Saturday, February 15, 2014

The Nature of Love

Yesterday was Valentine's Day, and I posted a dry article about types of love. Today, I would like to share a discussion about the nature of love from Theodosia and the Pirates. I read from this part of the book to Bow a long time ago, and all the comments I got were about chimpanzees. So I am going to embed the video here for people who are actually capable of attending to the content. Bow, I think, was more interested in the novel than those who watched the video!


You can follow along as I read with these excerpt snapshots from the novel:






After you have listened to the reading and/or read the snapshot excerpts, think about the following questions:


  1. Do you approve of teenaged marriages, like those of Jean Laffite with his first wife Christina Levine or of Theodosia Burr with her husband Joseph Alston? Why or why not?
  2. Who was right about the proper age for men to marry -- Aristotle or Benjamin Franklin?
  3. What sort of love do you think Theodosia and Jean had in this section of the book? Attachment and Bonding or Limerent? Or was it some other sort?

4 comments:

  1. Interesting discussion about love, Aya. I will have to reread this again later. This part of your novel is very thought provoking.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Julia. Let me know what thoughts you have about this.

      Delete
  2. I was reading what Laffite said here, and I do think there is a strong argument for nature over nurture. Look a siblings who are separated at birth, and later find each other because they have the same interests, and tend to be in the same places.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks, Julia, for your thoughtful response. I tend to agree. Nature is pretty strong. People can alter their behavior to make themselves more congenial to others, but they pay a heavy price internally when they do this.

      Delete