Cupid and Psyche

So once upon a time, there were three beautiful daughters. Of the three, Psyche was the most beautiful –so beautiful  that she was worshipped as a goddess.  A jealous Venus prompts her son, Cupid, to make Psyche fall in love with someone way below her league. But clumsy Cupid pricks himself with his arrow and falls madly in love with Psyche instead.

Time passes and Psyche remains single, although her less attractive sisters had already been married off. Her mother consulted an oracle to see what was the problem. The oracle tells Psyche’s parents that she is destined to be married to some hideous immortal. Psyche’s parents do the right thing and abandon her on a mountain to live out her hideous fate. Her husband wouldn't let her see him, so that was interesting. Psyche then does this trick to see her husband and she seeks him and oh my gosh he really is hot. Cupid gets mad and Venus has Psyche do all this awful stuff to gain back Cupid’s favor and eventually she’s got to go get this box and she’s not supposed to open it but she does and it’s bad but Cupid comes through for her and ultimately things end up well. After all, Psyche becomes a goddess, so she’s pretty much set.

I’m kind of a pessimist when it comes to love stories and whatnot; I don’t really believe in “happily ever afters”—things are usually more complicated than that. But I can appreciate a love story that details the struggles of two people to stay together who ultimately pull through and manage to love each other despite the circumstances; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind comes to the mind. All the same, I think it’s important not to glorify relationships as the end-all-be-all of life; relationships with friends and family can ultimately be more important, as even the most long withstanding romantic relationships can be fickle. 

Thanks a lot EVE!

In the beginning God started creating stuff. He created all kinds of things: Heaven, Earth, light, water, animals, stars, and finally man and woman. He gave them free reign in the Garden of Eden and only asked that they not eat from a single tree. The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. One day the serpent came forth and began to deceive Eve. He tricked her into partaking of the fruit. Many people take this as reason to blame Eve for the fall of man, but in actuality Adam was fully aware of what was happening. and stood by idly waiting to see if Eve would die. Seeing as she didn't instantly die, Adam naively ate of the fruit which was a slow acting poison known as life. After their sin God came looking for them, but they hid and covered their nakedness. God in discovering their sinning and concealing banished them from the garden and forced Adam to work in the field and Eve to experience pain in childbirth.

My origins don't seem all that special in the grand scheme of things, but they are at least unique to me. I was born a much anticipated male into a family with two daughters. I was instantly Daddy's little boy. My home was loving, conservative and Christian. We spent time as a family, owned guns, and kept in our home more Bibles than we could possibly read. I was raised to possess each of those values as well. I still value, enjoy, and look forward to a loving family. I have transitioned from a hard core Republican to a right leaning moderate. I still hold to my faith, but it is a faith that differs precisely from the form of religion I was raised in. Origins are important, but they don't necessarily predict where we will go or who we will become.




http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/06/Tigr-euph.png/300px-Tigr-euph.png

Vegetarian for the win

Abel was a vegetable farmer and his brother Cain -- a shepard. Both brothers offered a sacrifice to God. Abel's sacrifice was accepted, but Cain's was not. Cain filled with jealousy and rage decided to kill his brother by bludgeoning him to death with a rock. After murdering his brother Cain lies to God about it, clearly having learned nothing from his parents. God curses him to be a wanderer protected from premature death. Some wackos believe the curse of Cain to be Biblical evidence of vampires while our slightly crazier pre 1978 Mormon friends believe it to be the explanation of the creation of black people.

When I was little I often became angry with my sisters and chase them into their rooms wielding a plastic bat or golf club. I never actually hit them though. My sister Jenna would always throw open her door and steal my weapon and then hide it under her bed. When Jenna moved out and we moved her bed we found a plethora of my old sports equipment tucked neatly under her bed. The only time I remember ever physically attacked one of my sisters happened when I was fairly young. Jenna made me angry and I punched her in the stomach knocking the wind out of her. She began gasping for breath and I was terrified. I thought I had pulled a Cain and killed my sister in a fit of rage. Thankfully that wasn't the case, but after that I never hit either of my sisters again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cain_and_abel

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fe/The_Hill_Cumorah_by_C.C.A._Christensen.jpeg/325px-The_Hill_Cumorah_by_C.C.A._Christensen.jpeg

jacob & esau

Okay, so there are two parts to this story. The second part is really long so I’ll simplify it

So Abraham’s son was Isaac who had a wife named Rebekah and Rebekah was too old to have kids so God gave her twin boys and the older one was Esau and the younger one was Jacob and I guess there was no such thing as good parenting because Rebekah preferred Jacob and Isaac preferred Esau. Esau would hunt game while Jacob preferred to stay home and tend the flocks. Well one day Esau came home exhausted and starving so he asked Jacob for some of his food and Jacob said Esau had to give him his birthright first. So Esau gave up his birthright for some soup.

Here’s the second part. One day when Isaac was really old and about to die he told Esau to go out and get him some food and when he came back Isaac would give him his blessing. Esau went out but Rebekah had been listening the whole time. She went and found Jacob and told him what she heard and then told Jacob to go get two goats from their flock so she could kill them and make the food Isaac wanted so Jacob could pretend to be Esau and get the blessing instead. (Isaac’s eyesight sucked.) Jacob went to Isaac dressed as Esau with goatskins over his hands so Isaac wouldn’t recognize him as Jacob (Esau was super hairy so it would have been obvious if Jacob touched Isaac that he was not Esau.) He got the blessing; not long afterwards, Esau returned with the game he had captured for his father and went to receive the blessing, but Isaac couldn’t give it to him because he’d already blessed Jacob, even though he was mistaken in doing so. Esau says he’s going to kill Jacob, and I understand why. Jacob was a dick, just like his grandfather, Abraham.

I guess I have to talk about my sister in this blog post, even though I’d rather not. My sister and I are total opposites.  She spends more time partying than studying, and cares more about boys than she does her responsibilities. Don’t get me wrong—she’s a senior about to graduate with a degree in economics, so she’s not totally hopeless, but once in a while I wish she would just think about what she should do or say before she actually does or says anything. As far as birthrights go, I don’t think she or I have any special privileges, but my parents do baby her a lot (she’s 21).

