What is Love?

This post is going to be a bunch of randomness. My committee has my thesis to look over one more time for approval, so I am studying without ceasing for my comps. What is that? It is where the three professors on my committee, whom I greatly admire, quiz me for one hour on a reading list we have come up with together. Did I mention I really look up to these people? I am freaking out because I do not speak as well as I write. Give me a pen and paper any day of the week, please. Really, no matter how much I prepare for this I am still going to be freaking out until its over. If you happen to see me between now and then just shove a cup of hot tea in my hand and tell me that I will be okay.

Anyways, the point of this post is I wanted to share a passage from one of the books on my list. It is The Romance of the Rose by Guillaume de Lorris and Jean de Meun (the first guy started it and the second guy finished it). This is a 13th century work about a courtly love affair, told through allegory. It is fabulous, but not for the faint of heart. This passage is Reason's definition of Love. It is so striking I had to share it. Also, I really, really want to know y'all's thoughts on it. I think some of it is very insightful.

"Love is hostile peace and loving hatred, disloyal loyalty and loyal disloyalty; it is confident fear
and desperate hope, demented reason and reasonable madness. It is the sweet danger of drowning and a heavy burden that is easy to handle; it is perilous Charybdis, disagreeable and gracious at the same time; it is a most healthful sickness and a most sickly health; a hunger abundantly satisfied and a covetous affluence, a thirst that is always drunk, an intoxication drunk with thirst. It is a false delight, a joyous sorrow and an unhappy joy, a sweet torment and an unkind sweetness, a taste at once pleasant and distasteful; it is a sin touched by pardon and a pardon tainted by sin, a most joyful suffering and a merciful cruelty. It is an ever-shifting game, a state which is very firm but also very changeable, an infirm strength and a strong infirmity that sets everything in motion through its efforts, a foolish sense and a wise folly, a sad and joyful prosperity; it is laughter that sobs and weeps, repose that toils unceasingly, a hell that soothes and a heaven that tortures, a prison that offers no relief to prisoners, a cold and wintry springtime. It is a moth that refuses nothing and consumes purple and homespun alike, for lovemaking is no better in fine clothes than in homespun."

This is why I love the Middle Ages. Do you agree? What are you favorite parts of the quote? This is so much better than any modern romance writer could do. The fullness, the complexity of love is captured so perfectly, in my opinion. If it wasn't so dang long I bet it would be the next tattoo trend.

(This quote comes from the Oxford World's Classics edition, translated by Frances Horgan).

Thesis Music

I do not know how many of you visit author websites/blogs, but I have noticed that more and more authors are talking about the music they listen to while writing. Some make playlists of what they listened to while writing particular books, while others talk about a a song that they identify with one of their characters. It is fascinating, in my opinion, how true it is. The connection between music, words, and feelings is something I could write on endlessly but, never fear, that is not what I am going to do to you today.

Music helps me to think, to drown out distractions so that I can focus better on what I am writing or what I am reading. And, as the authors I just mentioned, I have found that I gravitate towards music that seems to meld with whatever I am working on, especially when I am writing. What am I writing? My thesis, in case you are reading the blog for the first time. Did I intentionally set out to have a play list of music that helps me to write about Beowulf, biblical exegesis, allegory, monsters, and Anglo-Saxon monasticism? Of course not. The fact that one has come to exist is very, very funny to me. That is the main reason I am sharing this with you. I do not think you care, really, but it is funny to think that listening to certain music helps me to write about such things. Some are predictable, while others are much more surprising. Without further ado, here is, more or less, the music that fuels my thesis.

The Lord of the Rings Soundtrack. I do not think this one is much of a surprise. If this does not make you think of a heroic age where men and monsters live side-by-side then your imagination has been stunted and needs to nurtured so that it can make proper connections. Solemn, stately, and hopeful - the tone of any good epic.










Gregorian Chants. I adore Gregorian chants. The beauty of human voices, unaccompanied by instrument or digital enhancement gives me chills each time I hear it. This helps me to get in a monastic mindset. These chants capture the complexity, depth, and beauty of the monastic life that the majority of modern readers (well, people really, not just readers) do not understand.











Led Zeppelin. This one does not make a whole lot of sense, but I don't really care. Something about Robert Plant's voice just energizes me and helps me to write like a crazy person. Sometimes I find myself typing in time to Jimmy Page's guitar solos. Just kidding. I can't type that fast. But seriously. The Immigrant Song? I could listen to that on repeat.










X by Ed Sheeran. I did not realize I was an Ed Sheeran fan until the Grammys, but there it is. I have been listening to this album while writing the part of my thesis about authorship in Anglo-Saxon England. Do the two have anything in common? No, not one thing. Does the album help me to focus and tune out the millions of distractions clamoring for my attention? Yes, most definitely.









Needtobreathe. This is one of my favorite bands. I have all of their albums and listen to them on shuffle while I am reading. Their sound is unique and soothing, helping me to be unconsciously happy while reading, thereby helping me to read more. I love reading, but academic reading can be so dry. These guys help me to get through it.









The George Frideric Handel station on Spotify. The hugeness of his sound (nice and technical, I know) really helps me to focus on what exactly I am writing. The audience I am writing for is small, but I believe that what I have is important and necessary to understanding the unique, wonderful complexity that is Beowulf. This station is full of songs that are aware of their own importance. Does that make sense to you? Probably not. I fully recognize how my thesis has driven me to delusions.




Does anyone else have songs or playlists for books or writing? If so, I would genuinely love to hear them. Hope you were entertained by this post and have not become afraid to be my friend. I'm told everything will go back to normal once my thesis is finished.