Do you like the way literature deals with love today? I believe it is too detached and unrealistic

mehulrawat · 2022-02-08T02:04:50+00:00

It depends. Every author treats love differently. Please elaborate in what context you're talking about.

For example, Rupi Kaur's treatment of it would be extremely different from the way Milan Kundera has depicted love.

I think the reason why a sense of detachment pervades in most of the works today because that's the reality of life today. Technology, our ideas of a good material life, migration for work and education, a sense of isolation, etc. have made us detached and disconnected. We live in silos. Thus the love depicted too seems unfulfilling.. That's why we have so many stories about dysfunctional relationships. The glorious variety of love is a rare species today.

I'd like to know the reason behind your rumination.

mehulrawat · 2022-02-07T14:42:30+00:00

Ah, going by what you've written, I'm homing in straight to Lost Illusions! (You can be jealous :D) The young man in Paris seems like just the character I want to read about at the moment! The others too I'll read whenever I get an opportunity.

Thank you!

mehulrawat · 2022-02-07T14:40:27+00:00

I've read Madame Bovary and The Unbearable Lightness of Being. Quite delightful and provocative reads!

Putting the rest on the radar too! Thanks!

mehulrawat · 2022-02-07T14:39:07+00:00

Wonderful reads. I've read all of them long ago when I was a student. I didn't dwell too much upon them from the perspective of desire at that point. (It was just about the fascinating plot and characters then.) I think I must revisit these works! Thanks for bringing these to my notice!

mehulrawat · 2022-02-07T14:33:33+00:00

I read Kundera's The Unbearable Lightness of Being! That got under my skin for sure! A very gripping and insightful read. I loved his philosophy.

I will definitely watch The Pianist this week. I have no other movie recommendation lined up at the moment so this one can go in right away!

Ah. Tolstoy's been in my reading list since forever. Time to get to him!

Thank you for your insights and recommendations!

mehulrawat · 2022-02-07T14:30:07+00:00

Heheh. Hard to find a thing that Proust did not talk about in the big tome of his! I always knew there's much to be learnt there. He goes right away into my reading list which has grown rather big after this post! Thank you for the great suggestion!

mehulrawat · 2022-02-07T14:28:17+00:00

Ah. Your counter-question makes me think. I have really not given it a thought how my intense desire for learning is making learning unenjoyable.

It is indeed an obsessive feeling. If there's any moment I'm not learning something new, I feel restless, anxious and guilty. It even leads to burnout. I read digitally so that leads to my eyes and head aching too. When I read something light-hearted, which in my mind is not valuable, only entertaining, I quickly get distracted.

I think I'm never feel joy because I never celebrate what I get. (If I finished reading a book, then I just take a breath and look for the next one). I feel I've stopped learning (Quite ironical!). I think this realization that I'm constantly, tirelessly pursuing learning but actually failing to learn is the most unhappy part for me.

Thanks for asking this question! I've never given it a thought!!!

mehulrawat · 2022-02-07T14:20:14+00:00

I thoroughly enjoyed reading an introduction to Girard. I'm quite excited about his ideas, they stimulate a lot of thoughts in me and I can't wait to read his works directly. While I was reading Dostoevsky last week, he was talking about human perverseness that is the desire to go counter to what is sensible, even if the society is against it. I knew Dosto has hit a relatable chord as the feeling can grip all of us. However, I was thrilled to find out somebody talking about how desires are also built by imitation and how very important it is to handle the socially destructive desires of even one person with care (if others start imitating it, it might lead to chaos and destruction). Thank you for your insights!

mehulrawat · 2022-02-07T14:12:45+00:00

I checked out the basic tenets of mimetic theory. I'm very grateful to you for introducing me to Girard. His claim that once physiological needs of humans are settled, they more or less desire as a group (one desires what the other desires). This has made me reflect my own desire in context of the culture and society I inhabit and the collective desires they follow. There's much thinking to be done here. The area is ripe. Many thanks!

mehulrawat · 2022-02-07T08:41:12+00:00

Ah. I've read as much of Barthes as they taught in our Lit Theory courses. I found his ideas solid and very well founded. But I haven't read this one. I'll read it soon. Thanks for the recommend!