Megan and Tristan Oscar Wilde Aetheticism

    Many of Oscar Wilde's publishings addressed the principles of the aesthetic movement popular in Victorian England, which was that art should take no part in molding the social or moral identities of society and instead should be focused on their aesthetic values. They acknowledged that art can be pleasurable but it would be a mistake if it was allowed to have any real influence, which was commonly said as "art for art's sake". Oscar Wilde was a prominant leader in promoting the movement near the end of the nineteenth century. While in college, Wilde was greatly influenced by the works of a\the English poet and critic Algernon Charles Swinburne and the American writer Edgar Allan Poe.

     In The Importance of Being Earnet, Wilde uses Algernon as a means of criticizing the elite of his society and to condemn the old Victorian values to which aestheticism was strongly opposed. In order to do so, he has Algernon deliver many hypocritical lines, such as, “[the low class] seem, as a class, to have absolutely no sense of moral responsibility” (Wilde 184). Such a statement would have been extremely ironic at the time, as it was the upper classes to which Algernon belongs, that were identified as suffering from moral degradation. In another piece of Wilde's, Phrases and Philosophies for the Use of the Young, starts out with, “The first duty in life is to be as artificial as possible.” He justified this through the aesthetic belief that life should imitate art.

     Wilde was an advocate for aestheticism outside of his literary work as well and is now a symbolic figure of the movement as a whole.

This picture shows Oscar Wilde surrounded by a group of lavishly dressed women known as aesthetes.

Victorian novels

Charles Dickens was perhaps the most famous author between the 1800s and 1900’s. Some of the other most prominent authors were the Bronte sisters, Alfred Tension, George Bernard Shaw, W.B. Yeats, and Oscar Wilde.  Victorian novels tend to be about right and wrong, luck vs. fate, and moral lessons and heart. They often discuss issues of morality and explore the issues of right and wrong. They are typically about people who struggle a lot and have difficult life circumstances. Victorianism relates to The Importance of Being Earnest through mocking Victorianism culture. Also there is influence from Victorian novels in The Return of the Native in the prevalent theme of luck vs. fate.

Olivia Burchett Cason Dooley Amaris Wade

Realism and the Return of the Native (just me, myself and i)

Realism was dedicated to the accurate portrayal of life - it represented the effort to reproduce the details of life in a written form. It was a blend of fiction writing and the journalistic writing of the time, trying to produce the story as if it was a report of something that happened to real people. Therefore, realism typically focused more on the characters than on any sort of plot, and the developments related to the characters, instead of being extremely heavy on the plot. Realism also might not have the typical plot style, instead of having the clear rising action and then a climax having the plot plod along as if it were real life. It also happened to coincide with an increased interest in how the lower classes lived as well as with a growing interest in the inner workings of the mind.

Return of the Native focuses heavily on the characters rather than any sort of overarching plot - which might also have to do with the fact that it was released in increments rather than all at once. All of the development is focused on the characters and how they change or how their relationships shift over time, and this tends to push the plot, more so than the plot pushing how the characters develop. While the plot does have a clear rising action-climax-resolution order, it takes a backseat to the development of the characters. And that isn't even talking about the nature of the characters, who all have realistic natures. They are flawed, almost tragically so in some cases, and are surprisingly realistic. Eustacia is a character who is beautiful, but flawed in that while she wants romance, she doesn't know why she wants it and is simply in love with the idea of love. Thomasin is extremely realistic, because she is, well, kinda boring and follows the traits that women of the time would have typically have (polite, patient, yielding, etc).

Realist authors:

de Balzac, Honoré (1799-1850)

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor (1821-1881)

Eliot, George (1819-1880)

Flaubert, Gustave (1821-1880)

Howells, William Dean (1837-1920)

James, Henry (1843-1916)

Twain, Mark (1835-1910)

Wharton, Edith (1862-1937)

Philosophies in the 1850's - Dominik and Sophia

German Idealism – German philosophers like Kant and other dudes like Schopenhauer theorized about idealism and said that things had no inherent meaning but instead have the meaning we give them. A philosophical movement post-Kant.

Absolute idealism (see G. W. F. Hegel) includes the following principles: (1) the everyday world of things and persons is not the world as it really is but merely as it appears in terms of uncriticized categories; (2) the best reflection of the world is in terms of a self-conscious mind; (3) thought is the relation of each particular experience with the infinite whole of which it is an expression; and (4) truth consists in relationships of coherence between thoughts, rather than in a correspondence between thoughts and external realities – Merriam-Webster

Utilitarianism – Merriam-Webster states that utilitarianism is “the belief that a morally good action is one that helps the greatest number of people. Ethical principle according to which an action is right if it tends to maximize happiness, not only that of the agent but also of everyone affected. Thus, utilitarians focus on the consequences of an act rather than on its intrinsic nature or the motives of the agent.” Utilitarianism is all about what is best for the whole, and good actions that improve the whole are ethically right.

Marxism – “duh bro its like economic instinct and the destruction of like societal institutions because they create power imbalance and oppression yo down with the system b*tches” – dominik booth. Sophia I told you not to put that in there why did you do this to me. “The political, economic, and social theories of Karl Marx including the belief that the struggle between social classes is a major force in history and that there should eventually be a society in which there are no classes.” – Merriam-Webster

Existentialism – “Philosophical movement oriented toward two major themes, the analysis of human existence and the centrality of human choice. Existentialism's chief theoretical energies are thus devoted to questions about ontology and decision. It traces its roots to the writings of Søren Kierkegaard and Friedrich Nietzsche. A chiefly 20th century philosophical movement embracing diverse doctrines but centering on analysis of individual existence in an unfathomable universe and the plight of the individual who must assume ultimate responsibility for acts of free will without any certain knowledge of what is right or wrong or good or bad” – Merriam-Webster. Philosophical thought begins not with the rational but the sensational, and all people start their philosophical journey and self identity in a state of confusion and disorder in an absurd and meaningless world.

Positivism – science bro its all science. “A theory that theology and metaphysics are earlier imperfect modes of knowledge and that positive knowledge is based on natural phenomena and their properties and relations as verified by the empirical sciences.” - Merriam-Webster. Positive doesn't mean the opposite as negative, like in "a positive mood", it means like a "positive statement", a statement that defines the way things are - a statement of fact. Positivism is a philosophy of reality.

