Love and Crime in the Penny Press

             It was very clear, in the Dr. Elizabeth Burt’s lecture, “Love and Desire in the Penny Press”, as well as the reading, that the Penny Press and other newspapers did not hesitate to reveal the love in its most unfortunate forms. With headlines pairing the words love and murder, I couldn't help but wonder how this wave of gossip articles would affect the society around it. When we watch romantic movies today or when we read harlequin books, we can't help but think about how our lives would be different if we had a love like that.
            I asked if Dr. Burt thought that people acted out or committed crimes in order to appear in these newspapers because I couldn't help but wonder if these stories were seen as cautionary tales or as a window into fame. Today we have shows that are very similar to the stories in the Penny Press. There are reality TV shows where people fight over gossip and there are shows like 16 & Pregnant. These shows don't necessarily put those unfortunate situations into a positive light, but because the people in these shows become common household names, we see it as a quick way to fame if you are willing to sacrifice pride and dignity.
           These crimes of passion seem to have been facilitated by the possibility of being included in the ever popular newspapers. Perhaps the love was something that happened naturally, but the downfall of the relationship might have happened because of how conscious everyone in society was about relationship, or more specifically, the end of relationships. Similar to how people today are very concerned with starting relationships so that they can either live out the fairytale that they see in movies or on television, or they can imitate the chaos that makes other people famous. .   

Ancient Art, Love, and Zeus

Dr. Richard Freund’s lecture, “Love and Desire: Examples from Ancient Art and Archaeology”, offered an interesting insight into the depiction of love in religious and mythological icons. People tend to go crazy for anything within a religious context that is erotic, but they hardly ever consider its connotations within the time period in which it was born.

Zeus, for example, was a very interesting god, not just in his actions, but in the ways that he is perceived today. What I knew of Zeus growing up was what I learned from the Disney movie, “Hercules” and from the little I learned when we took a regrettably small detour through mythology in my high school literature class freshmen year. What I collected from the little information that I was given was that Zeus was bad-ass. He was the Greek god to aspire to--the ruler of the gods. He could hurl thunderbolts, for goodness sake!  

My ideals of Zeus were soon shattered when I read the poem “Leda and the Swan”, by William Butler Yeats, in which Zeus takes the form of a swan and rapes Leda (who later gives birth to Helen of Troy). But, new perceptions emerged. Sure, Zeus wasn’t this awesome, righteous god anymore, but I began to harbor some perverse admiration for him. He did whatever he wanted, unabashedly (and he still hurled thunderbolts).

As Dr. Freund expressed in his lecture, love and desire is how a particular person perceives something. I found this to be very profound. When Dr. Freund brought up the painting of Leda and Zeus in swan form, I knew exactly what was being depicted. And although, in retrospect, the painting seemed very gentle and loving (the way Dr. Freund initially saw it), Yeats’ words from his poem-- “How can those terrified vague fingers push the feathered glory from her loosening thighs?”--  were swimming through my head and all I saw was a strange and horrible rape.

At first sight, that painting appeared to tell a completely different story to someone who did not know the mythology of Leda and the swan. So, it is no surprise that people can convince themselves of things like "love at first sight". You know nothing of the person but what you initially perceive of them, and it can be easy to hold on to this idea even when you have evidence that says otherwise.

Love After Divorce

I was disappointed that I was unable to attend Dr. Aimee Miller-Ott’s lecture, but I was glad that I was able to listen to it via podcast. I was very interested in the changes in the way people approached relationships after divorce. I was namely interested in the differences between the types of qualities that people find important in a partner before marriage and the qualities that are important after divorce.

I remember watching a documentary on the discovery channel a long time ago about the types of things that people look for in another person when attempting to start a new relationship. While the women that were interviewed said that they were more interested in stability (whether or not the man had money or a job), the men were more interested in the women’s outward appearance. Some of the women even said that they wouldn’t mind if the man wasn’t very handsome as long as he could provide a stable lifestyle. I couldn’t help but wonder if people looked for the same qualities in people after divorce.

Dr. Miller-Ott spoke about online dating and how people can openly say that they are divorced or have children (things that would normally be “deal breakers” for younger people). I wasn’t very surprised that there was more of a no-nonsense way of approaching relationships. I do, however, think that it is very interesting that there is a lot of face-saving behavior. I never really thought about all of sensitivity that comes with explaining your past relationship to potential partners. Because of past transgressions within the relationship, people fear judgement from others. For example, if someone tells you that they were dumped, you can’t help but wonder what they did wrong, even if the break-up was a combination of things coming from both parties. With marriage, the break-up is amplified because there are bigger components of the relationship, such as children, vows, and shared property.

I think this lecture touched an aspect of romantic relationships that hasn’t really been prevalent in many of the movies or novels that we have read in class. What happens after the relationship with the person that was supposed to be “the one” ends and people seek someone new?

Politics and Love

I will be completely honest and admit that some of Dr. Catherine Borck’s lecture went right over my head. Whenever I hear the word “politics” my palms get sweaty and I get a little dizzy. But there were many things that she brought up in her lecture that really stood out in my mind.

Dr. Borck discussed Carl Schmitt’s saying, “The enemy is our own question as a figure.” When I first thought about what this might mean, I understood it to mean that the enemy is the manifestation of our uncertainties or concerns. But when Dr. Borck spoke about the friend, enemy, and fraternity being combined, my interpretation of the saying changed. I began to see it as a way of saying that we are defined by our enemies. Similar to the way that people see what they want in the person that they love instead of the actual person. What we see as the bad in our enemies is reflective of the bad in us. This saying becomes even more impressive when considering that it is not referring to just one person but a group of people.

Dr. Borck also spoke about the quote by Plato, “Justice is doing good to friends and harm to enemies.” I had heard this quote before, but within the context of this class, I was taken aback by its aggressively active stance. When I think back to the novels we read or movies we watched, Plato’s idea of Justice rings true. More often than not, the enemy of the novel is the main character’s self. The character simultaneously does “good” to himself or herself while causing also “harm”. In Madame Bovary, for example, Emma indulges in her desires for someone other than her horribly boring husband while also harming herself by entering into risky affairs and physically harming herself. The justice is done at the end of the novel when the character gets what she thought that she wanted (good to friend) and then she dies (harm to enemy).

Dr. Borck’s lecture offered some very interesting insights into the topics that we have already been discussing in class. I never would have thought that politics and the concepts of love could come together outside of an espionage romance novel. It is interesting to see how the ideas and concepts of love from many different concentrations of study fit together.