Thoughts on Kifah Hanna

Dr. Hanna's lecture on contemporary levantine literature was a fantastic gateway for exploring societal views on sex and sexuality all over the world. While her work revolved around Arab countries moving from liberal views to ultra conservative she neatly contrasted these with differences seen in the western world. I found it incredibly interesting that past works that were considered unsavory were censored to make up for the Arab decline, I in a way I feel like very few countries could get away with this somewhat successfully due to the circulation of written works. Compare Greek culture to Arab culture for a brief moment, the Greeks couldn't try to cover up past works featuring homoeroticism if they tried because it was such an integral part of their culture however people exporting Greek works tried their hardest in most cases to cover up some of the more unsavory details behind the themes of their artwork. However in the case of Arab works revolving around homoeroticism the country has been very successful in censoring their own works while the rest of the world curiously wishes to de-censor the restricted works to better learn about the secretive culture. The Arab over compensation for the apparent decline of its own culture is very interesting that the first thing they turn to is repressing sexuality, prior to the introduction of the western world they were seemingly free to go about expressing themselves, whether or not that expression was taken seriously is another matter, however upon the introduction of western society the eastern Arab cultures learned shame and over compensated for their previously hedonistic ways by forcibly driving those cultural aspects into a veritable underground domain. Now on the flip side the Arab world is seen as being far too controlling and in comparison to the ever loosening hold on ethical behavior seen in the west, its like they can never win. The sexual ethics of the Arab world can be seen in  two lights, the first being overly condemning and the second being a different perspective. I supposed I see the Arab treatments of sexuality as being both highly restrictive yet refreshing in a way, they downplay sex but emphasize beauty, they downplay sexual distractions and sex work, yet allow it as a utilitarian mechanism for society to survive. While I do not believe love and desire should be seen as an unfortunate necessity in any society it is very interesting to see that even in the dark the works of the few brave writers can thrive and on occasion when the conservative control of society least suspects it it creeps through the culture little by little infiltrating the thoughts of many.

Jodie Mack: A Review

Jodie Mack was as vibrant as the short films she showed, and I was loving it. Not only did she draw in the biggest crowd out of all the lecturers but she did nothing but make good on her promise of wowing us with her art work. On a more serious note I'll start out with saying that the fine arts has always been a soft spot for me being that a vast majority of the people in my family are involved with the field in someway or another. Out of the two films that she showed us I have to say that I fell in love with "The Saddest Song" at first sight, I mean even though I don't believe that people can fall in love at first sight doesn't mean that a person can't fall in love with something at first sight right? I guess she caught me off guard by making her films kind of a one woman show, sure we went into it expecting nice art work and good creative vision but on top of that she did her own vocal performance and had fantastic themes throughout her works. The vocal performance (one of my favorite parts) was adorably well tuned, it fit the overall quirky, half-baked theme of things that came across in both pieces and kind of made me feel like I was at an open mic night at some off beat yet popular in the unpopular way independent coffee shop. While Ms.Mack's work spoke on the greater themes of love I felt more touched by her initial disclosure that her films speak of her inner desire to be loved in that silly sweet way. If only there were more disclosures like that in this world, after all it gave great insight to why she would pick the silly happy feel good themes that she did, and for that I am ever grateful. We haven't had many opportunities in this class to see the ultra positive side of love with just a touch of that saccharine sweetness that we all crave so this was much needed to say the least. Ms. Mack was able to convey some more serious themes about modern relationships such as confronting strain of money issues and being single but ultimately what I thought was going to be a more depressing film turned about to be adorably sweet. Going back to the artist herself during the Q&A session after the films Ms. Mack was asked about her film making process to which she responded that the division of work was hard to outline because her pieces are constantly existing in all states of pre-production, post-production, and production. I found this to be quite profound because her pieces exist in those states and revolve around some romantic themes while love itself always exists in those forms all at once. We are either looking for the next person, being caught up on the current one, and reminiscing about the past ones making love less of a cycle and more of conglomeration of parallel states none of which are tangible but all of which exist.