Pragmatism - a rejection of the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent, or mirror reality. Instead, pragmatists develop their philosophy around the idea that the function of thought is as an instrument or tool for prediction, action, and problem solving. “An American movement in philosophy founded by C. S. Peirce and William James and marked by the doctrines that the meaning of conceptions is to be sought in their practical bearings, that the function of thought is to guide action, and that truth is preeminently to be tested by the practical consequences of belief.” – Merriam-Webster. Think pragmatic. It's useful philosophy, thinks that thought and ideas are intended to solve problems and run society.

British Idealism – “British idealists helped popularize the work of Immanuel Kant and G. W. F. Hegel in the Anglophone world, but they also sought to use insights from the philosophies of Kant and Hegel to help create a new idealism to address the many pressing issues of the Victorian period in Britain and its aftermath. These contributions related to theories of freedom, the common good, political obligation, the state, and punishment.” – Oxford Bibliographies

Transcendentalism – “A philosophy which says that thought and spiritual things are more real than ordinary human experience and material things.” – Merriam Webster. Sort of the opposite of "common sense philosophy" which says that what we experience physically is real, instead the spiritual world and abstract thought are "more real." Can be considered the opposite of something like nihilism or solipsism (but don't quote me on that.)

Joseph Conrad was influenced by positivism and Schopenhauer (German idealism). - The Cambridge Introduction to Joseph Conrad (review)

Amar Acheraïou

Hardy was also influenced by [British] idealism.

Mighty Joe Con by J & J (James and Jared)

Joseph Conrad grew to fame for his nautical novels. His work emerged in the age of romanticism, realism and modernism, all of which had a great amount of influence on his writing. While many of his novels are works of romanticism he is known  as a modernist and a social realist. He was a great story teller. "Chance" (1914) was a turning point for Conrad. It brought him into popular success. He mad great strides in the movement of social realism and is viewed by many as one of its leaders. His works continue to have influence as many of them were adapted into screen plays and stories like Heart of Darkness which was adapted into "Apocalypse Now!". These adaptions continue the influence of Conrad well beyond simply his novels or the era in which they were written.

Q-pid and Psyche

A king and queen had three daughters, and the prettiest of them all was Psyche. People stopped worshiping Venus (one of the three daughters), and instead gawked over Psyche's beauty. Venus got upset and recruited her son, cupid, to use his arrows to make Psyche marry someone ugly. When Cupid flew over to Psyche however, he thought she was so pretty and then he shot himself. After a while Psyche was still single, and eventually an oracle predicted to Psyche and her parents that she would marry an ugly man. Psyche was sent away to a mountain and lived in solitude, waited on by servants that were invisible. And married to a man she was forbidden to look at. Her sisters visit her and convince her to kill her husband. Reluctantly, she agrees. It turns out that she was married to cupid, and cupid gets angry and storms out. Psyche asks Venus (Remember, she is Cupid's mother and Psyche's sister) to help her out. Venus makes Psyche go through various quests of punishment, and eventually love prevails. Cupid and Psyche marry. The best love story ever is love story by Taylor Swift. The lyrics are so pure and simple. It speaks true love and happiness. Romeo take me somewhere we can be alone, I love you and that's all I really now. I talked to your daddy, it's a love story, baby just say yes. Another good love story is the one of my parents. I don't know what their story is, and I don't want them to tell me. But I know that they have a real one that they have shared together, and I guess I hope I have one someday too.

Will Freeman and Caroline Hoertz- Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy was born in 1840. He was an English novelist and poet, both his novels and poems were majorly influenced by Romanticism. Hardy loved poetry and after receiving horrible feedback from his novel Jube The Obscure he decided to mainly focus on poetry. Leaving his novel writing behind, Thomas Hardy wrote eight collections of poems in his lifetime. He rejected the traditional belief of a single God and expresses a fatalist opinion in many of his works. Hardy had a cynical view on the human condition; bad things were going to happen and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it. What he lacked in traditional beliefs, he made up for with his traditional writing style. Hardy wrote a variety of beautiful meters and stanzas with impeccable diction. His most famous collections of poetry include Wessex Poems (1898) and Satir

 

es of Circumstance (1912).  Hardy died in 1928. 

I'm So Sorry I Really Am (I'm a Big Goober)

So there was this girl named Psyche. And she was really attractive. Uncomfortably so, because everyone nearly worshiped her, she was so beautiful. This, of course, did not sit well with Venus, who hardly wanted to be the second most attractive woman on or above the planet. So she sent her son Cupid to screw her over, by making it so that she would never be truly loved and that no man would ever want to marry her - he succeeded in that, at least, but accidentally pricked himself with one of his arrows while he was in her presence. And the dude fell for her hard, as you can imagine. After wondering why she was cursed to never be loved, her parents were told by the oracle that she was never to be loved by a mortal man, but rather by a hideous immortal. Mourning the loss of their daughter, they took her to the mountain to meet her fate, where she was taken in by this immortal, who refused to meet her when she could see him, and though the two enjoyed each other's company and there did seem to be some love between the two, he refused to let her see him in the light of day.

Eventually Psyche managed to convince him to let her sisters visit her, and when they did they sowed the seeds of doubt in Psyche's mind that her husband might be some horrible serpent who simply wanted to feed off of her, etc... So, listening to her sisters because that was her nature, she waited until he was asleep then used a lamp to see what he looked like. And surprise, surprise, he was totally attractive and also Cupid which no one saw coming of course. When Cupid found out about Psyche's betrayal he fled and left her alone and she was really fricken sad and eventually the gods took pity on her and told her to go try to get Venus to like her so as to gain Cupid's favor again. And so she did, and Venus made her do horribly difficult tasks which she got help from others with, and Venus could tell that. Eventually Psyche was made to go on a trip to the underworld to get a box for Venus, and told not to look into it or else.  Psyche did what she was told to do, up until that whole "don't open the box you dumb child" part which she totally disregarded and looked into the box. She was then overtaken by a horrible sleep and would have stayed like that until she died unless Cupid hadn't taken pity on her and well, let's just say there was a happy ending. Psyche became immortal and then they had a daughter named Pleasure.

Okay, so now that the summary is finished I'm gonna talk about true love, so y'all better hold onto your butts because this is gonna be fun. See, there are tons of ships I could choose from, with more or less support for them (my most recent ship has been Newt/Hermann from Pacific Rim, don't judge me) but I gotta say that the best love story ever has gotta be Spock and Kirk.

