!!!#AA #long post #4 ppl on mobile hgskjth #alcohol #death #ask to tag #system upgrades. / headcanons: rhys.#she painted smiles on every face except her own. / headcanons: ash.#which part of jolene died that day? / headcanons: jo.#seawater chokes you. / headcanons: katherine.#nostalgia is a dirty liar who insists things were better back then. / headcanons: leaf.#you cut the roots off of flowers to prove they can be free too. / headcanons: mushroom kid.#you're worse than nicotine. / headcanons: noah.#if only hell didn't feel like home. / headcanons: rory.#what prayers do we say when we think god isn't listening? / headcanons: andy.#if anyone asks you haven't heard of me. / headcanons: micah.#the greatest mystery is himself. / headcanons: houston.#half truths are still half lies. / headcanons: cain.#we're alone in the ocean. / headcanons: cole.#it does not heal. not today. maybe tomorrow. / headcanons: stribog.#facts you don't know about yourself. / headcanons: toby.#everyone is guilty of something. / headcanons: synne.#......i should've added ado atlas n dustin 2 but I Forgot Bc They're Not Fandomless #/ Original Canons #fhksjhg o well maybe next time #find the art in everything. / headcanons: miriam.#i've never been one to half ass shenanigans. / headcanons: monroe.

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nimblermortal · 7 years

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Right, time for a Lewis theology liveblog masterpost

Health is a great blessing, but the moment you make health one of your main, direct objects you start becoming a crank and imagining there is something wrong with you. You are only likely to get health provided you want other things more - food, games, work, fun, open air.

The wife may be a good wife, and the hotels and scenery may have been excellent, and chemistry may be a very interesting job; but something has evaded us. - STOP TREATING WOMEN AS THINGS.

This section on Christian charity seems blindingly obvious to me; but then, I remember it being a bit of a marvel once. (The idea is a sort of ‘fake it til you make it’ about liking people; that if you dislike someone, and do them a good turn, you trick yourself into liking them better; and that it’s important to do this for everyone.)

And secondly, we might try to understand exactly what loving your neighbor as yourself means. I have to love him as I love myself. Well, how exactly do I love myself? Now that I come to think of it, I have not exactly got a feeling of fondness or affection for myself, and I do not even always enjoy my own society. - I, for one, consider ‘wanting myself to improve’ to be a fundamental part of loving myself; but there’s also the aspect of loving my teenage self, with all her faults and bigotry and idiocies, with a deep and overweening fondness; and by extrapolation, I must feel the same about myself. But that doesn’t preclude noting my own flaws and trying to make them better; and I think that just so, though this is not the point Lewis is making, you love the people around you while valuing the flaws that make you wince. Or flinch. And there’s an aspect of this that I do not, in fact, want to get into on tumblr; on the preceding page in fact. But nyah-hah, mortals, you don’t know what book I’m reading, much less what page I’m on.

I’m going to have to make a photo post or two, because I don’t want to transcribe all of this.

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(As Screwtape to Wormwood)

They are animals and whatever their bodies do affects their souls... Teach them to estimate the value of each prayer by their success in producing the desired feeling; and never let them suspect how much success or failure of that kind depends on whether they are well or ill, fresh or tired, at the moment. - He’s also talking about praying for charity vs manufacturing charitable feelings for themselves, praying for courage vs feeling brave, praying for forgiveness vs trying to feel forgiven; I do not entirely follow here, but I think it may have to do with feeling for oneself vs the ‘on behalf of others’ that started the prayer. Or maybe just saying you have to focus on God for the prayer, which seems silly to me, especially given the entire section toward the beginning on what prayer is.

Never forget that when we are dealing with any pleasure in its healthy and normal and satisfying form we are, in a sense, on the Enemy’s ground. I know we have won many a soul through pleasure. All the same, it is His invention, not ours. He made the pleasures: all our research so far has not enabled us to produce one. - He goes on, but I don’t care to just now.

Your patient has become humble; have you drawn his attention to this fact? All virtues are less formidable to us once the man is aware that he has them, but this is specially true of humility. Catch him at the moment when he is really poor in spirit and smuggle into his mind the gratifying reflection, “By jove! I’m being humble,” and almost immediately pride - pride at his own humility - will appear. If he awakes to the danger and tries to smother this new form of pride, make him proud of the attempt - and so on, through as many stages as you please. But don’t try this too long, for fear you awake his sense of humor and proportion, in which case he will merely laugh at you and go to bed.

By this virtue, as by all others, our Enemy wants to turn the man’s attention away from himself to Him, and to the man’s neighbors... You must therefore conceal from the patient the true end of Huility. Let him think of it, not as self-forgetfulness, but as a certain kind of opinion (namely, a low opinion) of his own talents and character... By this method thousands of humans have been brought to think that humility means pretty women trying to believe they are ugly and clever men trying to believe they are fools.

