Nom nom
Munch munch
Crunch crunch
Yomp yom
Chomp chomp
Rom crom
Aump aump
Hahm hahm
Mmmyaom
Slllllurrrp
Schlomp schlomp
SLCHELEVHCEHE
Help me think of more!
Feb 26, 2009
Feb 24, 2009
The Art of Courtly Love, by Andreas Capellanus
I mentioned earlier that I'd bought the book. It's been coming up recently in Chaucer class, so I decided to read it in full.
It's one of those landmark works that anyone writing on love for three hundred years were influenced by it in some way. Nearly every romance that comes after can be read in its general terms. It's a 12th century text, written in Latin for a French court audience that was in the midst of a culture of love. Capellanus describes different features of love at length, nearly always from the perspective of the male lover. Thus far it's interesting.
This text has been brought up in every medieval literature class I have ever taken. Nearly all of them gave out a handout of the same page from the book, one summarizing the laws that Capellanus treats at length. I'll post them here, to give some idea of what "courtly love" could mean.
1. Marriage is no real excuse for not loving.
2. He who is not jealous can not love.
3. No one can be bound by a double love.
4. It is well known that love is always increasing or decreasing.
5. That which a lover takes against the will of his beloved has no relish.
6. Boys do not love until they have reached the age of maturity.
7. When a lover dies, a widowhood of two years is required of the survivor.
8. No one should be deprived of love without the very best of reasons.
9. No one can love unless he is impelled by the persuasion of love.
10. Love is always a stranger in the home of avarice.
11. It is not proper to love any woman whom one would be ashamed to seek to marry.
12. A true lover does not desire to embrace in love anyone except his beloved.
13. When made public love rarely endures.
14. The easy attainment of love makes it of little value; difficulty of attainment makes it prized.
15. Every lover regularly turns pale in the presence of his beloved.
16. When a lover suddenly catches sight of his beloved, his heart palpitates.
17. A new love puts to flight an old one.
18. Good character alone makes any man worthy of love.
19. If love diminishes, it quickly fails and rarely revives.
20. A man in love is always apprehensive.
21. Real jealousy always increases the feeling of love.
22. Jealousy, and therefore love, are increased when one suspects his beloved.
23. He whom the thought of love vexes eats and sleeps very little.
24. Every act of a lover ends in the thought of his beloved.
25. A true lover considers nothing good except what he thinks will please his beloved.
26. Love can deny nothing to love.
27. A lover can never have enough of the solaces of his beloved.
28. A slight presumption causes a lover to suspect his beloved.
29. A man who is vexed by too much passion usually does not love.
30. A true lover is constantly and without intermission possessed by the thought of his beloved.
31. Nothing forbids one woman being loved by two men or one man by two women.
You can see why it got used in so many love-plots and stories. The rules privilege jealousy, honor secrecy, demand sole adherence, encourage flights of passion (excepting 29), and imply from the start extra-marital affairs. They're different rules for a time where marriage was done for concerns that had nothing to do with love, and love could be sentimentalized without it seeming soft or effeminate.
It's one of those landmark works that anyone writing on love for three hundred years were influenced by it in some way. Nearly every romance that comes after can be read in its general terms. It's a 12th century text, written in Latin for a French court audience that was in the midst of a culture of love. Capellanus describes different features of love at length, nearly always from the perspective of the male lover. Thus far it's interesting.
This text has been brought up in every medieval literature class I have ever taken. Nearly all of them gave out a handout of the same page from the book, one summarizing the laws that Capellanus treats at length. I'll post them here, to give some idea of what "courtly love" could mean.
