Love is not a powerful emotion ruled by caprice

[Patrick_Bateman]

Some Sociologists suggest that the kind of person we fall in love with is pre-determined by one's inclination to find someone who conforms to a set of criteria that also reflects themselves (i.e a person will more than likely be attracted to a person in a similar social class, salary band, level of education, ethnicity etc) before permitting themselves to fall in love.

Thus they suggest that there is no love at first sight, no impulse of the heart, and that love is not the unrestrained emotion that can take hold of a person and their mind.

discuss... :rolleyes5::D

[Whifflingpin]

Well, that's an end to literature then.

[SleepyWitch]

Well, that's an end to literature then.

Not necessarily. I suppose most literature deals with people in the process of 'conquering' their supposed Mr/Mrs Right. It doesn't look at what happens after they get married, so we don't know whether they are actually compatible. Or else, lots of books deal with affairs or sexual escapades.

[iamnobody]

I suggest that the whole "love at first sight" thing, is all about pheremones and absolutely not actual love. Our bodies respond chemically to another's body chemisty. This means we may find ourselves attracted to, or even "falling in love with" someone entirely wrong for us. This is where finding that someone who conforms to a set of criteria comes in.

[Maximilianus]

I call my experience as love at first read, because the first sight I took was at what she wrote me, which made me feel an unrestrained impulse that took hold of this man and his mind (that is, me). Of course, I later saw the lady and I admit to have succumbed to her beauty, but then again, her beauty was not the first sight I got. I wonder where my situation would be placed.

[Gladys]

Some Sociologists suggest that the kind of person we fall in love with is pre-determined by one's inclination to find someone who conforms to a set of criteria that also reflects themselves...

In other words, falling in love is essentially a narcissistic act, reflecting more light on the lover than the beloved. I agree unreservedly.

Love may not be a powerful emotion ruled by caprice, but narcissism certainly is. Love, by contrast, "is all, it gives all, and it takes all", to quote the Danish genius.

[L.M. The Third]

In other words, falling in love is essentially a narcissistic act, reflecting more light on the lover than the beloved. I agree unreservedly.


Yes, narcissistic, almost solipsistic.


Not necessarily. I suppose most literature deals with people in the process of 'conquering' their supposed Mr/Mrs Right. It doesn't look at what happens after they get married, so we don't know whether they are actually compatible.

Marriage (rather than romance) is what is really interesting explored in literature. Think of Middlemarch where 'courtship' is indeed blurred by narcissism, but marriage is seen by the author as just the beginning of so much. Marriage reveals that narcissism.

[Gladys]

Think of Middlemarch where 'courtship' is indeed blurred by narcissism...

The downfall of Prince Myshkin in Dostoevsky's The Idiot is substantially explained by the absence of narcissism in his love for Nastasya Filippovna and Aglaya Epanchin, among others. No one could understand him!

[L.M. The Third]

The downfall of Prince Myshkin in Dostoevsky's The Idiot is substantially explained by the absence of narcissism in his love for Nastasya Filippovna and Aglaya Epanchin, among others. No one could understand him!

Sounds fascinating! I haven't read The Idiot yet, but it's on The List.

[The Atheist]

Thus they suggest that there is no love at first sight, no impulse of the heart, and that love is not the unrestrained emotion that can take hold of a person and their mind.

They're right - it's lust, not love.

Most people don't know the difference until it's too late.

[prendrelemick]

Is that Caprice the supermodel?

[Emil Miller]

Is that Caprice the supermodel?

I'd never heard of her, but I just checked her out.

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/9467/capricebourret6.jpg

Super muddle would be more appropriate.

[prendrelemick]

Or superfluous Model.

[Emil Miller]

Or superfluous Model.

A tautology if ever I saw one.