Joy... is of itself disgusting and a direct insult to the realism, dignity, and austerity of Hell.

Fun... promotes charity, courage, contentment, and many other evils.

A thousand bawdy, or even blasphemous, jokes do not help toward a man’s damnation so much as his discovery that almost anything he wants to do can be done, not only without the disapproval but with the admiration of his fellows, if only it can get itself treated as a Joke.

[Flippancy] is a thousand miles away from joy; it deadens, instead of sharpening, the intellect; and it excites no affection between those who practice it. - At first I was going to say that he’s quite wrong here, and then I thought a second longer and decided against it, and noted that it rather strongly resembles my observation that being critical of something is a very easy way to feel clever and witty and powerful; it’s extremely easy to look cool by degrading something. Oscar Wilde was clever, but largely because he made fun of things. It’s actually something to avoid. Unless discussing Texas or Florida.

Because what she wants is smaller and less costly than what has been set before her, she never recognizes as gluttony her determination to get what she wants, however troublesome it may be to others.

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What they are always thinking of is the mark which the action leaves on that tiny central self which no one sees in this life but which each of us will have to endure - or enjoy - forever... Each [in his anger] has done something to himself which, unless he repents, will make it harder for him to keep out of the rage next time he is tempted, and will make the rage worse when he does fall into it. - This has been scientifically proven, actually; for anger and depression, at least. Each time you succumb, it carves deeper, clearer channels in your brain for those neurons to fire down the next time, and so each successive rage or depressive episode can be longer and worse than the last.

Christ takes it for granted that men are bad. - Ordinarily I would hate this; the assumption that men are bad in particular. It implies we should despise them, in both senses of the word. But when you say Christ does it, it does not mean he thinks less of people, but that he accepts this is a fact, and that every motion you make in the other direction is a delight and a thing to be proud of. Of course, Lewis is going in a different direction - saying you have to continually recognize that people are bad. I assume so that you yourself can find ways to improve; for what’s the point of saying ‘broken’ if the corollary is not ‘how do I fix it?’

We must distinguish between two degrees and kinds of work - the one wholly good and necessary to the animal side of the animal rationale, the other a punitive deterioration of the former due to the Fall.

Laziness means more work in the long run... The cowardly thing is also the most dangerous thing.

A husband and wife chatting over a fire, a couple of friends having a game of darts in a pub, a man reading a book in his own room or digging in his own garden - that is what the State is there for. And unless they are helping to increase and prolong and protect such moments, all the laws, parliaments, armies, courts, police, economics, etc., are simply a waste of time.

Interjection: Lewis does, occasionally, reveal himself as a misogynist and a homophobe, and says things like ‘if a man does not work, he does not eat’, and he will keep saying things about other faiths that are along the lines of ‘Christianity is like mathematics. There is one right answer, but there are some wrong answers that are more right than others.’ He also keeps saying that you have to take all of Christianity, that the weight of two thousand years outweighs any little arguments you can come up with, you can’t pick and choose, etc; and all of these are things that I cannot agree with, but he will keep bringing up that last bit.

Oh, and he says things like For some people, perhaps especially for Englishmen and Russians, what we call ‘the love of nature’ is a permanent and serious sentiment. On the other hand, the rest of that section, describing how one loves nature, is another thing I find blindingly obvious - the need to exist in nature and feel oneself dissolve into the flow of it. Not that he goes that far.

There is indeed a peculiar charm, both in Friendship and in Eros, about those moments when Appreciative love lies, as it were, curled up asleep, and the mere ease and ordinariness of the relationship (free as solitude, yet neither is alone) wraps us round. No need to talk. No need to make love. No needs at all except perhaps to stir the fire.

The typical expression of opening Friendship would be something like, “What? You too? I thought I was the only one.”

It is when two such persons discover one another, when, whether with immense difficulties and semiarticulate fumblings or with what would seem to us amazing and elliptical speed, they share their vision - it is then that Friendship if born. And instantly they stand together in an immense solitude.

All who share it will be our companions; but one or two or three who share something more will be our Friends. In this kind of love, as Emerson said, Do you love me? means Do you see the same truth? - Or at least, “Do you care about the same truth?” The man who agrees with us that some question, little regarded by others, is of great importance can be our Friend. He need not agree with us about the answer. - This strikes me as very Marauders, frankly. And I think it may solve the Problem of Peter Pettigrew.

The Friends will still be doing something together, but something more inward, less widely shared, and less easily defined; still hunters, but of some immaterial quarry; still collaborating, but in some work the world does not, or not yet, take account of; still traveling companions, but on a different kind of journey. Hence we picture lovers face to face but Friends side by side; their eyes look ahead.

We are under no obligation at all to sing our love duets in the throbbing, world-without-end, heartbreaking manner of Tristan and Isolde; let us often sing like Papageno and Papagena instead.

Divine Gift-love in the man enables him to love what is not naturally lovable: lepers, criminals, enemies, morons, the sulky, the superior, and the sneering.