Thoughts on Garren Small

It's OK Mr.Small, I don't resent you for trying to call on me as I absent mindedly scratched my cheek after you read of one of your poems, and I certainly don't mind that you called me out on my apparent dismay at being noticed. Seriously though, that is something I am guilty of doing to my own audience members every time I have to give presentation and such. All kidding aside Garren Small was one of our most engaging and participation enthusiastic speakers that we have had the pleasure of hosting in this class to date. Having overheard some coffee talk before the lecture I was surprised that Mr. Small identified himself as having majored in political science, after all its not too often that we see a future politician turned successful poet.  Mr. Small was charmingly engaged with his audience, not seeing this as an opportunity to stand up on his soapbox in the limelight instead he actively tried to engage the audience in critique, open repertoire, and interpretations of his work and the works of his favorite poets. In short egocentric is the last thing that I would use to describe Mr. Small, after all it is incredibly refreshing to see such an established individual try so hard to interact with his audience, and on top of that be so amazed with the different off the cuff interpretations that his readings received. Mr. Small's work spoke volumes on the overall themes of our class, the title of his lecture "Fires Dared to Ignite" was something that he touched upon briefly yet deeply. According to Mr. Small the fires that are dared to ignite is the love worth pursuing, this imagery is not unheard of in any of the works that we've been exposed to. Its something about the unbridled force of nature, a burning flame, that inspires, scares, excites, and helps us relate to our own helpless emotions. A fire once ignited is not controlled, it can only be corralled to a point before it gets out of hand, much like the passion of one individual for another. You fall in love, you fall deeper in love, and then you get hurt, and you get over it, this cycle is like lighting a match and holding it between your finger tips, the flame first flickers to life, then grows to the point where it not longer is in danger of fizzling out, but then things get out of control and the larger the flame grows out of your control the closer it is to burning your finger tips. Eventually this cycle ends with the flame being forcefully smothered by the person holding the match or by itself if the person cant let go for some reason, either way it ends but it can begin again. However the cycle can never end or begin if it is the fire that wasn't dared to ignite, the love not pursued, the fall not taken, the chance not seized. According to Mr. Small being in love, falling in love, and opening yourself up to another person takes some courage,and that's why its a dare and not just a step or something spontaneous out of the blue.

For The Love of Brain Systems

Ok, so this was the lecture we've all been waiting for and may I say that it did not disappoint. Dr. Brown was a very enigmatic and clever lecturer, she presented her information with such a refreshing excitement that I couldn't help but to feel more engaged in the further she got along. I suppose its a strange way to look at things but like with Dr. Freund the more excited that she got about her own research the more excited I got for her after all its very rare that in the field of neuroscience that someone can get away with building a body of research on brain phenomena related to love and desire, its actually relatively unheard of.  What makes Dr. Browns research so interesting is the premise that its based on, it basically says love and desire are real things and they are important to the overall quality of human life, unlike many areas of science which like to water it down to a simple mating mechanism. So now that shes spent a majority of her professional career solidifying the science behind what makes us tick, what have we learned from it? From her studies in early stage intense romantic love or the honeymoon and courting period as I like to call it, I couldn't help but to wonder if there were better implications for this kind of research except dealing with late stage fading romantic love. For example the kind of stimulus and brain scans tests that she performed could be used to differentiate the traditionally different forms of love that we have all been taught about  (Philia, eros, stroge, and agape) and therefore might be used to better tailor marriage counseling techniques towards shifting the subconscious views of ones mate from a friend/enemy complex and back over to the passionate romantic love that we all want in our lives. Dr. Brown noted that there was an interesting overlap in some individuals in her studies of sexual arousal and romantic  love, but that it was a few isolated cases. I cant help but to wonder if that is the byproduct of negative conditioning around what is deemed the acceptable nature of love, a personality survey could help clear up some of that confusion, if the individuals stated views of love deeply involve sexual feeling then naturally they're brain scans will indicate both arousal and romantic love firing off at the same time. That area of her research could also be explored further to delve into the different kinds of sexualities, such as asexual individuals. If an individual is truly and naturally asexual (meaning not caused by some altering incident) then they should be capable of romantic responses but not arousal stimuli, and in a person with an aversion to sex for negative reasons their scans should indicate both mild arousal and disgust. Dr. Brown also stated that her findings indicate that the core system of romance is related to vital need and the reward and drive area of the brain, so my question comes to mind "could a stalker be created?" On a general research level there have been plenty of studies in which the hypothalamus of some poor lab animal is assaulted to simulate a condition called hyperphagia, or insatiable hunger, and this is done with relative ease in a lab setting. If a condition like hyperphagia can be recreated multiple times over then you could easily alter other areas of the brain that keep lovers scoring at the top of the passionate love scale from toppling down the dark side of affection. Therefore if the reward and drive area of the brain associated with romantic love and inhibition of social actions was altered then a stalkerish like behavior could be simulated and perhaps lead to the discovery of abnormal neural morphology in certain categories of sex offenders. So who said love research isn't valuable?

