accidental perfection

[my_daroga]

Last night in bed, I spent several minutes staring at one panel of the graphic novel Blankets by Craig Thompson. For the purposes of my story, it doesn't really matter which panel it was--but if you're interested, it was the one which depicts the main character/narrator masturbating to a letter his would-be girlfriend from church camp sent. It is

Comments

[trypheanoia]

I have. But that thing is nature. I spent a year or so feeling that way about every leaf, every flower, and every insect I encountered

[my_daroga]

What I'm about to say will be all contradictory and potentially hypocritical

[inlaterdays]

If love is a construct driven by biological urges (procreation?) then what is same-sex love?

I get that perfect feeling from the pattern of light through leaves, a certain kind of air movement on my skin, certain smells, phrases of music or text, or sometimes just a random free-floating random euphoria that is probably a result of my wonky brain chemistry but which beats free-floating anxiety by a mile.

[my_daroga]

If love is a construct driven by biological urges (procreation?) then what is same-sex love?

I don't believe it's entirely procreative at all! I think that security, companionship, etc are all biologically/chemically driven as well. Just as same-sex attraction has a biological foundation. Having a partner, a family, isn't just about the continuance of the species--at least, not anymore. I think the desire for those things has a chemical component. For me, that doesn't cheapen it or make it sad. Because the effects of those things are real, making the thing itself real.

And I know what you're talking about--I have distinct memories of walking through spring in my sophomore year at college, from which I mark this period of my selfhood.

[kitaloon]

A few times. Almost always it is a song, although most songs have that element to them, in my view. Once an artist was talking about how they probably had over a dozen demo versions of a song before they decided, and I had some difficulty comprehending that, because music to me was something that sprouted full-grown from the mind like Athena.

That's a rather ridiculous viewpoint, and yet in some ways I still believe it, because I have no experience writing music, and therefore I don't know where the man behind the curtain is.

[my_daroga]

Mmm, I imagine that's a fairly common experience. The finished piece is *supposed* to be "polished"--to be successful, it frequently has to look like it has no seams. My study of film has led to an interesting relationship with it, where I can no longer ignore the man behind the curtain, but love it anyway.

[femmenerd]

This reminds me of all that discussion of Barthes and "the punctum" I've been doing, but I'm too groggy to be coherent.

[my_daroga]

I know not of what you speak--but I await further coherence.

Oh, I keep forgetting to post about the Buffy singalong and How I Met kittyzams!!

[femmenerd]

The punctum is a term that Roland Barthes uses in his book on photography called "Camera Lucida." He uses to to refer to the little details that make him *love* an image, what strikes a chord with an individual. It's a lovely book, I think you might like it.

And I knew that! Isn't she adorable? I heart her to bits and pieces. :)

[my_daroga]

Oh, I shall look up his writing on the subject. Thank you.

And by all means--I am flattered!

[my_daroga]

Got the link, thanks!

And let me know what you think; I'm only about 1/4 through, but I had to stop last night because of how powerful it was. There wasn't even anything *horrible* going on--his story + drawing style just really works for me.

[carmarthen]

I think that's related, although possibly not the same thing, as my fixation on what I think of as "undying phrases," e.g. "The once and future king." I just can't comprehend that someone actually came up with these phrases that resonate though literature and history like that, and I despair of ever being able to create one. How does one create something like that?

Aragon's speech in the movie of Return of the King, the "an age of wolves, and shattered shields," which is a paraphrase of some Icelandic poetry ("Axe-age, sword-age - sundered are shields - wind-age, wolf-age, ere the world crumbles," or "until the world falls down, or any other number of translations) also does it for me. A lot of Icelandic and Anglo-Saxon poetry, and Tolkien's spinoffs thereof, are like that for me as well.

[my_daroga]

Oh, that's a really good addition. Thanks! Yes, there are phrases that sound like that cannot possibly have not existed before. I don't have any more examples, but I'll be watching out for them.