Voyage Towards Transcendental Love
By Franz J. T. Lee
5th August, 2000 (Slightly Corrected Version)
Preface
In two previous writings, we dealt with the Affirmation,
Beauty, and the Negation, Beauty a n d Truth. For us,
the Superation of Beauty a n d Truth, neither Beauty nor Truth,
excels as Love. In other words, Emancipatory Love encompasses the "contradiction",
Beauty a n d Truth, but it surpasses it, it's more, it has
a transcendental, transjective trajectory. Let's leave the complex, complicated
philosophic reflections aside; we know what Greek
mythology, Plato and Empedocles
all said about Cupid and Eros. Let's take some relaxed,
adventurous voyages.
A. Love Tour Into Space
Let's take a scientific, philosophic vacation, ad
hoc visiting some exotic, erotic
landscapes, panoramas and scenarios. Firstly, in the
natural search for Eros, let's add a little bit of heavenly enchantment
to our view, thus surmounting parochial and petty "mole-hills". We mount
our unidentified flying object, driven by Tesla energy, and off we take,
interpenetrating solar space, approximating the "Red Planet", Mars. All
along the journey, at a far distance, we observe the action, the complete
rotation of a very small cosmic object.
Within 5 hours and 7 minutes, we covered about a seventh of an astronomical unit (92,955,808 miles), and safely land on a small, elongated asteroid (measuring 21-8-8 miles), travelling mainly inside the orbit of Mars. Nearly 14 million miles away from toiling Labour, from economic exploitation of Mother Nature, at last, we experience something new and original, an authentic "fire-works", a colourful display of large variations in poliversal brightness, we enlighten ourselves, shaking off the cobwebs of universal, unilateral obscurantism We encounter the cosmic, natural substratum of Love, and we call the asteroidEros.
B. Rocking Underground Love
Back on Earth again, let's visit a gorgeous neighbourhood in Niagara Falls, N.Y., U.S. We approximate an abandoned canal; at last, alone, free from all sorts of pestering creatures. Pooh!! Coughing. What a burning smell, caustic irritations. Gasping for breath.
What? Look there! 22,000 tons of chemical waste! Polychlorinated biphenyls, dioxin, and pesticides! These must have been produced and dumped here by the Hooker Chemicals and Plastics Corporation already at least ever since the 1940s and '50s. Nearby a housing scheme; all over from the basement the leaking of toxic chemicals from underground. So many people maimed, crippled, suffering from chromosomal damage. All over they are evacuating the people. The State of New York is up to business, it purchases the abandoned land.
"Hey, neighbour, what is this place called?"
"Don't you know? It's Love Canal."
At last we know how Eros, how Love, is being channelled, what is its earthly substratum. At top speed, we rush off towards "High Society". On our way, to wet our throats and to quench our thirst, we decide to enter the Teahouse of the August Moon. At first, to prevent another misfortune, we drop "Three Coins In A Fountain". Then we enter; and from inside, we are being welcomed by "Love Is a Many Splendored Thing".
Later a rock group is entertaining us; we learn to know Arthur Lee from L.A., also "Snoopy", Bryan, John, Ken and Don. Modern art and artistry simply overwhelm us; Lee, the enigmatic, soulful, creative personality just enchants us. We enjoy the folk rock styles, jazz, blues, and psychedelic music. Before we leave, we ask Lee how his rock band is being called.
Smilingly he replies: "Love".
Love sick, deaf, numb and dumb, we rush to the door, on our way to drop new coins in fresh fountains. Will we ever find Love on Earth? It seems that everybody has written already his/her testament of Love. A fellow traveller reminds us that already in 1929, Robert Bridges has written his testament in a poem called "The Testament of Beauty". Of course, much earlier, around 1384, Thomas Usk had already published his prose allegory: "The Testament of Love". However, spurred on by transcendental militancy, still we are not yet prepared to give up, to write our "testament" of love. The search continues, la lutta continua!
C. Love's Labour in the "Lost and Found".
More fiery than the French, but having learnt from them "the art of loving", perhaps "amore" a la Italia could help us. On our search for "L' amorosa visione", let's dive and delve deep into the Middle Ages, visiting Usk's contemporary, Boccaccio.
Unknowingly, in his first romance, "Love's Labour" ( Il filocolo, 1336) -- derived from the French romance Floire et Blancheflor -- Boccaccio gives us a decisive scientific clue, with reference to the earthly essence of Love. Two years later, Boccaccio himself was already thwarted by "labour pains", and he published "Frustrated by Love" (Il filostrato).
But, let our Tesla time travelling machine take us across the British "Love Channel", to the Isle of Gran Britannia, to visit William Shakespeare. Now, Eros, Love, is getting tragic, comical, tragicomical.
Two centuries later, four young English gentlemen, set out to learn the horrors of life; they decide to renounce all women. However, they do not get far; very soon they meet four young graceful women, and that is the end of their absurd, macho principle.
The above, Shakespeare portrays in his "Love's Labour Lost" (1594-95), and the drama ends with a brilliant coup de théâtre.
At least, there's no "happy end", no "and they all lived happily ever after"; Love's Labour is "lost"; it brings no goods, no profits. "Jack hath not Jill", but presumably he will find her after a "twelvemonth", when he has demonstrated "Praxis a n d Theory" , when he has done something to deserve her. Well, Shakespeare was quite a brilliant fellow.
Finally, we have encountered the emancipator-key to Love, to Eros, to Excellence.