Friday, November 7, 2014
Eros & Venus
After Wednesday's discussion on the body, I began to wonder about the roles eros and venus play in our lives today. It seems to me that an ideal romantic relationship would involve both components, but I was wondering whether you think that eros and venus can exist individually. Is it possible to be in love without expressing sexual love? Is it possible to express sexual love and feel no genuine love at all?
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I would think one must possess eros and venus in a committed relationship. When someone says they are "in love" with another person I would hope/imagine that they are feeling both eros and venus towards the other. Perhaps in a relationship of pleasure or a relationship mostly consisting of physical activity I would imagine there would be more eros and not as much venus. However, I believe every relationship is different and I would hope any committed and serious relationship I get involved in would consist of eros and venus, in order to be happy and successful.
ReplyDeleteHere’s how I saw it from the reading: In order for there to be a healthy relationship between two real lovers, Eros needs to be at its highest value, while Venus is at its lowest value. I don’t recall Lewis ever mentioning that Venus has to go away, and this makes sense. For two people to be attracted to one another, sure the psychological and emotional aspects need to be present, but we cannot forget the physical aspects of attraction, which Venus seems to account for.
ReplyDeleteGoing back to your question, I think it is indeed possible to have just Venus without the Eros. After all, Eros is defined as the feeling of being in love. If a person is attracted to another person, but does not love this person in an “Eros-type” love, then I would think that only Venus acts in this relationship. However, I don’t think Eros can be alone, because, as mentioned above, Eros only stems from an initial attraction attributed to Venus. Without this Venus, the physical component goes away.
I think that there would be no Eros without Venus, because love and relationships often start with the physical aspects of attractions and grow into the love only shared between two people. I agree with Akshay in that Venus can exist individually as it serves as the foundations for relationships. Because we cannot possess Eros love for many different people, Venus can stand individually and exist alone. Just as we have discussed in class, I believe that Venus also serves as a purely biological factor for the preservation of species and that without Venus, no one is able to develop Eros.
ReplyDeleteI believe that both eros and venus can exist independently but not in a dating relationship. When a relationship consists only of eros, it is more of a friendship of utility than anything else. Yes, we may love the other person but if there is no venus, a full relationship can not take place. But when a relationship consists only of venus, it is a frendship of pleasure because the relationship is based only off of sexual love with none of the emotional love that eros brings. Therefore, a healthy dating relationship is one that is a friendship of virtue, with both eros and venus present. This would be a relationship of emotional love and sexual love that is reciprocated between the two partners.
ReplyDeleteLexi, I think you've raised a great question. Although, I think different thoughts about both eros and venus, than that which has been mentioned above. I don't think that eros and venus can exist all alone. Even in relationships that only consists of "physical attraction", so we say, or "just one thing", I think we are lying to ourselves. We fool ourselves into believing that the eros does not exist for this person. We always like to believe that we are in control of our emotions, that we can use people for our own objectives, this friendship of "utility", but I genuinely don't believe this is the case. Movies like No Strings Attached & even classic shows like Gossip Girl have shown me how in many different ways we attempt to conceal our real emotions for other temporary objectives, but that our emotions always catch up in the end. Now of course I can't speak for every individual, but from my own personal experience I've found that when I thought I had a relationship of simply venus, eros played more of a factor than I knew. And vice-versa. I believe that we give ourselves way too much credit for our emotions, when really and truly they are like magnets, they cling to whatever and whoever attracts us, no matter what we say or do otherwise. Thus I do not believe it's possible to be in love with someone without expressing the sexual and utmost attraction the human body can perceive and perform, nor do I believe you can perform that sexual love and not have ANY genuine emotional love for the person.
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