By a high paradox, God enables men to have a Gift-love toward Himself. There is, of course, a sense in which no one can give to God anything which is not already His; and if it is already His, what have you given? ...He has nevertheless made [it] ours in such a way that we can freely offer it back to Him.

---some discussion of sex in this section---

The sexual act, when lawful - which means chiefly when consistent with good faith and charity - bleh, etc. This is an interesting phrase which, I think, might contradict Lewis in other places; I’m interested to see. I’m also... well, now I think about how Lewis has defined charity earlier, that makes sense as well. I think the ‘good faith’ is meant as it initially appears, and so precludes e.g. rape; the ‘charity’ has to do with previous paragraphs about how charity is wrapped up in love of mankind, oneself, one’s neighbor, and generally feeling that love for everyone around you. I think I did put something about that above. And so it pulls in earlier commentary about Eros and how it is tied up in a bit I did not transcribe about falling in love - A man in this state really hasn’t leisure to think of sex. He is too busy thinking of a person. The fact that she is a woman is far less important than the fact that she is herself. He is full of desire, but the desire may not be sexually toned. If you ask him what he wanted, the true reply would often be, “To go on thinking of her.” So this sort of emotional attachment to the act. And now I /have/ to go and finish the sentence that started this, because I’ve no intention of condemning one night stands &c - it ends can, like all other merely natural acts... be done to the glory of God, and will then be holy. I am not sure what ‘done to the glory of God’ means, but it may have to do with the discussions of love, and divine/Gift-love, and turned outward rather than inward...

The monstrosity of sexual intercourse outside marriage is that those who indulge in it are trying to isolate one kind of union (the sexual) from all the other kinds of union which were intended to go along with it and make up the total union. The Christian attitude does not mean that there is anything wrong about sexual pleasure, any more than about the pleasures of eating. It means that you must not try to isolate that pleasure and try to get it by itself, any more than you ought to try to get the pleasures of taste without swallowing and digesting, by chewing things and spitting them out again. - But then, we do have wine tastings. And coffee tastings. And, if Brooklyn 99 is to be believed, which it probably is not, pizza tastings.

---End discussion of sex---

[All Churches] regard divorce as something like cutting up a living body, as a kind of surgical operation. Some of them think the operation is so violent that it cannot be done at all; others admit it as a desperate remedy in extreme cases. They are all agreed that it is more like having both your legs cut off than it is like dissolving a business partnership or even deserting a regiment. - which makes it sound like an occasionally necessary medical procedure, which I like; and draws some really nice parallels to abortion, which... frankly seem appropriate.

I much approve of merrymaking. But what I approve of much more is everybody minding his own business. I see no reason why I should volunteer views as to how other people should spend their own money in their own leisure among their own friends. It is highly probable that they want my advice on such matters as little as I want theirs. - Oooh, he’s cranky. (This section is titled ‘Christmas and Xmas’, but seems to be developing into a diatribe on commercialism, and the prose is much more emotional than the preceding two hundred pages.)

I did not find the frontline trenches or the C.C.S. more full of hatred, selfishness, rebellion, and dishonesty than any other place...My memories of the last war haunted my dreams for years...I’m not a pacifist. If it’s got to be, it’s got to be. But the flesh is weak and selfish and I think death would be much better than to live through another war. Thank God He has not allowed my faith to be greatly tempted by the present horror. I do not doubt that whatever misery He permits will be for our ultimate good unless by rebellious will we convert it to evil. But I get no further than Gethsemane*; and am daily thankful that that scene of all others in our Lord’s life did not go unrecorded.

*where Jesus prayed while his disciples slept, the night before he got crucified. If I recall my childhood lessons correctly, it’s where Jesus did a bit of a ‘Do I have to, it will hurt’ about the whole business.

Almost the whole of Christian theology could perhaps be deduced from the two facts (a) That men make course jokes, and (b) That they feel the dead to be uncanny. - A funny statement, but presented honestly; he means that we find our own animality either objectionable or funny and that we expect to be a weird chimera, in the Fullmetal Alchemist sense, of spirit and matter, which is not weird to any being that is wholly one or the other, but as a centaur stuck in between, we find the idea of being either wholly spirit (a ghost) or matter (a corpse) to be uncanny and objectionable.

Huh. Now he is saying that the Bible rejoices about the prospect of judgment because judaically we sit as plaintiffs in this court, and in the modern school of thought we fear it because we are in the defendant’s seat. We are the small man with a watertight case who, if he can just get into the court, will have everything granted to him; and Judgment is to put us in that court.

My favorite imagine on [the matter of Purgatory] comes from the dentist’s chair. I hope that when the tooth of life is drawn and I am coming round, a voice will say ‘Rinse your mouth out with this.’ This will be a Purgatory.

#Nimblermortal liveblogs #this post will update #oh Lewis do keep talking about Friends #you could write a book about Friends #fine by me

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