(x)

The naysayers are probably sitting and shaking their heads now, saying "nope you got that wrong Sarah, that is totally friendship and you are making it into something different than it actually is" and lemme tell you something now. I totally am not. There is so much that makes theirs a wonderful love story that I don't even know where to start.

So their relationship is obviously really close. Really, really close. They would do anything for the other. In episodes when Spock spends the entire episode talking about how they need to protect this creature because it is endangered and there are no other instances of it appearing anywhere else in the universe, the moment that it starts to threaten Kirk, the very moment, he starts yelling at Kirk to kill it - he probably would have done it himself if not for the fact that he wasn't there with Kirk and was instead desperately trying to find him in the caves they were in.

(Spock got really happy to know Kirk was alive, even if Vulcans don't have emotions whoooooops) x

That's not to mention the times that they risk their lives for the other, or y'know, outright die for the other. Which happens in multiple episodes and in the movies, and makes it incredibly apparent that they care about each other more than any other person in the world.

Also, did anyone know that Vulcans kiss with their hands? That's an interesting tidbit to remember, really. Because for Vulcans, holding hands is pretty much a make out session. No joke. So one wonders what the scene in The Motion Picture means for their relationship:

(x)

Uh, yeah. Not to mention them kissing through the glass in The Wrath of Khan and Into Darkness. (It's also super apparent that they mean a lot to each other in this same scene, just sayin)

(x)

And last of all (though you better bet I can't even explain it all here oh my gosh) is the fact that they are t'hyla, which is a Vulcan term which means "brother/friend/lover." The fact that it means all of those things is a point of contention, but Vulcan in a constructed language, so why in the world would "lover" be included in the definition if not for a reason?

Their relationship is beautiful and I'm sorry to put you guys through this but I had to because talking about shipping for a school assignment is like a dream come true.

(x)

Thomas Hardy, Novelist - With help from Will Carrico

Thomas Hardy considered himself to be more of a poet than a novelist; but Hardy gained his fame from his novels. Hardy destroyed all existing manuscripts of his first novel "The Poor Man and the Lady". He destroyed it due to advice from his mentor who said that his story was too politically contraversal, and might damage his ability to publish in the future. As Hardy gained success, he became somewhat of a celebrity. However, he was disgusted by the public reception of some of his greater novels, and so he gave up writing fiction.Hardy was very critical of the social constraints that were held during the 1900s and suggested that these constraints are the reasoning behind any unhappiness in our society. It is evident that he stood against these constraints in his novels.

Modernism in The Return of the Native- Andrew and Ryan

Modernism, which arose within the arts in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, impacted architecture, art, and literature. We see the elements of modernism in Thomas Hardy's The Return of the Native. Modernism is characterized by a change from the classic, more rigid writing style of past works of fiction. Different narration techniques were experimented with, and more descriptive writing styles were used. Hardy's novel is just that. We immediately see the description of the heath as an example of modernism. Hardy's flowing, descriptive style with the use of multiple deep literary devices is an example of modernism. Where description like this may have taken place in a novel of a previous era, it wouldn't have the long, run on sentences and extensive metaphors that Hardy uses. This writing style continues throughout the novel, making it a modernist novel in the heart of the modernist era.

The Importance of Being Wilde

A post by Annie and Lusi.

Oscar Wilde, born Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills, was born and raised in Ireland. His father's career as an esteemed surgeon allowed Oscar to attain an impressive college education at both Trinity College and Magdalen College. While studying at college, Wilde became part of the "Oxford Movement" which sought to promote the virtues of classic culture and artistry. He also became infatuated with aestheticism which was the belief that art should be created for the sake of art. Wilde began with poetry in college and his outstanding poem "Ravenna" won him the Newdegate Prize. After college, he published his first volume of poetry and shortly after, his first play. His play, "The Duchess of Padua", was a tragedy not only in the literal sense but also in its dismal failure with the public. Around this time, Wilde sparked a sensation, but as a comedic author instead of a tragic author. His most famous comedic plays are "Lady Windermere's Fan", "An Ideal Husband", and "The Importance of Being Earnest". Wherever he went or whatever he wrote, controversy seemed to follow him. Wilde was accused of sodomy and eventually died because of it. However, he is immortalized through his works, particularly "The Importance of Being Earnest," which has been renowned for its hilarity and loss of mistaken identities.

Thomas Hardy Biography

Thomas Hardy was born in 1840 in Dorset, England, a heavily poor and agricultural community. He originally trained as an architect but quickly transferred over to writing. He was often criticized as an author for being too pessimistic. His youth in the harsh landscape around Dorset influenced the fatalistic and bleak outlook on the human condition found in Return of the Native. His writing and poetry illustrates a new rugged style of prose which can be attributed to his native heath. This landscape has remarkable similarities to the setting in Return of the Native.

Region of Dorset

He was greatly influenced by the Romantic movement, which was heavily based on the natural world. The region in which he grew up was incredibly tied to the land due to the impoverished agricultural society that existed. Hardy explores such lifestyles in his novels and attempts to portray a realistic view of the community. The nearby location of Stonehenge may have attributed to his focus on paganism. All of these various influences during his lifetime led to his naturalistic and bleak viewpoint that is expressed throughout his career as a writer.

Lauren Gilbert and Paige Spragens 

Psyche and cupid

Psyche was the finest lady in the entire world. Then Aphrodite came along and was extremely pissed off that she was no longer the one woman to rule them all. So Venus tells her son Cupid to make psyche fall in love with a hideous man. But when Cupid is on this mission, he falls deeply in love with psyche. Cupid then leaves for awhile. Then an oracle came to psyche's parents and told them that her daughter was destined to end up with a monster. So the parents chained psyche to a mountain so that she couldn't marry a monster. But she is blown off the mountain by some wind and lands in a meadow. She goes into this random house and she bones some guy who showered her with riches, which is borderline prostitution. It ends up being Cupid and they live happily evrer after.


Charlotte foley is my psyche. I am in love with this woman. However, she despises me. I make it my goal to tell her how much I adore her every single day. I even write her love poems with help from gates Corman and Andrew mason. Even when I serenade her she doesn't reciprocate the feelings. I'm gonna hire someone to make charlotte fall in love with me. This might seem really creepy if I have to read this out loud but my love for Charlotte will never die.

