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Rasselas (Johnson: IX)
ugh
Continued from this.
Ch 29
Rasselas and Nekayah are STILL talking about marriage. Rasselas argues that if marriage is for the betterment of society, it must also be good for individuals, because anything good for the whole is good for the parts that make it up.
???
??????????
???????????????????????????
Why don't you talk to Spock about that, Rasselas.
He says that while single life is inevitable miserable, the problems of married life can be avoided. He's sure that prudence and benevolence will make marriages happy. Of course marriages are going to be unhappy when they're result of young people rushing into marriage out of lust without really knowing if they share values, standards of conduct, judgment, emotions, whatever. That's where the problems with kids come up, too, because the age gap between parents and children is too small—sons want to succeed fathers who are still in their prime, daughters become beautiful while their mothers are still pretty and neither appreciates the comparison. Obviously the answer is to marry later. There are plenty of things to make life enjoyable as a young person, you don't need a partner until later.
Nekayah's like, that's nice, but I investigated that too. (Nekayah is nothing if not thorough.) As people age, they get more inflexible and set in their ways, with their separate friendships, life plans, and habits of autonomy. Since the probability of people having been hardened into the same shape lies somewhere in the realm of negative infinity, so older people who marry are stubborn and uncompromising, and even when they try to change, can't really.
Rasselas says you're ignoring the fact that OBVIOUSLY he would choose a reasonable wife. Nekayah tells him that pffft, there are all sorts of personal, family conflicts that can't be resolved just by being reasonable or logical.
The age difference between them and their children does prevent the suns circling the same sphere problem, but may very well die while they're still young, either underage and in the hands of a guardian, or even if not, still without being able to see them rise to their prime. So it's not about fighting, it's just ... sad. She concludes that, overall, people who marry late are happier with their children, people who marry young happier with their partners.
Rasselas thinks that there's got to be a middle way. Nekahah isn't having with this optimism bullshit and agrees with Imlac "That nature sets her gifts on the right hand and the left." That is, that there are many good choices available, but you can't have them all and must choose, with the attendant drawbacks of your choice. And by trying to get both through the middle way, you get nothing at all. She gets a very Johnsonian line:
Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content. No man can taste the fruits of autumn, while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of the spring: no man can, at the same time, fill his cup from the source and from the mouth of the Nile.
Nekayah honestly comes out considerably better at this point.
Ch 30
Imlac shows up and interrupts THANK YOU BABY JESUS to say that they're spending too much time in theory and debate, and not enough in simply living. They've been wandering around a city they know very well, and forget they're in a SUPER AWESOME COUNTRY (Egypt) that is the source of so many fabulous things. They should check out the ruins and such.
Rasselas and Nekayah, in agreement for once, say that they're interested in people and the present day, not history and ruins. Boo. Nekayah specifically says she sees no point in looking at the leftovers of people so utterly unlike them. Imlac argues that the present can only be properly understood in relation to the past, and that minds are generally preoccupied with recollection and anticipation—i.e., the past and the future—and not the present, anyway. Emotions, too, are rooted in past/future: grief and joy with the past, hope and fear with the future, and even love and hatred are caught up in past causes. So he goes on for several paragraphs on his those who forget the past spiel, at which I feel like clapping politely.
He concludes that it's easier to learn by examples than theories, and history provides nothing if not bazillions of examples. Yay, Machiavelli!
Rasselas and Nekayah agree that that sounds reasonable, and the three of them decide to go see the pyramids.
Seriously, guys. You've been 2-3 years in Cairo and not seen the pyramids?
Continued from this.
Ch 29
Rasselas and Nekayah are STILL talking about marriage. Rasselas argues that if marriage is for the betterment of society, it must also be good for individuals, because anything good for the whole is good for the parts that make it up.
???
??????????
???????????????????????????
Why don't you talk to Spock about that, Rasselas.
He says that while single life is inevitable miserable, the problems of married life can be avoided. He's sure that prudence and benevolence will make marriages happy. Of course marriages are going to be unhappy when they're result of young people rushing into marriage out of lust without really knowing if they share values, standards of conduct, judgment, emotions, whatever. That's where the problems with kids come up, too, because the age gap between parents and children is too small—sons want to succeed fathers who are still in their prime, daughters become beautiful while their mothers are still pretty and neither appreciates the comparison. Obviously the answer is to marry later. There are plenty of things to make life enjoyable as a young person, you don't need a partner until later.
Nekayah's like, that's nice, but I investigated that too. (Nekayah is nothing if not thorough.) As people age, they get more inflexible and set in their ways, with their separate friendships, life plans, and habits of autonomy. Since the probability of people having been hardened into the same shape lies somewhere in the realm of negative infinity, so older people who marry are stubborn and uncompromising, and even when they try to change, can't really.
Rasselas says you're ignoring the fact that OBVIOUSLY he would choose a reasonable wife. Nekayah tells him that pffft, there are all sorts of personal, family conflicts that can't be resolved just by being reasonable or logical.
The age difference between them and their children does prevent the suns circling the same sphere problem, but may very well die while they're still young, either underage and in the hands of a guardian, or even if not, still without being able to see them rise to their prime. So it's not about fighting, it's just ... sad. She concludes that, overall, people who marry late are happier with their children, people who marry young happier with their partners.
Rasselas thinks that there's got to be a middle way. Nekahah isn't having with this optimism bullshit and agrees with Imlac "That nature sets her gifts on the right hand and the left." That is, that there are many good choices available, but you can't have them all and must choose, with the attendant drawbacks of your choice. And by trying to get both through the middle way, you get nothing at all. She gets a very Johnsonian line:
Of the blessings set before you make your choice, and be content. No man can taste the fruits of autumn, while he is delighting his scent with the flowers of the spring: no man can, at the same time, fill his cup from the source and from the mouth of the Nile.
Nekayah honestly comes out considerably better at this point.
Ch 30
Imlac shows up and interrupts THANK YOU BABY JESUS to say that they're spending too much time in theory and debate, and not enough in simply living. They've been wandering around a city they know very well, and forget they're in a SUPER AWESOME COUNTRY (Egypt) that is the source of so many fabulous things. They should check out the ruins and such.
Rasselas and Nekayah, in agreement for once, say that they're interested in people and the present day, not history and ruins. Boo. Nekayah specifically says she sees no point in looking at the leftovers of people so utterly unlike them. Imlac argues that the present can only be properly understood in relation to the past, and that minds are generally preoccupied with recollection and anticipation—i.e., the past and the future—and not the present, anyway. Emotions, too, are rooted in past/future: grief and joy with the past, hope and fear with the future, and even love and hatred are caught up in past causes. So he goes on for several paragraphs on his those who forget the past spiel, at which I feel like clapping politely.
He concludes that it's easier to learn by examples than theories, and history provides nothing if not bazillions of examples. Yay, Machiavelli!
Rasselas and Nekayah agree that that sounds reasonable, and the three of them decide to go see the pyramids.
Seriously, guys. You've been 2-3 years in Cairo and not seen the pyramids?