Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Staphylococcus On Rye

Today is a French day, or at least a little bit of a French day. I don't know why they happen, but ever since I stopped taking French classes, I occasionally have days when a fair amount of my thoughts end up being expressed in French. I was thinking "je suis tres malade" on my way to Japanese class this morning (my disease has shifted from impairing my voice back to making me cough up a lung).

On a totally unrelated note, I was thinking about movies that suck today and happened upon this thought: everyone always says we need more than one word for "love" in order to distinguish between filial love, romantic love, friendship, etc. I disagree. While I admit to all those being very different, I don't think they should be distinguished between any more. My theory is that a person only has so much deep emotional commitment that they are able to give at any one time. For example, if a girl is really tight with her parents, then she won't be as committed to her boyfriend because it might take away from her relationship with her parents. Or if someone has a really crazy close friendship, and one of them starts dating, that friendship is going to suffer because all of a sudden emotional commitment is going elsewhere.

Think abut the Oedipus complex. Aren't we all supposed to be competing with our fathers for the affection of our mothers, even though the nature of our relationship with her if different than our father's?

5 comments:

Juicy said...

true that...but i do have some thoughts to add:

1. one of my biggest pet peeves is when, normally in classic rock songs, they use the word love or lovin' when they're blatantly talking about sex. (eg The Scorpions, Def Lepard, many more) it's not technical misuse but it just comes off sounding really sappy and you know it's bullshit cuz that's not what they're talking about at all. like seriously get more creative.

2. Though I don't think we need to go as far as giving a different name to each one (we already have subcategpries, and english has the most words of any language. the french verb aimer, as you would know, covers both like and love, which must make so much less drama between those cutesy french couples) there is a most definite difference between how your different kinds of love for these people affects the person you're loving, but this also depends on the person. (some people will give most of their genuine, unselfish care to their friends and treat their lovers not so well, or vice versa, or a variety of stages inbetween)

gbz said...

Way to bring back the French...

OSK said...

My personal belief is that the Oedipus complex is a load of bull. Just throwing that out there...You can do what you like, throw it back, whatever...

Juicy said...

it's definitley not a load of bull (trust me) but it does not necessarily apply to everyone or apply to everything that could be considered attractive or unnattractive. Also, don't both the oedipus and electra complexes state that when searching for a mate, one will either attempt to find an imitation of their parent OR the polar opposite?

just throwing that out there too...

gbz said...

I certainly don't think everyone has an oedipus/electra complex, but I think it exists. No one likes it because it's sick and takes away from free will, but i still think it's fairly valid.