Thoughts on Slaverys Interior

Out of all the guest lecturers that we have had the pleasure of learning from and engaging with Dr. Reed certainly took the memo of think out side the box to heart. Yes, I will fully admit I was a skeptic when I saw the title of his lecture "Slavery's Interior- Cinema and the Performative Traumas of History" I mean how on earth was this supposed to relate to our love and desire class? Well he accepted the challenge and made it work. Dr. Reed presented a very original view on the subject of desire and how it applies to our world, in the case of his work desire was something people wanted to be in control of and still do. The way he put it was that the act of enslaving another individual was the act of keeping alive someone who would rather die. In essence this describes the enslaver as one who wishes to control the desire of others (his slaves) but ultimately is the victim of his own desires to control others, somewhat of a means of compensation for the lack of self control. In multiple ways the overall idea and theme of slavery can be applied in many ways, such as the traditional sense of slavery which Dr. Reed has analyzed through film for the purposes of his lecture and in the metaphorical sense which is what these films wish to appeal to. In these films on slavery the longing for freedom (the overarching theme of his talk) is the key representative of unfulfilled desire, film makers have been using slavery as a successful medium to capture the audiences longing for their own personal freedoms from self invented slaveries so to speak .To put it plainly after seeing a film like Amistad a mid level cubicle worker may feel justified enough to break free of the bonds of his deadend employment and pursue the finer things in life, however on the other hand you may have the exact same office worker return to his work the next day with renewed fervor for his previously undesirable employment. This train of thought follows suit with what Dr. Reed summed up near the end of the lecture that we see slavery where we want to see it and we also craft freedom where we want it. Just like love and hate can coexist in the same object simply based on the perspective of who is judging it (refer to the text Celestina where the differing views of Calisto and Sempronio on Melibea are examined in detail if you catch my drift) slavery and freedom can also represent a similarly skewed image dichotomy. What is a miserable trapped existence to one person is freedom and joy to another, it all depends upon the perspective, consider the role of Stephen (Samuel L. Jackson) in Django Unchained. By modern standards being a house slave to the same family for your entire life and being put in the position of having to discipline other people in a similarly unfair plight would be hell for most, but for Stephen he wanted nothing of any other life but his life long servitude. Perspective plays a larger role in desire then we think it does, although desire persists as something that we all experience it bears a new face in every setting, it can be wanting something badly or loathing something to an extent that you want to be rid of it.

