\u201cGoblet of Fire\u201d<\/a> movie. But yeah, I think it is different. Let me try to marshal theology to defend my aesthetic preferences!<\/p>\nThe first, most obvious difference is that in the woman-as-icon moments, the seeker usually doesn\u2019t attain the lady. The aching absence and sense of persistent lack helps to give those moments their spiritual heft.<\/p>\n
Moreover, \u201che saw her across a crowded room\u201d IMO substitutes iconicity for individuality, in situations where individuality is required. I mean, to date an actual human female, you should probably be interested in her as something other than an icon. Actually, my biggest problem with the Stephen Fry thing mentioned in the previous post is precisely that it\u2019s \u201che saw him across a crowded room\u201d\u2013the personality of the beloved is both unknown and irrelevant, and yet<\/em> that doesn\u2019t suggest to the lover that perhaps something other than this particular human individual is what\u2019s really being sought.<\/p>\nIf you fall in love with an icon seen standing at her window, you might be \u201cin love with love,\u201d or you might be in love with something you see through the window of this woman. But you definitely aren\u2019t in love with that particular woman, because you don\u2019t actually know anything about her other than how she looks. So attempts to write a realist romance based on the iconic vision, rather than e.g. a psalm, are going to fail because you\u2026 get stuck in the window (to carry this metaphor well past where it should stop), instead of moving through it to a deeper desire.<\/p>\n
Or in other words, don\u2019t marry a girl just because the sunlight caught in her hair one afternoon and you thought suddenly of God. You\u2019ll still have to live with her and do the washing-up, you know.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
WHEN I SEE YOU, A THOUSAND EYES TURNING BLUE: Cacciaguida asks: Is \u201cthe woman-as-icon moment\u201d the same as \u201cthe across-a-crowded-room thing\u201d? Ha, good catch! He\u2019s referring to one of my problems with the \u201cGoblet of Fire\u201d movie. But yeah, I think it is different. Let me try to marshal theology to defend my aesthetic preferences! […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1071,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1771","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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