Now you see me, now you don't

It seems to me that the gods are pretty pathetic creatures. They're wracked with jealousy and all kinds of other unappetizing character traits. Our story begins with Psyche a princess so astoundingly beautiful that people began to worship her in place of the Venus the goddess of love and beauty. Venus became quite jealous. To spite Psyche for falling razor sales, Venus talks her son Cupid into forcing Psyche to fall in love with a horrible monster. Unfortunately Cupid himself falls  for her beauty. He pricks himself and falls in love with her. He whisks her away to a castle stocked with invisible servants. Cupid and Psyche are married, but she is never allowed to look upon him. After being tricked by her sister Psyche sneaks into Cupid's room and looks upon him. He is infuriated. The castle melts away along with its servants. 'Psyche in an attempt to regain her husband completes a series of challenges for Venus to win her approval, but it isn't until Cupid convinces Jupiter to intercede. Then Psyche and Cupid live happily ever after.

The most amazing love story I've ever seen is not one from movies, tv shows, books, or any other fabricated source. The sweetest and most adorable couple I've ever been around in my life is my grandparents. They've been together for over 60 years. They still hold hands. They still do everything together. They spend every night tucked into bed side by side. It's an inspirational thing to see and every time I'm around them. I can't help but wish that one day I could have that. It's a beautiful love story. I have never seen two people more genuinely in love. I've always believed that life is more meaningful when you share it with someone and I hope that one day I can find that person. So I can be that 88 year-old man holding the hand of his bride of over half a century.

  

http://ancienthistory.about.com/cs/grecoromanmyth1/a/mythslegends_4.htm

Cupid and Psyche

Once upon a time, there was a king and he had three daughters. They were all beautiful, but the most beautiful was Psyche. People became obsessed with her, almost like she was a Victoria Secret Angel the night of the VS fashion show (it was on tonight). People began to neglect Venus, goddess of beauty, This did not float the goddesses boat so she had her son, Cupid, shoot her with an arrow so she would fall in love with an ugly monster. Cupid was about to shoot her but then saw how beautiful she was and accidently shot himself. No one wanted to marry her though, and she was destined to be married to a monster. She was then whisked away to an invisible palace with servants and an invisible husband. Although her invisible life was great she grew very homesick. She then lost her husband, Cupid and in desperation went to his mother, Venus (who hates her) and asked for help. Venus sent her on various troubling tasks but she passed them all. Venus and Cupid then lived happily ever after.

So love....its a wonderful amazing terrific thing but at the same time a horrible disastrous curse. I'm not going to lie, I'm a hopeless romantic. I LOVE reading, listening, talking about love and love stories. I'm the person who will yell "AWWWWWWWWW" at the top of my lungs when someone tells a cute little love story. I think the best love story is the one you create and live, although I envy the love in the Notebook and whatnot, I know that one day I will find a love like that and it will be my own best personal love story.

Cupid and Psyche

Alright, so some king had 3 beautiful daughters, but the "fairest of them all", as they say, was Psyche. But, as per ushe with the ladies, jealousy struck. Psyche's sister, Venus, was mad that her sister was getting all the attention, so she sent her sone Cupid to shoot an arrow into an ugly monster so it would fall in love with Psyche.

However, Cupid "accidentally" shoots himself so that he falls in love with Psyche. While this happens, Psyche is sent away because it is prophesied that she will marry a monster.  There, she is waited on by invisible servants (but in a way aren't most servants invisible?) and marries a man whose face she doesn't ever see.

Her sisters then come to visit, where they experience some severe group polarization and convince Psyche to kill her husband, the "monster". But when she walks into Cupid's room with a knife, she startles him and he flees back to his mother Venus.

In another twist, Venus, who convinced Psyche to kill Cupid, makes her sister go through many trials as punishment. Eventually, though, Cupid begs Venus to stop, Psyche is made a goddess, and she and Cupid live happily ever after.

I think the greatest love story of all has to be Shrek. I mean, the guys an Ogre, and he finds another who loves him back. It's just so heartwarmingly gross that I can't handle it. It's wonderful.

Cupid and Psyche

Okay, our story starts with a queen and a king with three beautiful daughters, and one, named Psyche, even more beautiful than the other two. She didn't need milkshakes to bring the boys to the yard, apparently; they all thought she was so worthy that they worshipped her to a point that angered Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. Out of jealousy, Venus tried to get her son, Cupid, to make Psyche fall in love with someone hideous and undeserving, but Cupid pricked himself upon seeing Psyche, and he fell instantly in love with her.
Time passed, and Psyche's sisters were married off, but she remained woefully single. Her parents decided to ask the oracle if they'd managed to offend any gods or anything like that; they were told that Psyche would marry something hideous and awful. Like any good parents, they then left her on the top of a mountain for this fate, and she was swept away by the Zephyr to Cupid's fancy schmancy house to live with him.
Long story short, the jealous sisters kind of blew it for Psyche and Cupid. She had to fulfill a myriad of challenges for Venus, and finally she ended up with Cupid. Yay for happy endings!

Ever since second semester of last year, I've developed a tendency to ride on waves of being either an utterly hopeless romantic or terribly cynical about romance; it kind of depends on when you catch me. One romance I always love, though, comes from--you guessed it--Doctor Who. They're Amy and Rory, and they're not cookie cutter romance, and they're flawed, and they're my absolute favorites. I think that's what I like most about them--they have the ability to be so cute, but it's great because they never try to be anything they aren't. Amy is fierce and stubborn and she doesn't tolerate any nonsense from Rory; Rory is completely dedicated and literally waits for her for two thousand years (which, I know, sounds cheesy, but that gives you an idea of how faithful a person he is).

I can't find a gif or picture of this, but when Rory first meets the Doctor, the conversation goes something like this:
Amy: Oh, this is Rory; he's a...friend.
Rory: Boyfriend.
Amy: Kind of... boyfriend.
Rory: Amy!!

And then you have stuff like this:



(Pardon the typo)
But seriously look how disgusted she is! It warms my heart! It's just so beautiful because she's so not overly into it but then they end up married (albeit with some problems they have to work out) until they're old and wrinkly and trust me I usually don't buy into being married until you've turned into prunes BUT I REALLY JUST LIKE THEM A LOT.



