A Natural History of Love (42-90)

Summary

As Rome grew larger in every aspect, land, variety, and the imagination of it's populace, Romans "perfected the lisure time" (42). Now, the Roman women were able to have more freedom, and with it came more oppurtunities along with thir flexible morals. The women of the first class usually worried more about their looks. Stuff like what jewlerygoes with what, and thier make-up. But to th Romans , to love someone wasn't a good enough reasonto get married, but they did know it's power and what it means. Then we get to the Middle Ages, thasts when France changed. The book said that throughout history women were expected to be "clean".They were judged on how clean their house was, and they were expected to be "sexually clean", meaning keeping thier virginity. We than start talking about knights and how it was difficult for them to be spiritual when their main focus was to kill. A Knight had to keep up with the Chilalry's code, which was to be courteous and kind when they were to deal with the other people. When they would fight, the intention was to hurt the other person, and alot of people were injured. You had to be strong, and if you showed weakeness, you was considered a sissy. They were liers, murderes, and engaged in alot of tournaments. If a Knight was killed during a tournament, the church called it a "suicide", meaning they went straight to hell. In those times, christianity tradition preached that too much love dangerous. Husbands were abl to kiss, carss, and fondle her, but he couldn't enjoy it. And any men who felt erotic passion for his wife was commiting adultry. They were only allowed to live together as business partners. They were only suppose to feel affection for eachother, get amiably and just happened to have children. The idea of an all-out love wasn't even thinkable. Now we get into the Books of Love. Their idea about love was rare, like books, were they can only find it in libraries. It talks abut how love is important and how even God gav the orders that we should love one another. It comes natural. Alot of people at that time turned to celibacy to keep themselves from lust, but something happened that changed their idea that erotic love was wrong and immoral. When William TX came back from the crusades, he began to write love songs, and about yearning, we now know these as the first troubadour love songs. It talked about how the soul is "ever-seeking" to find it's other half. Then we talk about modern love. The book started talking about the idea of a femme fatal. This is when the women gave men pain and a sense of guilt. The comes Modern Love. It says that the way we are now came from choice, privacy, and books. It started talking about how now women and men wanted to live out of their parent's house, alone, together. How people started to give rooms different functions. For example, the bedroom, which is now made for couples to do what they have to do in privacy without anyone knowing. Books came into the mix when lovers started talking about authors.

Quote

"We treasure love. It quenches, vexes, guides, and murders us. It seeps into th mortar of all our days. It feed our passions, it fills our fantasies, it inspires our art" (Akerman 90).

Reaction

I agree with the quote above. Basically it's saying that love makes us full. Love can help us, or it can kill us. So far the book is ok, but sometimes I think that the history background was a little too long.