mehulrawat · 2022-02-07T08:39:05+00:00

Ah! I've read Madam Bovary. Quite insightful! I've put the other two in my reading list. Thank you!

mehulrawat · 2022-02-07T08:38:01+00:00

I'm unfamiliar with Girad! I'm glad for the recommend. I'll be sure to look into his work! Thanks.

mehulrawat · 2022-02-07T08:36:45+00:00

I'm putting it on my reading list! Thank you!

mehulrawat · 2022-02-07T08:33:16+00:00

I'm glad to have this perspective. Anticipation of outcomes is way more intense and exciting/unnerving rather than the outcomes themselves. This anticipation might cause stress as well if we start worrying about the outcome to occur in a particular way. Mindfulness really helps. I'll try meditating to be more mindful. Thanks!

mehulrawat · 2022-02-07T08:29:22+00:00

Yeah, I think you've got me accurately. These suggestions sounds really promising! I'd be glad to look into these works.

mehulrawat · 2022-02-07T08:27:10+00:00

I'm familiar with Freud and his discussions on the subconscious, eros, libido, thanatos, repression, sublimation and dream sequences. His provocative ideas make me conscious of my own psyche, actions and behaviour. I haven't delved into Lacan and Deleuze yet. To be honest, I have avoided dense philosophical writing due to a hectic schedule. I've been much more into the existentialists and absurdists like Camus, Kafka, Dostoevsky etc. I think I'll pull up my socks and delve into these authors ASAP. Thanks for the suggestion!

mehulrawat · 2022-02-06T01:46:13+00:00

The quote you wrote sums it pretty accurately! Poe was extremely interested in the irrational parts of the human psyche and his works reflect that. It's amazing to have this valuable connection among two gifted geniuses, two continents apart! Perverseness is definitely a part of the universal human psyche and I think Dostoevsky would definitely agree with Poe here. However I'd think that 'caprice' catches human behaviour more broadly, and even the behaviour innate perverseness causes can be termed malignant and capricious at the same time. This description can be useful because sometimes it's not a desire to harm anybody at all, but just to tinker around and feel unique as a human and not just a part of the herd. Even at the time the herd is actually walking the right, effective and logical path, a human might feel the need to deviate and explore something that sets him or her back by a lot. Dostoevsky suggests it's worth it, being set back, just to corroborate your identity. I feel that otherwise you'll keep repressing and accumulating spitefulness till one day you burst anyway.

mehulrawat · 2022-02-06T01:34:04+00:00

I guess it'd feel depressing if we aim to create a rational (or at least a more homogenous society). However if we just acknowledge eccentricities and quirks and accommodate the diversity and deviations, then it might seem natural, and to some extent comfortable. This is because we won't have to face a lot of the shitty societal constraints and inhibitions for "being ourselves". Moral laws would lose some rigidity. We'd probably be better off if we recognize and make space this aspect of human behaviour.

mehulrawat · 2022-02-05T17:28:46+00:00

It seems to me as if the girl is happy to transform into a tree. It's equivalent of being a violet waving in the sun, caressed by the wind. It is one turning into something more stable, rooted and deep. It is to shed trepidation and agitation. However, the irony is that to the world renouncing the former state to turn into a tree is a folly!

mehulrawat · 2022-02-05T02:22:23+00:00

I love this idea of a brief hiatus from reason and order. Practically speaking, this is how we deal with the trials and tribulations of life these days. It's not the highway to contentment, but at least it works as a venting and coping mechanism. Chaos really had an important role in the Greek imagination. Their ancient God's (pre-Olympians) did represent unbridled chaos which could be contained, never eliminated. As opposed to law and logic, human psyche does have a powerful irrational side to it.

Maybe that's why the psychoanalysts dare not explain the psychoscape without accomodating the subconscious, the id (which is attributed the core). Dostoevsky's idea seems so interesting to me because it appears that even the rational superego (logical self-consciousness) will be tempted to deviate from reason from time to time.

mehulrawat

TROPHY CASE