Amy Pond, everyone!



This is Rory Williams in one gif.

OKAY I'M DONE! My sincerest apologies for this monster of a post.

cupid and psyche

There was a king with three beautiful daughters but the most beautiful was his youngest daughter Psyche. Psyche was so beautiful that people started to stop worshiping Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. This was Venus very angry and so she asked her son Cupid to make Psyche fall in love with a horrible monster but when Cupid saw how beautiful she was, he pricked himself instead and fell instantly in love with her. 

Even though Psyche was so pretty, no one wanted to marry her and her parents were concerned so they took her to an oracle. The oracle told Psyche's parents that she was destined to marry a monster and that they must take her on top of a mountain and leave her there. When they did this, the west wind picked her up and carried her to a palace where she was waited on by invisible servants and her new husband would only visit her at night and told her she must never see him.

One night she went into his room with a candle to see him but when she saw that it was Cupid and saw how handsome he was, she was overcome and some wax fell on Cupid's shoulder, waking him up. Cupid then disappeared in a cloud of smoke. Psyche began to worry and eventually went to Venus to ask where Cupid was. Venus was still angry at Psyche and challenged her to various tasks but Psyche passed them all and when Cupid found out what had been going on he asked Jupiter to order Venus to stop tormenting Psyche. Then Psyche and Cupid were married and lived happily ever after.

This story kinda reminds me of Beauty and the Beast. Growing up, Beauty and the Beast was always one of my favorite fairy tales and Belle has always been my favorite princess. I liked Beauty and the Beast better than Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty because Belle always seemed more real, and there was more depth to the relationship between her and the Beast than there was between the other princesses and their prince charming. 

A Heeeaaarrrt Fuuuuuullll of Loooooovvve

Psyche was the third daughter of a king, and just so happened to be the most beautiful. Naturally, everyone adored her, so much so that they even started ignoring Venus (GASP). Like the Greek goddess that she is, Venus got jealous and sent her son, Cupid to take care of the situation. He was instructed to shoot her with one of his arrows and make her fall in love with a monster, but when he saw her beauty, he instead pricked himself with the arrow so he would fall in love with her. Smooooth, Cupid.
Psyche hadn't married yet, however. So her father consulted an oracle and was told she would marry a monster. She was then brought to the top of a mountain where a magical wind brought her to a magical place with magical servants and such. She also had a magic husband who would never allow her to see him. Her meddling sisters had to get in the way of her peace, however, and convinced her to try and take a peek at her husband, and when she did, Cupid got angry with her and stormed off. Man, this sounds like every chick flick ever. Anyway, as Psyche grew desperate trying to find him, she eventually went to Venus, who didn't help at all, but instead set a bunch of tasks for Psyche to complete. When Cupid figured this out he became angry and stopped his mother and married Psyche and they all lived happily ever after.

Ooooh boy. Greatest love story ever told? Well crap.

Ummmmmmm...

*sweats nervously*

Give me a minute.

I know we're really going for romantic love here but I just keep thinking of familial love stories so we'll go with that.

James Potter and Lily Evans. The classic Pride-and-Prejudice-esque tale of boy likes girl, girl doesn't like boy, boy is persistent, they fall in love, yay. While I do enjoy their own little short-lived (literally) romance, it's not quite as epic as their love for their son.
They were in the middle of the First Wizarding War, and crazily brought a son into it as well when they were only 20 years old. They dropped their lives for the safety of their son and went into hiding from Lord Voldemort. And on that fateful night of October 31st, 1981, two 21-year-olds, practically still children themselves, sacrificed their lives so that their son could live. James tried to take on the Dark Lord completely wandless, obviously knowing that he would die, so that he could delay Voldemort enough that Lily and Harry could get away, but to no avail.
Right before she was killed, Lily tried to sacrifice herself for Harry. Her love for him literally shielded him from one of the most powerful wizards alive and even ripped Voldemort's "soul" from his body.

Take Me Instead
Bridget Vaughn

If that's not love, then my whole life is a lie. 

Cupid and Psyche

A King had three beautiful daughters. One, however, was more than beautiful. She was a goddess but she wasn’t. But all the people said she was even prettier than Aphrodite (a real goddess). Aphrodite was a vain goddess and this pissed her off. She sent her son, Cupid, down to make Psyche fall in love with the ugliest human. He fell in love with her instead because he saw her face and was so blown away that he accidentally pricked himself with an arrow. I mean, really? Ok. Because of a prophecy Psyche goes up to a mountain to wait for her monster husband. She is blown to a beautiful castle. In the castle she is told that she is married but she can only see her husband at night. She is ok with this. I guess she had gotten rather desperate. Anyways, her sisters convince her to look at her husbands face. So one night she finds him sleeping and is blown away by his beauty and accidentally spills hot wax on him. He wakes up and she realizes that it is Cupid. I guess they make a good couple because they both creep on each other while the other one sleeps. Aphrodite is super pissed because Psyche burned her son and told Psyche that she had to pass a test before she could go back to being married to him. Psyche passes all the tests but with help each time and this is not ok with Aphrodite because nothing is. In the end when Psyche is collapsed on the road in a deep slumber, Cupid asks Zeus (Jupiter) for permission to marry her. She drinks some ambrosia and becomes immortal. They live happily ever after with their daughter Hedone or Voluptuas.

 

I am impressed that this myth ends with everyone alive, in human/immortal form and happy. I approve.

I like love stories. I am not sure what the greatest one is because I cannot think of one. Some that are pretty great are; Pride and Prejudice (because I had to), Bonnie and Clyde (the musical version because it is more dramatic set to a score), Moulin Rouge, Les Miz (all parts), and most other things that are sung about on Broadway.

One of my favorites ends unhappily. This is a happy song from it. But it got cut. L5Y doesn't have really any happy songs...

jacob and esau

Genesis 25 is about Isaac, son of Abraham, his wife Rebekah and their twin sons, Esau and Jacob. The Lord told Rebekah that one son would be stronger, and that the younger was to serve the older. As the boys grew older, Esau became stronger and stronger, he was a skillful hunter and his father's favorite. Jacob on the other hand, was more of a momma's boy and stayed home to cook and clean. Because Esau was the oldest, it was his birthright to inherit his father's estate; Jacob despised Esau and as they grew older, Jacob grew more and more jealous. One night, after a long day of hunting, Esau came home starving and asked Jacob for some soup. Jacob saw this as an opportunity for he knew that if Esau did not eat than he would die, he told Esau that he would give him some soup if he promised his birthright to him. Esau, on the verge of starvation, handed over his birthright and ate his soup.