Before Sunset Reflections

I suppose in retrospective that saying that Celine and Jesse would meet again but not under the promised pretenses would have been a safe bet to make in my reflection for Before Sunrise but I guess we can all be half right in our respective assumptions on whether or not we thought they would meet in the promised 6 month time span. I have to say off the cuff that I did rather enjoy the film, and while the ending was not what I would consider ideal or realistic in any stretch of the imagination we have to carefully remember that the story between the two lovers in nowhere near ideal or realistic, nor are the lovers themselves. If Jesse and Celine had to be grouped into a particular relationship archetype I would see them as the ones that almost got away, not quite the fated couple or the star crossed lovers but rather old flames that never died out fully.  While in Before Sunrise Jesse was seen as the bright eyed young adventurer and Celine the beautiful yet bored damsel in distress of her own making, the characters didn’t progress much in terms of moving beyond those roles in the sequel. Instead they are both seen as slightly older versions of themselves yet Jesse is still gallivanting across the globe, only this time as a successful writer, and Celine is still making her normal life miserable for herself despite her apparent success.  Celine is seen as having fallen into a sort of dormant romantic state, a strange mid ground between being in love and wanting to be loved; instead she wants to feel love on her end. To me Celine is facing the rare predicament of being the beloved, placed so high on the pedestal that she is isolated from experiencing the feelings that other have for her. She experiences an absence of feeling because being with Jesse for that short albeit intense 24 hour time span has effectively raised her threshold for what she sees as the ultimate high of love to the point where no one else can stimulate her feelings. However can the feelings that exist between the two really be referred to as love, perhaps it drifts dangerously close to the desire side of the boarder. In the café scene of the film where the two discuss desire I found it oddly reminiscent of the famous telephone scene at the restaurant in the first film, Jesse openly address what it’s like to be freed from your desires but Celine steadfastly counters that desire is a necessity for life most likely due to their predicament where Jesse has spent the last 9 years trying to let this girl go and she has spent the past 9 years being resentful about letting him slip through her fingers.

Steve Almond

On the 12th of March in the year 2013 an amazing writer named Steve Almond came to give a lecture about his writing on the themes of love and desire, and a certain prosthetics and orthotics major who attended his lecture would never be the same again. In all seriousness Mr. Almond was a fantastic lecturer and if given the chance I would most definitely attend another lecture given by him, he had an amazing presence and charismatic control of the audience which let it be known that this was an open forum for any kind of question. However keep in mind that it was no holds barred on his end and that if you asked a question you were going to get your answer regardless of whether or not you were really ready for the answer. Mr. Almond had the amazing ability to take 2 of the things in this world that make me the most uncomfortable, put them together, and make a rather nice story about called Skull. Based on my chosen field of studies you can assume one of two things about me, either A. that I am an amputee fetishist, or B. that I am terrified of amputee fetishists. I hate to spoil it for you but I fall in the latter category, anything involving that subject is incredibly uncomfortable for me, after all I'm trying to put them back together once they've been stripped down not strip them down and then put them back together. Therefore addressing that this is a unique career issue that people come across from time to time is something that I have wholly avoided thus far no thanks to Mr. Almond! The other factor to my discomfort was the graphicness of his sex scenes, graphic literary sex scenes are something that I have never been too keen on, after all when you follow a character you watch them grow and surmount obstacles, its like watching a dear friend progress through a period in their life, and do you really want to watch your dear friends describe sex on a brutally honest level? I certainly hope not. All of this being said I am glad that this happened because while he took me to a peak of some very extreme discomfort he didn't leave me there, just like the main narrator of his story, he took us there and back to the safe place of understanding without abandoning the reader or the character.  The way Mr. Almond treats his characters is the way a lot of people wish they could confront life, a gentle hand pushing them towards both good and bad but never ever abandoning them along the way. When he read Skull aloud I was shocked, but by the end of it once I had taken a moment to process everything I appreciated that Mr. Almond was such a fantastic writer, I wasn't alone in my experience, I was right there with the narrator sitting on his couch internally begging his buddy to not continue down the path of over sharing, and while we were both powerless to stop the experience (a feeling akin to watching a train wreck: frozen by the horror but its too good to look away) we are wiser people for it. The way that Mr. Almond applies the themes of love and desire to his work is amazing to put it simply,  He treats it as a challenge to himself as a writer to be able to successfully portray this complex set of human feelings. Sure he could have chosen a different set of equally complex feelings like grief and misery, but by portraying love and desire he challenges himself to work past the cliche fantasy of love that most art forms abuse. Just like he noted in his lecture that pornography is the fantasy of sex, I saw a parallel that most mediums in the art world are a fantasy of love but that desire has the unique ability to persist as something not quite artificial in either portrayal.