RT @ebertchicago: I know it’s about a lesbian couple, but give me a break. http://twitpic.com/28khi7
RT @ebertchicago: I know it’s about a lesbian couple, but give me a break. http://twitpic.com/28khi7
RT @jcbeam: Barack Obama’s Facebook Feed: Shirley Sherrod edition http://bit.ly/9wCOJH
Still more evidence that Marilynne Robinson is our best writer today http://tinyurl.com/28q95vy
Classic Labash: http://tiny.cc/ircm7.
Love in the age of the PUA: http://www.thepointmag.com/archive/love-in-the-age-of-the-pickup-artist/
Time for “conservative class warfare”: great rant by Ross. http://tinyurl.com/3y94ang
On the important issues of the day: Hooray frivolous fripperies! http://tinyurl.com/2b8rb7w
The great mistake of the pickup artists, of Don Juans, of seducers in general, is to think that the lover is a failed version of themselves. The lover, they say, tries to “get the girl,” but just doesn’t know how—and if he learned their techniques he would. The trouble is that there is no agreement on just what this “getting” is. And, in fact, if the lover were to adopt the techniques of the pickup artists, his “getting” would become impossible. For a woman’s sexual surrender does not count as “getting” for the lover. Nor, for that matter, does her love, if the lover does not love her also. The lover’s “getting” requires his own experience: his own adventure, his road through the mountains and forests. And the reward in the valley is not sexual satisfaction; it is a proof of love. The greatest moment in Fabrizio del Dongo’s life is not a conquest, sexual or military. It is the sight of the woman he loves, shaking before his eyes. For Stendhal, love ennobles because it makes all else beautiful; both nature and art take on a new glow when one is in love, in part because one sees the beloved in every sunset, every painting. Because she has been made perfect in the process of crystallization, all that is beautiful in the world becomes part of her, a larger her, spread out over the world—naturally, then, anything beautiful will remind one of her. Love is reverie, it is akin to the artistic process. And akin to the artistic product as well: if music were always perfect, Stendhal tells us, we would never need to fall in love. Then again, he admitted almost in the same breath, perfect music only ever deepened his intoxication with his beloved.
Why I love Miss Manners: Q. Is it proper for a lady to brush her teeth in the presence of a man? A. Only if an improper act preceded it.
Has any ltr to the editor ever used the word “ironic” correctly?
