Crush
Filed under: Eros - July 31, 2008 @ 1:00 pm
From The Unbearable Lightness of Being:
The heaviest of burdens crushes us, we sink beneath it, it pins us to the ground.
But in the love poetry of every age, the woman longs to be weighed down by the man’s body.
The heaviest of burdens is therefore simultaneously an image of life’s most intense fulfillment.
The heavier the burdens, the closer our lives come to the earth, the more real and truthful they become.
July 31st, 2008 at 2:21 pm
I’ve only seen the movie, and it’s great.
July 31st, 2008 at 2:30 pm
beautiful.
July 31st, 2008 at 3:27 pm
Milan Kundera writes with purpose. Try reading a short story of his called the Hitchhking Game. It’s in the book “My Mistress’s Sparrow is Dead” but I’m sure you could find it elsewhere.
It haunted me. I think you would honestly love it.
July 31st, 2008 at 3:49 pm
i too have only seen the movie, but such an amazing movie it was…..
it captured the actual feeling, of having life being unbearably light feeling. we all yearn to FEEL……we want pain, we want passion, we want people holding our wrists down, we want tears, we want screams of ecstacy, we want smiles and laughs, we want, we want…..
HUMANS LOVE TO FEEL.
the movie shows how light heaviness can be, and how heavy lightness is.
not everyone wants to be Zen, and Empty. some of us would rather be sick to our stomachs with feelings…..
i should own that book. very mystical. deep.
July 31st, 2008 at 3:55 pm
I heard both are fantastic. Perhaps I should finally look into it.
July 31st, 2008 at 3:59 pm
CapnMizzark, - yes, it is one of the top 10 greatest movies ever made. greatest love story ever in my opinion. it captures the tension of war time, and shows the sexual release of such tensions.
July 31st, 2008 at 4:02 pm
honestly it’s the only movie that so beautifully captures the love between 3 people, a love triangle of unbelievable beauty.
not a triad, just the intermingling of 3 people, so deep.
July 31st, 2008 at 4:03 pm
Let’s have a movie night! I haven’t seen it. And I’d lend you the book, except you helped me put it in storage the other day. That was in my box of SEX books as opposed to my box of WEIRD books.
July 31st, 2008 at 4:04 pm
Has anyone here, ever read the unibomber manifesto? Im pretty sure Rev-Lion would get into it, its very interesting. In short its about how life is far too easy in the modern age and causes people to feel the very way you guys are talking about. Humans evolved in a very harsh way, technology has made our lives dull, easy, it lacks intensity. This makes people crave intensity in various forms, some not so healthy. Anyway, its pretty cool, don’t let the fact that he was a homicidal maniac stop you from reading it. Here it is
http://www.ed.brocku.ca/~rahul/Misc/unibomber.html
July 31st, 2008 at 4:05 pm
Oh, and reading out loud to a lover: HOT.
http://www.thebeautifulkind.com/2007/02/03/book-slut-fantasies/
July 31st, 2008 at 4:26 pm
I JUST finished reading the “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” (but haven’t yet seen the movie). My favorite quote:
“While people are fairly young and the musical composition of their lives is still in its opening bars, they can go about writing it together and exchange motifs [...], but if they meet when the are older [...], their musical compositions are more or less complete, and every motif, every object, every word means something different to each of them.”
~ Narrator from The Unbearable Lightness of Being, by Milan Kundera, Part 3, Chapter 2, pages 88-89
July 31st, 2008 at 4:37 pm
- Taking turns reading out loud to each other before having amazing sex and falling asleep cuddlestyle.
- Going to the bookstore together on cold, dark evenings and having hot chocolate.
- Making out in the stacks of the library, public or university.
Check. Check. And check.
Seattle is for nerds.
July 31st, 2008 at 4:41 pm
A friend of mine told me to read it. I haven’t gotten around to it. Guess I have to go buy it now. I’ll add it to the top of the pile of books I haven’t read yet!
July 31st, 2008 at 5:47 pm
This was the movie that expanded my movie viewing horizon by leaps and bounds! The cast of Daniel Day-Lewis, Lena Olin & and a young, barely english speaking Juliette Binoche(she had to take english lessons for the role) is phenomenal, and this was before Day-Lewis won his oscar for “My Left Foot”.
July 31st, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Okay, I need to see this movie, its going on the Netflix queu.
July 31st, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Years ago I saw the movie, it was incredible!
July 31st, 2008 at 7:16 pm
Didn’t even know there was a movie. But I sure as hell am not seeing it until after I have read the book which has been sitting on one of my many bookshelves for a few years now. One day I will get to it. Great quote though. I’m glad that literature and literary things are a part of this site. I’d recommend starting a TBK Book Club if you are going to start having movie nights. Books are better than movies! The end.
