paraphrasing: "Art has been reduced to a purely functional notion, ie- representing the function of beauty rather than exercising it"
- Zizek, "The Fragile Absolute"
---The Lady of courtly love is an interesting concept, because she is not in any way defined by her own character. The Lady is, at a surface level, a woman that exists only as a wholly idealized version of what a man wants; however, at a deeper level, she is something a man avoids attaining because if he does, his Ideal will be shattered (Žižek 2407-2408, 2414). First, it is important to understand how the idealization of a woman works, as it is sort of a window to the rest of courtly love. Lacan said of her: “The Lady is never characterized for her real, concrete virtues, for her wisdom, her prudence, or even her competence. If she is described as wise, it is only because she embodies an immaterial wisdom or because she represents its functions more than she exercises them” (Lacan qtd. in Žižek 2407). According to Lacan’s idea of the mirror stage, the Lady is, for no real reason at all, a fantasy ideal, the “I” that the young child found in the mirror. The Lady is a representational object, something that man finds to have meaning simply because he desires it to be so: the Lady, “deprived of every real substance,... functions as a mirror on to which the subject projects his narcissistic ideal” (Žižek 2408). The Lady, is, then, one of the “phantasies” that is “manufacture[d]” by the mirror stage (Lacan 166).
- Caitlin Matwijec, "
High Society Love, or Woman as Nothing"
deprived of every real substance,... functions as a mirror on to which the subject projects his narcissistic ideal
ReplyDeleteWow. Good insight.
Question is, can this man risk letting go of that fantasy? And can the mirror woman risk being seen?
I say yes.
Tommy, Tommy, Tommy...
ReplyDeleteLacan argues that the child, at an age of about six to eighteen months, sees its reflection in a mirror, and takes that “form” as the “Ideal-I,” or the “I”: the child looks at the reflection in the mirror as the whole of itself, thus leading to the “jubilant assumption of his specular image” (Lacan 1164-1165). The image seen in the mirror, then, is what the child identifies itself as and what leads “lastly, to the assumption of the armour of an alienating identity” (Lacan 1166). The child creates an intrinsically false identity based on the image reflected in a mirror, and gets caught up in the “succession of phantasies” the mirror stage “manufactures” for the child (Lacan 1166). Essentially, based on the image in the mirror, the child develops a bloated sense of self that allows it to see itself as powerful. This concept relates to courtly love in the sense that the Lady, the perception of perfection, of courtly love is the mirror, and nothing but the mirror (Žižek 2409).
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Lily’s life—her capitalistic upbringing, her parents, her hardships—have all trained her to strive to be the perfect mirror—the Lady—so that she can have power over a man and control his wealth. Yet, ultimately, as the novel shows, the role of the Lady is not one defined by power,but rather by a lack of it. Although Lily has been taught to believe that using the paradigm of courtly love against men will grant her control and a financial means to everything she desires, "The House of Mirth" actually demonstrates that to do so is to grant all the control to the man and to live entirely in the Imaginary as his fantasy, which leads, ultimately, to death.
- Caitlin Matwijec, "High Society Love, or, Woman as Nothing"
---
I'm free! But where does this new freedom lead?
...unless you choose to become your "own"master, and become responsible for your own choices.
::P
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, in a different part of the kingdom...
ReplyDelete...a different Wonderland materializes.
ReplyDeleteMirror, mirror on the wall, what ideology rules us all?
ReplyDelete...it's all just one big masquerade in a hall of mirrors. We try to escape it through "intimacy"... we share our true selves with another... we try and expand our "private" and "intimate" spaces into the "public" sphere,... but it generally collapses back upon us.
ReplyDeleteZizek believes that the public spaces are being over-privatized. Me, I contend that private spaces are being over-publicized.
Such is the struggle for domination and control. For power. And the "limits" of love.
...for the "gap" created by ideological difference(s) creates an abyss, and crossing becomes ever more dangerous.
ReplyDeleteLEAP... and the net will appear! Not.
What are the limits of love? What are the limits of fear? And how do we manage their ebb and flow?
ReplyDeleteIf we can agree to and set forth those limits, we have a framework in which we can again, LIVE.
ReplyDeleteHmmm... now where did my last comment go?
ReplyDeleteOh well, enough playing. I'm off with the Mrs. to see Tennessee Williams "Glass Menagerie". Hopefully, I'll return in better spirits... as the ShutNado has left me slightly depressed. Ciao!
Our phantasies always presume themselves to be their own "master". But unfortunately, our phantasies are not our own. They represent the desire of "the other", not our actual desires.
ReplyDeleteWe really don't want to be our own "master". It is much more"comfortable" to remain "the other's" slave.
Or is this second consideration merely the desire of the "other" continuing in it's attempts to "inform" us? Hmmmm.
I don't normally share my dreams, but I did have a rather strange one last night. I was imprisoned inside a complex by a thug who threatened to beat me. For some reason, I did not try and escape, I continued to let myself remain intimidated.
I liken this to the current ShutNado. Perhaps I really should quit, and build a new business of my own, not dependent upon the whim's of Congresses...
How was the play?
ReplyDeleteShutNado threatens us, too. :(
ReplyDeletei loved the play. very well written and executed. the actor who played Lara, the sister, was one of my son's classmates, so it was good to have a familiar face in the cast.
ReplyDeleteAnd sorry to hear that you, too are affected by the Shutnado. I've banked a lot of vacation... but I am still concerned. The Govies won't loose anything, but contractos, such as myself, will never be compensated... for we are America's 2nd class citizens.
ReplyDeleteI hear you.
ReplyDeleteI feel the winds of a revolution blowing! .......not
ReplyDelete...it's all just one big masquerade in a hall of mirrors. We try to escape it through "intimacy"... we share our true selves with another...
FJ! Progress not perfection! ;-)
All is not lost.
We can also try and escape through trying to maintain a cynical distance... but even THAT path will likely you into the same trap.
ReplyDelete...or as I like to think of it, the Marcha Turca segment of Beethoven's 9th.
ReplyDelete