Even though I am the oldest, I don't really think I have the birthright to anything more than getting first pick for everything and never having to wear hand-me-downs. I guess it would be cool to know I would inherit some family heirloom or something cool from my parents but as far as I know, no such thing exists. I think for the most part, the treatment of my sister and I is pretty even and as should be our inheritance; it wouldn't be fair if I got everything just because I am the oldest. I get told I'm spoiled a lot, but I'm not complaining.

OCD love story

There once was a king with 3 daughters. His youngest and most beautiful was named Psyche. She was so beautiful that Venus got jealous and decided to make cupid have her fall in love with a monster. Instead cupid accidentally made himself fall in love with her. No one wanted to marry Psyche because an oracle had said that she was to marry a monster. Her parents left her on a hilltop and she drifted to another kingdom where she was waited on by invisible servants and married an invisible man. Psyche got homesick and convinced her husband to let her sisters come and visit her. They came and convinced her that she had to kill him because he was a monster and would eat her. So she went with a knife and accidentally woke him. Mad he left and Psyche went to Venus to get him back and she sentenced her to be persecuted. Then Cupid was like no I love her. Then they got married and lived happily ever after, forever. 

I don’t really have a favorite love story or an ultimate love story but I always love to hear the stories of old couples that have been together for over half a century and still love each other as much as the day they met. Actually I changed my mind the best love story is the one between Monk and his wife Trudy. he spends basically all of his time after her death looking for the man that killed her. It’s so sweet to see how much her death affected him and how much he truly cared for her. 

214 × 317 - imdb.com

>->->------>

Okay so there was this girl Psyche and she was like the prettiest mortal maiden there was. People thought she was so pretty, they started worshiping her instead of Venus, who was like the original goddess of love. Venus saw this and she was like, "All hell naw." So she sent Cupid after her. Cupid was supposed to mess with her but he fell in love with her instead (imagine that). They had a sort-of wedding, and then Cupid "made her his wife" and "eventually she came to enjoy his visit" but she never actually saw his face (if this doesn't sound like American Horror Story, I don't know what does)... So then her sisters were like, "Dude you don't even know what he looks like. He's supposed to be like a nasty ass dragon, ya know." And so Psyche freaked out and she had to see him. She snuck up on him in his sleep and realized he was a "hottie mchotterson. totesmagotes." However, she injures him and somehow they both end up at Venus' house, where she treats her son, and makes Psyche do all these trials. She passes all of them, but tries to kill herself all the time. Finally, Cupid was like ft, and he went and got Jupiter's permission to make Psyche a goddess. So then they were married and happy and yeah.

Okay I'm a teenage white girl and I freakin' love The Notebook. I just do. I cried so much. The book was beautiful and then when I watched the movie it was like constant sobbing for a half hour straight. Can't even explain. It wasn't even the whole part with Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams (which was pretty great, and RG is the epitome of eye candy), it was the the way Allie and Noah were afterwards, after they'd grown old and were in a nursing home. The way he loved her was just beautiful and my heart melted. *sob*

"I'm Burning Up A Sun Just To Say Goodbye" -The Doctor

Once upon, there was a king and the king had three daughters. Of course, it was the youngest that was the most beautiful. Her name was Psyche. She was a disastrous beauty, one who was compared to the great Venus, much to the goddess' chagrin. Venus was monumentally jealous, and must seek revenge, obviously. She sent her son Cupid down to the mortal world to make the beauty fall in love with a horrid beast. The plan was going smoothly until Cupid, being a boy, dropped the arrow and pricked himself. This caused him to fall desperately in love with Psyche. Her parents,worried about the lack of marriage proposals, went to the Oracle. The Oracle told them that she was destined to marry a monster and that they must take her to the top of a mountain and leave her there. Being brainwashed mortals, they did as they were told. Every night Psyche's new husband would visit her, but she was forbidden to look at him. But, of course, Psyche grew homesick. She persuaded her husband to let her two sisters visit her. Once they arrived, they became very jealous of Psyche's living arrangements and talked their sister into looking at her husband. The next time he came to her, she light a candle and discovered not a monster but a god. Her husband, Cupid, immediately vanished along with the mansion that Psyche was living in. She went looking for him but could not seem to find him. Finally she went to Venus and asked where he might be. Venus refused to tell her unless she completed incredibly difficult tasks for her, which Psyche did. Cupid finally saw what was going on and convinced Jupiter to stop Venus. They were married and lived happily ever after. Except really 'cause they made Psyche a goddess.

So unlike your stereotypical girl, I'm not really into the whole true love and romance and gushy stuff. This whole story seems silly and childish, but perhaps that's the point. But! That said, I will admit I do enjoy a rom com now and then, mostly for the laughs. I don't really care if there's a feel good ending but I'm not opposed to it. I guess if I had to pick, my favorite love story of all time isn't really a love story.... But it kinda is, the Doctor and Rose Tyler! Most definitely the kind of love story I'm looking for minus the whole issue of parallel universes... Alas.

I'm not really sure how to describe their love but it just seems fun! There aren't all these silly worries, besides the whole please don't die thing, and they still have issues, like any time traveling couple would, but they make it work. The best part is that it seems so natural and just meant to be, without question. They were so busy having adventures and being best friends that they didn't even notice they were falling in love.

You really just need to watch it evolve in the series to understand. I want to find the Doctor to my Rose Tyler - and that's as romantic as I get.

