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The Laws of LoveErotic Melancholy

The Laws of Love: Erotic Melancholy [The first judgment of love, reported by Plutarch, was concerned with lovesickness. That is fitting enough. The laws of love address the ailments of desire, the disputes that arise, and the path to their cure. The essential question posed is that of how to find joy through pursuit of desire. Love, the one overriding emotional necessity of human life, can cause untold suffering. The troubadours were indeed forever tabulating the wounds of relationship and the degrees of pain engendered by unfulfilled desire or loss of love. Does a lover who is too afraid to declare herself suffer more or less than one who has been rejected? Or again, does a lover whose partner dies suffer more or less than one whose partner is unfaithful? The answer given by the courts of love was always the same: the greatest suffering is experienced by the lover whose loss most impedes their current path toward the joy of love. Thus, for example, the unfaithful lover whose continued presence reminds the former beloved of his loss causes greater pain than the lover who dies. A radical view. Much in favor of the living though not disrespectful of the dead if you recollect that under Rule 7 of the Code of Love: “When a lover dies the survivor is required to wait two years before taking another lover.”] http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png

The Laws of LoveErotic Melancholy

Part of the Language, Discourse, Society Book Series
Goodrich, Peter
The Laws of Love — Sep 30, 2015
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Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan UK
Copyright
© Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited 2007
ISBN
978-1-349-28311-8
Pages
33 –48
DOI
10.1057/9780230626539_2
Publisher site
See Chapter on Publisher Site

Abstract

[The first judgment of love, reported by Plutarch, was concerned with lovesickness. That is fitting enough. The laws of love address the ailments of desire, the disputes that arise, and the path to their cure. The essential question posed is that of how to find joy through pursuit of desire. Love, the one overriding emotional necessity of human life, can cause untold suffering. The troubadours were indeed forever tabulating the wounds of relationship and the degrees of pain engendered by unfulfilled desire or loss of love. Does a lover who is too afraid to declare herself suffer more or less than one who has been rejected? Or again, does a lover whose partner dies suffer more or less than one whose partner is unfaithful? The answer given by the courts of love was always the same: the greatest suffering is experienced by the lover whose loss most impedes their current path toward the joy of love. Thus, for example, the unfaithful lover whose continued presence reminds the former beloved of his loss causes greater pain than the lover who dies. A radical view. Much in favor of the living though not disrespectful of the dead if you recollect that under Rule 7 of the Code of Love: “When a lover dies the survivor is required to wait two years before taking another lover.”]

Published: Sep 30, 2015

Keywords: Religious Order; Radical View; Great Suffering; Liminal Space; Flower Garden

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