July 31st, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Reverend Lion says: we want, we want….
“It’s wanting that keeps us alive” (Dangerous Beauty)
Dor says: technology has made our lives dull, easy, it lacks intensity. And Reverend Lion says: not everyone wants to be Zen, and Empty.
I disagree entirely. Most people simply haven’t realized how easy it is to find joy, love, beauty, grace and amazement in the little things once you begin to look. *This* is the meaning of Zen, finding the fullness, precisely _not_ the emptiness, in everything.
July 31st, 2008 at 9:24 pm
The Carnal Butterfly within me is not thinking of anything more than what you highlighted TBK… Mmmmmmm, yessssss.
July 31st, 2008 at 9:35 pm
sunday - we are getting at the same point in two different ways. The zen i speak of is the same as you say– looking for fullness, but it is this fullness you can only see when nothing blinds your eye, and this is easiest found when you can empty your mind of extraneous thoughts.
So i say we are saying the same thing because i agree completely, Zen is all about seeing infinite meaning in life, but i feel this is usually from emptying ones ego. the more you can empty it, the more room you have for seeing.
Pure experience.
July 31st, 2008 at 10:17 pm
I haven’t seen the flick or read the book, but reading everyone’s comments about them kinda reminds me of the flick Summer Lovers. Love triangle turned triad with accents and Chicago galore! I wish I had it on DVD so I could watch it right now.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084737/plotsummary
July 31st, 2008 at 10:31 pm
We watched Summer Lovers recently and wow Lokey, you should check it out again. Beau had seen it back in the day (1980’s) and thought it was SOOO hot and amazing. But it hasn’t held up over time. Now it’s kinda cheesy. And that Peter Gallagher’s eyebrows - I have a thing for eyebrows but his are WAY too much. Like disturbing, distracting from luscious Daryl Hannah.
OK having sleepover at Belle’s tonight, she said the bath is ready ~
July 31st, 2008 at 10:39 pm
I’ve seen it a couple times since my first viewing years ago on late night HBO. It doesn’t arouse me now like it did back then, but I still love it.
If you can find it, you should check out The Dreamers:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0309987/
August 1st, 2008 at 5:10 am
Sunday, believe me I do find joy in the simple things. I think Zen can be different things for different people, for me its about clearing my head of unhealthy thoughts. Most people, especially in this country, walk around with heads full of petty thoughts, they are spiteful, mean, aggressive, jealous. They are the ones driving up your ass on the freeway. I do believe as a general rule people are less psychologically healthy in the modern age. Native Americans may have not lived long lives but they were rich, deep, meaningful lives, and intensity was nothing they lacked!
August 1st, 2008 at 8:45 am
Josh, I couldn’t agree more, always read the book! The movie may even end up a disappointment afterward but thats okay, books are so much better.
August 1st, 2008 at 8:48 am
I think you’re right on about all that intensity stuff DOR, because i see it in myself. I replace my lack of intensity in my life with random drug use, drinking, false idols of intensity per se. I miss cooking in professional kitchens for just that reason. Almost every shift in a real kitchen you are gonna be flung right into the shit, and when the rush is over, just like ‘nam vets, you are ready to go back in.
” Live for nothing, or die for something ” (Rambo)
sorry about the rambo quote, LMFAO, had to lay it down….
did you notice the rambo quote has nothing to do with what i was talking about??? that’s why i’m laughing!
August 1st, 2008 at 9:49 am
I could be wrong but I think the coming decade will provide plenty of intensity.
August 1st, 2008 at 11:30 am
Amen, Chiavata! Not to fully expose my nerdiness but there is an amazing quote from an episode in The X-Files where a character says, “I’d rather read the worst book ever written than watch the best movie ever made.” I almost fully agree with that. I say almost because I have read some god awful books over the years but even the most mediocre of books still stirs the imagination and can do things to you that no movie or amount of CGI every could. Now I am fully interested in what you read, Chiavata. I like goodreads.com
August 1st, 2008 at 3:55 pm
I’m very amused at the mention of Summer Lovers, as like Lokey and Beau it’s been a secret favorite of mine since I saw it first as a teenager. What really tickles me is that I just watched it again about a month ago, for the first time in a decade or more, and here it comes up randomly! Daryl Hannah is young and hot, but it’s Valérie Quennessen as the french archeologist that really gets me going. Too bad she died so young.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Quennessen
And TBK - I agree that Peter Gallagher’s eyebrows are completely unacceptable.
August 1st, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Fantastic movie, saw it years ago, but it was wonderful. Highly recommend to anyone who hasn’t seen it. I’ll have to read the book…
August 1st, 2008 at 9:18 pm
It broke my heart when I found out that Quennessen had died. I found her to be ten times as sexy as Hannah in that flick and was incredibly intrigued by her.