"Where's the blood? Am I really supposed to believe that the sanitized symbol has any relationship to the real thing..."
This is what someone recently asked me. So in the historical trivia of the day, we have...the heart.
The reason we have the heart as a symbol of love and romance is not because it is a representation of a human organ. In fact, its an ancient symbol that actually depicts that very special heart-shape made by a woman bending over. Its actually a depiction of the curve of her buttocks and the peekaboo genetalia. The original heart was a fertility symbol, and remained in use until the present day, when everyone has forgotten why the hell we have it anyway.
On that note, I was talking with a friend, and we both agreed we'd like Valentines more if it was more...well...sensual. No pink hearts, give us deep reds and rich purples and the colors blood takes when pumped into familier parts crossed with the colors of harams and aristocracy. If pink must be a part of the holiday, make it an accent, we are full grown, passionate adults, not wee girls in lacy bedrooms still dreaming of our first kiss. Give us textures, velvets and silks, the rough, the smooth, the divine, the macaab, anything but the sterilized feel of cheap paper and cardboard. For entertainment, throw masked balls, offer buffets of such food as tantalize the taste buds--none of this Shoney's crap. Hold feasts, parties, celebrations of the human body and the human heart, a place where singles can remain single without censure or pair to couples as they choose and couples can enjoy the eve in an utter lack of sappy sweetness, and instead see it as a foreplay for what the day truly represents. I want to see dancing, merriment, people flashing people, I want to see chocolates thrown to strangers, passionate lovemaking involving anywhere from only a single person to orgies on the most debauched scale.
But by all the gods, get rid of this pansy-assed crap they sell us today, and that sappy-sweet, insipidly cute little cherub they replaced Eros with, who once symbolized all that was passionate and creative, from fertility to the creative force that orders nature and brings forth life. Down with the cherub and long live the things that make our nerves tingle and our souls cry out in joy!
(For the curious, look at the difference between Eros and Cupid. And despite the similarities, you can see the watering down seems to have begin with the Romans.)
This is what someone recently asked me. So in the historical trivia of the day, we have...the heart.
The reason we have the heart as a symbol of love and romance is not because it is a representation of a human organ. In fact, its an ancient symbol that actually depicts that very special heart-shape made by a woman bending over. Its actually a depiction of the curve of her buttocks and the peekaboo genetalia. The original heart was a fertility symbol, and remained in use until the present day, when everyone has forgotten why the hell we have it anyway.
On that note, I was talking with a friend, and we both agreed we'd like Valentines more if it was more...well...sensual. No pink hearts, give us deep reds and rich purples and the colors blood takes when pumped into familier parts crossed with the colors of harams and aristocracy. If pink must be a part of the holiday, make it an accent, we are full grown, passionate adults, not wee girls in lacy bedrooms still dreaming of our first kiss. Give us textures, velvets and silks, the rough, the smooth, the divine, the macaab, anything but the sterilized feel of cheap paper and cardboard. For entertainment, throw masked balls, offer buffets of such food as tantalize the taste buds--none of this Shoney's crap. Hold feasts, parties, celebrations of the human body and the human heart, a place where singles can remain single without censure or pair to couples as they choose and couples can enjoy the eve in an utter lack of sappy sweetness, and instead see it as a foreplay for what the day truly represents. I want to see dancing, merriment, people flashing people, I want to see chocolates thrown to strangers, passionate lovemaking involving anywhere from only a single person to orgies on the most debauched scale.
But by all the gods, get rid of this pansy-assed crap they sell us today, and that sappy-sweet, insipidly cute little cherub they replaced Eros with, who once symbolized all that was passionate and creative, from fertility to the creative force that orders nature and brings forth life. Down with the cherub and long live the things that make our nerves tingle and our souls cry out in joy!
(For the curious, look at the difference between Eros and Cupid. And despite the similarities, you can see the watering down seems to have begin with the Romans.)
burning_bellhop:
That's the general problem with american culture. What can I sell you today ? The flash and glitz of most of the trash they stick in your face only pushes the surface thought, not the meaningful reality. At Christmas for example I usually try to make something. Frame a great panoramic shot. Buld a piece of furniture , or do a great mixed cd. The depth is the thing , but you seldom see it. Here is a real piece of me.... I love Venitian masks. I acutally have several pretty cool ones. They bring out a great essence of another time. Those scenes in eyes wide shut where everyone was masked. Awesome...