Cupid and Psyche

Psyche was the youngest of the 3 daughters of the king, and she was by far the most beautiful of the three. She was so beautiful that people started to forget about Venus who was the Goddess of love and beauty. To stop this, Venus told her son Cupid to shoot a horrible monster with one of his arrows so that the monster and Psyche would fall in love. When Cupid saw how beautiful she was, he pricked himself with an arrow and fell in love with her. No one wanted to marry Psyche and an oracle told her that she would marry a monster. Her parents sent her away and she was taken care of by invisible servants. A man came and became her husband, but she was told she could never see him. She became homesick and asked to see her sisters. Her sisters convinced her to see look at him and kill him because he was a monster waiting to kill her. One night she found him and accidentally woke him. She was surprised that it was Cupid, not a monster and he immediately disappeared along with the palace. Psyche asked Venus for help, and she made her do tasks before she could win Cupid back. He found out about this and made Venus stop. Cupid and Psyche then married and lived happily together and Psyche became a goddess.

(https://readtapestry.com/s/0O499wijg/) 

This is a statue of Cupid kissing his new wife Psyche. 

I have not seen too many great love stories play out in movies (I cannot stand rom-coms) or in real life, but a great love story that will always stick with me is Disney's Beauty and the Beast. This story reminded me of the movie because Psyche thought Venus was a monster, and Belle's prince was a monster. She passed up other normal men and fell in love with a beast because he was more sincere than the others. It is a rare example that shows love truly is blind. People can fall in love despite having huge differences in appearance, personality, interests, or spirituality. It is quite sad, but I cannot think of one good love story in real life. Sure people fall in love, get married, and start a family all the time, but there is nothing similar to the dramatic plots in the movies. I guess the "Royal Wedding" was the best love story I've ever seen in real life, but the only great part about it was the fact that it was royal..

cupid and psyche

Well, first of all, in Cupid and Psyche, a king and queen have three daughters. One of these daughters, though, is exceptionally beautiful. This daughter is named Psyche. Everyone wants to see Psyche, as her beauty is heard of far and wide. As seems to be a motif in many of these greek myths, the men lose their crap and go insane over this girl. They stop worshipping Aphrodite, the goddess of beauty, and begin worshipping Psyche as if she were a goddess. Aphrodite, enraged with jealousy, tells her son Cupid to make Psyche fall in love with the ugliest man around. He sets on a mission to do that, but instead--the instant he sees Psyche--falls in love with her... and pricks himself with his own arrow.................... (not a very trustworthy son). So Cupid falls in love with Psyche, but then leaves. Psyche's sisters get married, and Psyche is left high and dry. Psyche's parents are concerned, so they take her to an oracle. This oracle says she will fall in love with a monster that neither mortals nor gods can resist. They are instructed to leave Psyche on a mountain so the monster may reach her. She is on the mountain and then is carried to a beautiful field by Zephyr, and then goes to a castle. Her husband is here, but she is not allowed to see him and he only comes out at night. She finally lets his sisters come and visit her, and once they do, they are immediately jealous. They begin to question her and finally get it out of her that she's never seen him. The sisters convince her to stand over her at night with a lamp and a knife when he is asleep as to see what he looks like, so she does. The husband awakes and is furious at what he is awoken to, and storms out. The husband is actually Cupid, and when he storms out, everything around her disappears. All the beauty, everything. So her sisters decide to leave, and try to jump and have Zephyr take them back, but Zephyr does not appear and the sisters fall to their death. She goes to Ceres and Ceres takes her to Cupid, but Cupid is still very mad. So he makes her do a seemingly impossible task of organizing all different types of grain and to do it by the evening, but ants help her and Cupid knows this so he says it doesn't count. So he makes her collect golden fleece from every sheep that hangs by the river, another seemingly impossible task, but when she does Cupid is still not satisfied, saying she couldn't have done it on her own. So he orders to go to the underworld, and see Prosperine and collect some of his beauty and bring it back in a box. She thinks she must kill herself to get to the underworld, but that is not the case, as Cupid says there is a way to get there on Pluto. Psyche is ordered not to open the box with Prosperine's beauty in it, but she does anyway, of course. obviously there is no beauty in the box, and she actually is plunged into a deep sleep when she opens it. He decides he wants to be with her again and takes her to Zeus who gives her immortality and then they live happily ever after.

Ok that was really long, whew.

My favorite love story is the movie Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. I love it because it is so sad, and sometimes when I am down in the dumps and I want to cleanse all the sad out of me I watch it, because after I watch it I really can't get any sadder, which means the only place to go is up--to happiness. It is so sad because it is about a couple who loves each other, but they fight so much, but they really do love each other, but eventually the girl cannot take it anymore and gets the boy erased from his memory. he is notified of this, and is instructed not to talk to her. He is heart wrenched, and decides to erase her as well. But while erasing her he decides he doesn't want to because he remembers all the good memories with her. So he tries not to erase her while she's being erased and it's just this big mess, and i'm not going to say the ending because i don't want to ruin it but i love it so you should watch it !

What is Love?

...baby, dont hurt me, no more (I had to...)

Now on to the myth!

There was once a king and a queen who had three daughters of unspeakable beauty. The most beautiful of the daughters was Psyche whose beauty was thought to outshine even that of Venus'. Instead of praying to Venus, many people prayed and made offerings to her. Venus was not happy with this turn of events and commissioned Cupid to exact revenge for her. However, Cupid fell in love with Psyche. Psyche was the only one of her sisters to yet find love and her father suspected that they had incurred the wrath of the gods. He consulted Apollo the Oracle who told him some unsettling news: the King should expect, not a human grandchild but instead a dragon-like creature. Psyche dresses in funeral attire and is carried by a procession to the top of a peak in which marriage and death are merged together - she then falls asleep. She is then transported to a place with golden columns and although confused, allows herself to be led into a bedroom where a man makes her his wife. Her trust shattered, she then began her wanderings and had several trials and tribulations, the last one being her entering the Underworld. We find out that the man whom she was with in the place with the golden columns was Cupid, but now he is wounded. Finally after her trials, Cupid and Psyche are reunited with immortal love, and are ultimately wed.

So, you ask of me the best love story ever. Well, you have come to the wrong person for that. I am no amore expert, that's for certain. Although I assume you are not asking of my own love life (thank goodness for that) because if that were the case, I would only have awkward stories to tell (that are in no way close to the best love story every). I cold write about fictional love stories, but I always do, and to be honest, aren't most fictional stories overdone anyways? In short, I have no best love story to share with the class, but I do hope that one day I will. Granted, it'll probably only be the 'best' in my eyes, but isn't that all that matters in the long run? So for now, I sadly leave you only with an IOU. Check back with later though, who knows when I'll have a story to tell;)