Love and Marriage - An Aenean Perspective

[Michael Chui]

About a week ago, I answered a question, "What religion are you?" with a few choice sentences pulled out of thin air. Drawing deliberately from some of my favorite bits of fiction, I intentionally chose effective expressions of my ideas in a way that neatly summarized them. I've been thinking about trying to expand that into a full-out essay, but I haven't had the time, nor do I really believe the thoughts are that cohesive. However, in letting this percolate, I've realized that I can address something else through this exercise: love and marriage.

So this ought to be the start of some kind of series, but I doubt that will happen.

Aenea: A girl in Dan Simmons' Endymion and Rise of Endymion, prophecized to be a messiah. Her tale, through the eyes of the title character, is the story.

I expect this essay to contain significant excerpts and spoilers. This is your forewarning. It is an excellent book that deserves to be read on its own terms, without the personal and mythic interpretation I am about to give it here. Simmons has no idea I'm writing this, and thus cannot endorse it whatsoever. Also, while this essay does lend significant insight to why I chose Aenea as a member of my spontaneous pantheon, it is not intended to be a complete picture and should not be construed as such. (In another ten years, I'd expect my choices to be completely different.) Thanks.

I've decided to leave the bulk of the essay at my Livejournal, because the way this forum handles blockquoting and italics. Here's a teaser excerpt:

Knowledge is that which comes from cognition. And cognition is the process of taking perceived sensory information and reflecting on it. Whether that comes from reading a book or holding a beloved's hand, it is still sensory information, it is still cogitated, and it still results in knowledge. That this knowledge may not be new is irrelevant: it is still knowledge, regardless of its novelty.

Knowledge is a medium: the medium of relation. It is through knowledge that we relate to each other: through a constant pattern perceived through the shifting sands of time. It is this same ability that allows us to recognize cultures and personalities long dead, simply by examining their artifacts. Knowledge is what we pass between each other, by interacting, by knowing one another: it is the bridge across time. Time, across which relations fade away into memory and then into nothing, is held at bay by the presence of knowledge. Even a moment as brief as turning away is bridged by knowledge.

In full:

raccaldin36: Love and Marriage - An Aenean Perspective

[enyi]

Wow, just wow. Just what I needed right now.

Thanks.