Tag Archives: Paris
“Learning to Ride”
“Learning to Ride” Fran, my therapeutic riding teacher, told me today that – – slow and steady – – I am putting together the different pieces of a rider’s ride. By degrees, I am getting “stabilized” in holding the position … Continue reading
Posted in culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, faith, fashion, femininity, gender balance, Hegel, history, literature, love, male power, memoir, motherhood, nineteenth-century, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, power, psychology, relationships, roles, sexuality, social conventions, spirituality, suffering, the examined life, the problematic of woman, theism, time
Tagged "Conversions: A Philosophic Memoir", adolescence, affinities, American teenagers, bescherte, Brooklyn, childhood make-believe, communist, companionship, coquetry, courtship, dating, dressage, earthiness, Flirting, gender roles, Gustave Flaubert, hamish, handicap, Hegel, identity, intellect, love, lovers, man/woman game, Marriage, Paris, partnerships, primitivity, providence, role models, Romance, sentimental education, spirituality, student demonstrations, the 60s, the counterculture, therapeutic riding, Yiddish
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“Friendly Fire”
“Friendly Fire” Sartre and Merleau-Ponty were among the more influential of the twentieth-century’s French philosophers. They had been friends, but Sartre had broken with Merleau-Ponty over some political disagreement. When Merleau-Ponty died in mid-life, prematurely, Sartre felt free to write … Continue reading
Posted in culture, desire, dialectic, erotic life, femininity, feminism, friendship, Hegel, literature, memoir, Phenomenology of the Mind, philosophy, political, relationships, the problematic of woman
Tagged better angels, café, eulogies, female friendship, first love, fjords, French philosophers, friends, good and evil, heart of darkness, Hegel, Joseph Conrad, Merleau-Ponty, moral choice, morality, Nietzsche, Nordic women, Paris, political disagreement, quarrels, Sartre, sin, unresolved relations, wicked mother
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“Sex Appeal”
“Sex Appeal” Is it a good thing? A subversive thing? A morally neutral thing? Some years ago, I felt the need of fresh light on my situation. Since modern life’s more approved diagnostic tools and remedies seemed to me shopworn … Continue reading
Posted in culture, desire, erotic life, femininity, feminism, philosophy, relationships, sexuality, social conventions, spirituality, the problematic of woman
Tagged astrology, being desired, charm, desire, erotic influences, erotic wisdom., European women, fair play, Frenchmen, G. W. F. Hegel's Reason in History, Gandhi, manipulativeness, Mata Hari, Paris, passion, reciprocity, sex appeal, sex energy, sexy, subterfuge, tattoos, the Evil Impulse, the rabbis, therapy
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“Fun”
“Fun” Whenever I really had fun, I hadn’t sought it and never called it that. What times am I thinking of? There was the time a select group of us young colleagues, who were fired for resisting the powers that … Continue reading
Posted in academe, culture, friendship, literature, philosophy, political, psychology, relationships, social conventions
Tagged academe, adolescence, artifice, awkward, childhood, colleagues, constraint, contrived, freedom, friendship, fun, Greek myth, high-school, horses, Les Halles, Marcel Proust, Paris, philosophy, Procrustes
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“All About Love”
“All About Love” On a wintry Parisian evening, I was sitting with my Czech friend Anna in Chez Maurice, one of the seedier cafes on the rue de Tournon. A group of young Russians were within earshot, one holding forth … Continue reading
Posted in culture, desire, erotic life, friendship, philosophy, relationships, social conventions, the examined life, the problematic of woman
Tagged Anna, Arts, burden, Guess, Jerry L. Martin, love, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, Mr. Right, Paris, philosophy, professor, relationships, Romance, Russian, Russian language, suffering, teaching
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“Finding Mr. Right”
“Finding Mr. Right” To marry off Abigail was never a cinch. My undergraduate years passed in a women’s college to which I commuted from a home that interested me more than my professors did, much less the callow young male … Continue reading
Posted in culture, desire, erotic life, femininity, feminism, gender balance, history of ideas, masculinity, philosophy, political, psychology, the examined life, the problematic of woman
Tagged American woman, Chronicle of Higher Education, female friendship, Feminism, Feminity, Finding Mr. Right, Gender, gender roles, Long-distance calling, love, Marriage, Masculinity, Mr. Right, New York City, Paris, philosophy, relationships, Romance, Sydney, Western Wall
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