beauty and sublimity, love and possession
I'm typing all these thoughts up here, because if I write them amongst my notes I will confuse myself when it comes to revision. I think these thoughts all come from the fact that the words used have very different meanings to they did.
Basically I am studying the concept of beauty and sublimity at the moment. I will not go into any great detail but I am reading Edmund Burke and he argues that beauty is something that inspires love and the love that it inspires is one that does not desire. Desire and love can go alongside, but they are not the same thing. Now, I realise that Burke is talking about sexual desire - he makes that explicit, but I was thinking about it and it occurred to me. Is it possible to find something beautiful, to love something, without wanting to possess it? I'm not talking about a member of the opposite sex. Or rather I can be, but I'm not talking in sexual terms.
The way I want to put it is thus: my friend and I have a joke amongst us that I have an adopted family, made up of people whom I adore but am not sexually attracted to. One of these people is David Tennant. I'm not attracted to him at all in that way (those of you who have known me for a long time will be aware that I've not always felt this way!) but I admire him as a man of beauty. As such, I would say that I do, in part, want to possess him. I think the kind of possession that I'm talking about is not a physical one as such, just a strange desire.
I'll rephrase. Sometimes I will see a particularly beautiful child and think to myself 'my word, if I have children, I hope they look like that'. If I'm particularly broody I will look at the child and think something along the lines of 'argh, must kidnap child now! MUST STEAL. MUSSSTTTTTTTTTT HAAAAAVEEEEE CHIIIIIIILLLLLLLLD'. That doesn't mean I'm actually going to try to possess the child but it's still a desire for that child.
We also radiate towards beautiful people and feel love for them. We find ourselves wishing to have them as friends. I think this is a desire for possession.
And when it comes to inanimate objects (which Burke also mentions), I most certainly desire them if I find them beautiful and feel the natural response that comes from it, love. A simplistic example is a painting of great beauty. I have beautiful paintings on my walls and this comes from a desire to possess those paintings. Even when I am in nature and see a particularly beautiful view, I feel a strange desire to possess that landscape, even though I know it's an impossibility. I don't just mean owning the land, I mean somehow taking hold of the view and physically storing it away somehow.
So love and desire are not the same thing, we know that. But I think it is possible to love something 'purely', without any sexual desire, and still want to possess it.
How about you? I am intrigued. I am also more than likely not making any sense to anybody other than myself!
Basically I am studying the concept of beauty and sublimity at the moment. I will not go into any great detail but I am reading Edmund Burke and he argues that beauty is something that inspires love and the love that it inspires is one that does not desire. Desire and love can go alongside, but they are not the same thing. Now, I realise that Burke is talking about sexual desire - he makes that explicit, but I was thinking about it and it occurred to me. Is it possible to find something beautiful, to love something, without wanting to possess it? I'm not talking about a member of the opposite sex. Or rather I can be, but I'm not talking in sexual terms.
The way I want to put it is thus: my friend and I have a joke amongst us that I have an adopted family, made up of people whom I adore but am not sexually attracted to. One of these people is David Tennant. I'm not attracted to him at all in that way (those of you who have known me for a long time will be aware that I've not always felt this way!) but I admire him as a man of beauty. As such, I would say that I do, in part, want to possess him. I think the kind of possession that I'm talking about is not a physical one as such, just a strange desire.
I'll rephrase. Sometimes I will see a particularly beautiful child and think to myself 'my word, if I have children, I hope they look like that'. If I'm particularly broody I will look at the child and think something along the lines of 'argh, must kidnap child now! MUST STEAL. MUSSSTTTTTTTTTT HAAAAAVEEEEE CHIIIIIIILLLLLLLLD'. That doesn't mean I'm actually going to try to possess the child but it's still a desire for that child.
We also radiate towards beautiful people and feel love for them. We find ourselves wishing to have them as friends. I think this is a desire for possession.
And when it comes to inanimate objects (which Burke also mentions), I most certainly desire them if I find them beautiful and feel the natural response that comes from it, love. A simplistic example is a painting of great beauty. I have beautiful paintings on my walls and this comes from a desire to possess those paintings. Even when I am in nature and see a particularly beautiful view, I feel a strange desire to possess that landscape, even though I know it's an impossibility. I don't just mean owning the land, I mean somehow taking hold of the view and physically storing it away somehow.
So love and desire are not the same thing, we know that. But I think it is possible to love something 'purely', without any sexual desire, and still want to possess it.
How about you? I am intrigued. I am also more than likely not making any sense to anybody other than myself!