1. Marriage is no real excuse for not loving.
2. He who is not jealous can not love.
3. No one can be bound by a double love.
4. It is well known that love is always increasing or decreasing.
5. That which a lover takes against the will of his beloved has no relish.
6. Boys do not love until they have reached the age of maturity.
7. When a lover dies, a widowhood of two years is required of the survivor.
8. No one should be deprived of love without the very best of reasons.
9. No one can love unless he is impelled by the persuasion of love.
10. Love is always a stranger in the home of avarice.
11. It is not proper to love any woman whom one would be ashamed to seek to marry.
12. A true lover does not desire to embrace in love anyone except his beloved.
13. When made public love rarely endures.
14. The easy attainment of love makes it of little value; difficulty of attainment makes it prized.
15. Every lover regularly turns pale in the presence of his beloved.
16. When a lover suddenly catches sight of his beloved, his heart palpitates.
17. A new love puts to flight an old one.
18. Good character alone makes any man worthy of love.
19. If love diminishes, it quickly fails and rarely revives.
20. A man in love is always apprehensive.
21. Real jealousy always increases the feeling of love.
22. Jealousy, and therefore love, are increased when one suspects his beloved.
23. He whom the thought of love vexes eats and sleeps very little.
24. Every act of a lover ends in the thought of his beloved.
25. A true lover considers nothing good except what he thinks will please his beloved.
26. Love can deny nothing to love.
27. A lover can never have enough of the solaces of his beloved.
28. A slight presumption causes a lover to suspect his beloved.
29. A man who is vexed by too much passion usually does not love.
30. A true lover is constantly and without intermission possessed by the thought of his beloved.
31. Nothing forbids one woman being loved by two men or one man by two women.
You can see why it got used in so many love-plots and stories. The rules privilege jealousy, honor secrecy, demand sole adherence, encourage flights of passion (excepting 29), and imply from the start extra-marital affairs. They're different rules for a time where marriage was done for concerns that had nothing to do with love, and love could be sentimentalized without it seeming soft or effeminate.
Feb 13, 2009
A Small Detail I Hadn't Noticed Before
I was looking for something in Le Morte Darthur, one of my favorite quotes. Arthur's old sword (the Sword in the Stone) has broken, and he received a new one, with Merlin's guidance, from the Lady of the Lake. Afterward, Merlin gives some sage advice:
"Than seyde Merlion, "Whethir lyke ye bettir the swerde othir the scawberde?" "I lyke bettir the swerde," seyde Arthure. "Ye ar the more unwyse, for the scawberde ys worth ten of the swerde; for whyles ye have the scawberde uppon you, ye shall lose no blood, be ye never so sore wounded. Therefore kepe well the scawberde allweyes with you."
I always thought it was funny because, whenever anyone thinks of Arthur, they think most often of his sword, Excalibur, and not the sheath that comes with it. The sheath is an accessory at most, and since we all too often imagine Arthur in battle, with the sword in his hands, the sheath disappears. To be fair, the sheath disappears early on in Arthur's reign because Morgan, angry that Arthur killed her paramour Sir Accolon (who was trying to trick Arthur on Morgan's behalf), tosses the sheath in the pond. I had forgotten how exactly it happened though. It went like so:
And than she alyght of hir horse and thought for to stele away Excaliber, his swerde. And she wente streyte unto his chambir - and no man durste disobey hir commaundement - and there she found Arthur aslepe on his bedde, and Excalyber in his ryght honde, naked.
1. Arthur didn't heed Merlin's advice - he sleeps with the sword, and not the scabbard.
2. Why is he sleeping with a naked Excalibur? Isn't that dangerous? What if he rolls over the wrong way? This sword slices through steel like butter. He'd better be careful.
2a. It's even worse if you read it as Arthur being naked.
2b. In fact, the entire scene begs for minds in the gutter. I'll let you fill in the blanks.
3. And, at least at first, Morgan commits the same mistake we all do. She only thinks of taking away Excalibur at first, and does far more harm by taking away the scabbard, the second option.
To end the story, Morgan takes the scabbard, Arthur awakens and chases her, she throws the scabbard into the lake and turns into a pile of boulders, Arthur looks cursorily around for the scabbard, and then he leaves. The scabbard hardly gets mentioned for the remaining 6/7ths of the book.
It's too easy to think of Arthur in supernatural terms as this messianic figure who led wisely, virtuously, and will come again. He is that, much of the time. But sometimes, Arthur's no better than any other knight.*
*In the medieval period, whether Arthur was a dolt or a powerful king depended on whether the story's origin was French/Continental or English. The French made Arthur into a weak king and featured strong knights like Lancelot. The English made Arthur into a strong king and emphasized their own local heroes, like Sir Kay and Gawain. As time went on, the two versions merged. Sir Thomas Malory dabbles on both sides of the channel.
"Than seyde Merlion, "Whethir lyke ye bettir the swerde othir the scawberde?" "I lyke bettir the swerde," seyde Arthure. "Ye ar the more unwyse, for the scawberde ys worth ten of the swerde; for whyles ye have the scawberde uppon you, ye shall lose no blood, be ye never so sore wounded. Therefore kepe well the scawberde allweyes with you."
