Tag Archives: epistolary novel
Women Enemies and Women Friends
In Liaisons Dangereuses, the eighteenth-century epistolary novel of cynicism by Choderlos de Laclos, the plot turns around two aristocrats who co-conspire to seduce their unsuspecting victims. Their purpose is not so much to gratify sexual desire as to enjoy the … Continue reading →
Posted in Absolute Freedom and Terror, absurdism, academe, action, afterlife, agnosticism, alienation, anthropology, appreciation, art, art of living, atheism, authenticity, bad faith, beauty, Bible, Biblical God, bigotry, bureaucracy, childhood, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, eternity, ethics, ethnicity, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, fatherhood, female power, femininity, feminism, filial piety, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, guilt and innocence, health, Hegel, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, immortality, institutional power, Jesus, Jews, journalism, Judaism, law, legal responsibility, life and death struggle, literature, love, male power, martyrdom, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, memoir, memory, Messianic Age, mind control, modern women, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, morality, mortality, motherhood, mysticism, Nihilism, nineteenth-century, non-violence, novels, ontology, oppression, pacifism, past and future, peace, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, power games, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, radicalism, reading, reductionism, relationships, religion, remembrance, repairing the culture, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, science, scientism, secular, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, spirituality, status, status of women, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, Truth, TV, twentieth century, twenty-first century, Utopia, victimhood, victims, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged 18th-century novel, academic gossip, academic politics, antisocial behavior, at home in the world, attacking a friendship, betraying trust, breaking faith, calumny and collegiality, calumny and lost friends, calumny and mutual trust, carcinogenic stress, Central Park Reservoir, chivalry between women, Choderlos de Laclos, co-conspirators, conspiracy to seduce, conspiring to victimize, culture-wide delusions, cynicism vs innocence, damaging fictions, damaging fictions believed, defamation and social envy, defaming gossip, defaming the innocent, dread medical verdict, effective defamations, epistolary novel, freemasonry of women, friendship betrayed, gallantry between women, gossip and social credit, harmful fictions, homeless in the world, Liaisons Dangereuses, Marquise de Merteuil, medical verdict, moral terror, moral victories, nature mirroring despair, nature reflecting moods, neighbors who are friends, New York neighbors, novel of cynicism, pathetic fallacy, psychogenic illness, psychological warfare, reductionism as cultural norm, reductionism as fashionable, reputation tarnishing, seduction, seduction for power, seductive lies, sisterhood of women, social damage, social danger, social death, social defeats, social envy, social power, social safety, social status, social terrorism, social violence, social war, social wound, surviving social warfare, symbolic murder, test of friendship, Vicomte de Valmont, vulnerability of women, when the bad guys win, woman as skillful enemy, woman colleague, women enemies, women friends, women giving a sense of home, women knowing where to strike, women supporting women, women undermining women, women victims, wounding socially
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Is Virtue Rewarded?
Is Virtue Rewarded? The other day, Jerry brought me a book for nighttime reading titled Pamela; or, Virtue Rewarded. It’s an 18th century classic by Samuel Richardson but that’s not why he gave it to me. He knows I like … Continue reading →
Posted in absurdism, academe, action, alienation, American politics, anthropology, art, art of living, autonomy, beauty, Biblical God, bureaucracy, chivalry, Christianity, cities, class, conformism, contemplation, contradictions, cool, courage, courtship, cults, cultural politics, culture, desire, dialectic, eighteenth century, erotic life, ethics, evil, existentialism, exploitation, faith, fashion, femininity, feminism, films, freedom, friendship, gender balance, glitterati, guilt and innocence, health, hegemony, heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history, history of ideas, id, idealism, ideality, identity, ideology, idolatry, immorality, institutional power, journalism, legal responsibility, literature, love, male power, masculinity, master, master/slave relation, medieval, memoir, memory, mind control, modernism, moral action, moral evaluation, moral psychology, novels, oppression, past and future, philosophy, poetry, political, political movements, politics, politics of ideas, postmodernism, power, presence, promissory notes, propaganda, psychology, public facade, public intellectual, reductionism, relationships, religion, Renaissance, roles, romance, romantic love, romanticism, seduction, self-deception, sex appeal, sexuality, slave, social climbing, social construction, social conventions, social ranking, sociobiology, spiritual journey, status, status of women, suffering, terror, the examined life, the problematic of men, the problematic of woman, the profane, the sacred, theism, theology, time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, violence, work, writing, Zeitgeist
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Tagged 18th century novel, advice columns, attractiveness, being uptight, boorish, bourgeois, bourgeois norms, bourgeois values, Bullying, cattiness, conformism, Da Vinci, Dante's Beatrice, dental cavities, dentistry, early feminism, epater le bourgeois, epistolary novel, eroding values, following fads, frigid, Glamour magazine, gossip magazines, great teeth, hairdressers, happy ending, heroine's virtue, ideality, images of ideality, improving lives, keeping up with the Joneses, knight's purpose, knights in armor, Leo Bronstein, loveliness, manipulative, Marquis de Sade, men and women, middle class values, Mona Lisa, mystery lady, Oppressed v Oppressors, pop culture, pop therapy, porn, pushed around, repairing the world, romantic, S&M, Sade's bio, Samuel Richardson's Pamela, sex and ideas, sex on the brain, stifling thought, the feminine, the new normal, vanilla sex, vicarious courage, vicarious sex, virtue's reward, Walter Scott's Ivanhoe, wanting to please, whips and chains, women's empowerment, women's liberation, women's magazines, women's movement
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