I always thought it was funny because, whenever anyone thinks of Arthur, they think most often of his sword, Excalibur, and not the sheath that comes with it. The sheath is an accessory at most, and since we all too often imagine Arthur in battle, with the sword in his hands, the sheath disappears. To be fair, the sheath disappears early on in Arthur's reign because Morgan, angry that Arthur killed her paramour Sir Accolon (who was trying to trick Arthur on Morgan's behalf), tosses the sheath in the pond. I had forgotten how exactly it happened though. It went like so:
And than she alyght of hir horse and thought for to stele away Excaliber, his swerde. And she wente streyte unto his chambir - and no man durste disobey hir commaundement - and there she found Arthur aslepe on his bedde, and Excalyber in his ryght honde, naked.
1. Arthur didn't heed Merlin's advice - he sleeps with the sword, and not the scabbard.
2. Why is he sleeping with a naked Excalibur? Isn't that dangerous? What if he rolls over the wrong way? This sword slices through steel like butter. He'd better be careful.
2a. It's even worse if you read it as Arthur being naked.
2b. In fact, the entire scene begs for minds in the gutter. I'll let you fill in the blanks.
3. And, at least at first, Morgan commits the same mistake we all do. She only thinks of taking away Excalibur at first, and does far more harm by taking away the scabbard, the second option.
To end the story, Morgan takes the scabbard, Arthur awakens and chases her, she throws the scabbard into the lake and turns into a pile of boulders, Arthur looks cursorily around for the scabbard, and then he leaves. The scabbard hardly gets mentioned for the remaining 6/7ths of the book.
It's too easy to think of Arthur in supernatural terms as this messianic figure who led wisely, virtuously, and will come again. He is that, much of the time. But sometimes, Arthur's no better than any other knight.*
*In the medieval period, whether Arthur was a dolt or a powerful king depended on whether the story's origin was French/Continental or English. The French made Arthur into a weak king and featured strong knights like Lancelot. The English made Arthur into a strong king and emphasized their own local heroes, like Sir Kay and Gawain. As time went on, the two versions merged. Sir Thomas Malory dabbles on both sides of the channel.
Feb 8, 2009
It was freezing three days ago...
And now it's felt good outside all day. I even studied out there for a while. In the grass. Without huddling up for warmth.
Then of course I had to go inside and type up several pages of paper. But I feel so much better for having the sunlight. I'm like Birdman.
Then of course I had to go inside and type up several pages of paper. But I feel so much better for having the sunlight. I'm like Birdman.
Feb 7, 2009
Paperback Igloo
Last semester, I had given up my search for a good used bookstore. The best I could find was Eagle Eye, which was decent, but didn't have enough selections or a very open trade-in policy. It was fun to go to sometimes, but not so compelling that I walked out with an armful of books.
Last week, I heard news of renewed hope from a gaming friend, Yunus. It was The Book Nook, nestled closely next to a Papa Johns pizza surrounded by an intersection and apartment complexes, an island in orange construction tape. I mentioned it to Leslie, but we didn't make it before she left.
Today, needing to get out for a while, I ran a few errands, stopped at a few stores, and then went there. I was afraid, even though Yunus would know what he was talking about. Initially I walked in and looked around. The inside front of the store looked more like a comic book shop that happened to sell old VHSes, with a few books in the back. I walked through the old movies, a little dumbfounded and disappointed, even though the titles themselves were pretty hard to find. Then I rounded the corner and looked at the DVDs they had. I picked through them a bit. Then I rounded the corner of that wall.
There were the books. Paperback and hardback bundles of joy, all crammed tightly in very basic wooden bookshelves, organized by genre and alphabetically, as high as I could reach, across several rows in a space that was much larger than it initially appeared. I may've danced. They had lots of science fiction, including two copies of an unofficial guide to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings written in 1969, several copies of books I'd been keeping an eye out for, books with interesting covers, old editions of books, and many, many more books I had never heard of.
I'd resolved myself against buying any fiction, since I'd been planning out my reading. Like McKay's, though, I couldn't resist getting a couple of morsels. They had a really good translation of Christine de Pizan's Book of the City of Ladies, as well as one for Andreas Capellanus's The Art of Courtly Love, both very important medieval works. Then I got a book of poetry.
And finally, a poorly conceived attempt at a found poem, from a quote in this article. Found poetry is interesting because when it's good, it's good by a combination of sheer accident and artful arrangement. Mostly, it's terrible and should scarce be called poetry. Nonetheless, it's a game to see if anything can come out of it at all. I just did this because I wanted to see if I could make anything out of a random article.
It's a pretty amazing
experience
to witness.
People who don't live here
could never understand.
We live in an open country
where trees can burn up quickly,
and so people have to make
very quick decisions.
Last week, I heard news of renewed hope from a gaming friend, Yunus. It was The Book Nook, nestled closely next to a Papa Johns pizza surrounded by an intersection and apartment complexes, an island in orange construction tape. I mentioned it to Leslie, but we didn't make it before she left.
Today, needing to get out for a while, I ran a few errands, stopped at a few stores, and then went there. I was afraid, even though Yunus would know what he was talking about. Initially I walked in and looked around. The inside front of the store looked more like a comic book shop that happened to sell old VHSes, with a few books in the back. I walked through the old movies, a little dumbfounded and disappointed, even though the titles themselves were pretty hard to find. Then I rounded the corner and looked at the DVDs they had. I picked through them a bit. Then I rounded the corner of that wall.
There were the books. Paperback and hardback bundles of joy, all crammed tightly in very basic wooden bookshelves, organized by genre and alphabetically, as high as I could reach, across several rows in a space that was much larger than it initially appeared. I may've danced. They had lots of science fiction, including two copies of an unofficial guide to Tolkien's Lord of the Rings written in 1969, several copies of books I'd been keeping an eye out for, books with interesting covers, old editions of books, and many, many more books I had never heard of.
I'd resolved myself against buying any fiction, since I'd been planning out my reading. Like McKay's, though, I couldn't resist getting a couple of morsels. They had a really good translation of Christine de Pizan's Book of the City of Ladies, as well as one for Andreas Capellanus's The Art of Courtly Love, both very important medieval works. Then I got a book of poetry.
And finally, a poorly conceived attempt at a found poem, from a quote in this article. Found poetry is interesting because when it's good, it's good by a combination of sheer accident and artful arrangement. Mostly, it's terrible and should scarce be called poetry. Nonetheless, it's a game to see if anything can come out of it at all. I just did this because I wanted to see if I could make anything out of a random article.
It's a pretty amazing
experience
to witness.
People who don't live here
could never understand.
We live in an open country
where trees can burn up quickly,
and so people have to make
very quick decisions.
Fire is part of our lives,
part of what we do.
But it is still
extremely
frightful.
For some found poetry of Donald Rumsfeld, look here. It's amusing, anyway.
part of what we do.
But it is still
extremely
frightful.
For some found poetry of Donald Rumsfeld, look here. It's amusing, anyway.
Feb 1, 2009
Thoughts on Superbowl Commercials
Campfield just now got me into watching the Superbowl commercials. I have a few choice reflections:
- No one ever sends me flowers, even if they are in a box. That's okay though, because I prefer edible things to be in boxes. Preferably chocolate. This month, February 15th's the day.
- Also, the advertisers make themselves look good by comparing their bouquet of flowers to flowers in a box. There's so many places where you can get a bouquet of flowers (starting with Wal-mart) that it's understandable why they made the move. Sneaky advertisers.
- I would be utterly freaked out to be in a crowd that large surrounding a football people. Just... people everywhere. All the sweat. The jostling bodies. No way out. Thank you, CG, for giving me daymares.
- How old is Bruce Springsteen? (Wikipedia says 59.)
- Hah. Guys doing ballet. What a joke (the ballet, that is - it's not even good). I guess I'm supposed to be glad they can just jam now thanks to the fruit drink.
- Three football-themed commercials in a row. I guess that's what the viewers have in common. Though admittedly the Heroes commercial was pretty cool.
- Bruce Springsteen used his guitar like a hula hoop around his shoulder and side.
- The Georgia Lottery commercial made people look too much like jello, moving around. I also noticed that with a couple of other commercials, like the ballet one. Too much CG?
- How many commercials feature people with super powers? Really!
- Transformers!
- I recognize the nearly naked guy in the one commercial! He's Vork from The Guild! That doesn't make his near-nakedness better.
- I don't want to try Conan.
- I can trade in my gold for cash?! Why is it that only black people and the old white guy have gold?
- You're not allowed to use the Scarecrow from the Wizard of Oz to sell your products!
- I don't "feel all right" with this commercial.
- You'd think we'd have gotten over MacGuyver by now. Glad to know some things never die.
- Ooooh, The Office. Okay.
- So, wait. Who's playing in this Superbowl? I just know that it's yellow/green and red.
- Oooh. Touchdown. We'll show it at every conceivable angle and repeat the issue of "both feet down" ten times.
- OMG STAR TREK YES... I saw this online during the few seconds of the game, but it was shown during the game. The one choice I'm not sure about is McCoy.
- I forgot all about Puppybowl...
- Why are these bullets flowers?
- Talking babies also scare me.
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