I don't know who Frank Tallis is, but this poem of his that Douglas Clark
posted strikes me as not much more than one cliché about love strung after
another, leading to a really, really flat ending. It strikes me that it
might work as a song lyric, but as a poem it reminds me more of Susan Polis
Schutz--just to combine two threads--than anything else.
Rich Newman
Love
`You had all of me --- in your own way.'
There is only one way.
Through the eyes,
The interlocking eyes.
To swim in another person's head,
To have them occupy you.
That is the only way.
It is in the eyes.
Some things last forever.
I fed you love till it flowed out of your eyes.
Then we exchanged souls.
Now I can never be alone.
Always with you.
You have all of me.
It was the end of a search.
Now we have the after-time.
Wisdom was the prize.
We share that.
A short walk on a Spring afternoon
Taught me I had a home.
Douglas Clark, Bath, Somerset, England ....
http://www.dgdclynx.plus.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Douglas Clark" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2005 9:16 PM
Subject: Re: Frank Tallis's 'Love Sick'
>I havent read the blurb but I have read the book and I say it is a fine
> piece of work.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "MJ Walker" <[log in to unmask]>
> To: <[log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2005 5:35 PM
> Subject: Re: Frank Tallis's 'Love Sick'
>
>
>> Sounds like a pile of reductionist bullshit to me. Just this sentence
>> from the author's site: "Every one of these people [an arbitrary list of
>> people "irrationally" in love made up by the knowing author] is
>> suffering from a temporary mental illness, designed to ensure their
>> genes are safely passed on to the next generation" is vitiated by crude
>> ("mental illness", "designed to ensure") assumptions that are not even
>> supported by the author's own text, where he also writes about "this
>> metaphor of mental illness" as handed down from antiquity - is it a
>> metaphor or a scientific fact? Make your mind up, Tallis. What about
>> all those aging or sterile persons who fall in love? And those who don't
>> fall out of love? The consciously cherished unrequited love? Homosexual
>> love? As for the idea of "wrapping up" Sappho or any other love poet...
>> Another quote: "People keep on having children - and they are usually
>> two people who say they are in love." In fact this has probably been the
>> exception rather than the rule in human history. How about simple lust
>> or the conscious desire to propagate one's family name as reasons for
>> having children, whether in or out of marriage? - Over to you.
>> mj
>>
>> Douglas Clark wrote:
>>
>>> This is the most wonderful book. He has read and understood everything
>>> under
>>> the sun about love from Sappho to the evolutionary psychologists and
>>> wrapped
>>> it up in 288 pages. After finishing reading it just now I cant think of
>>> anything on the subject of love which is not contained in this book. A
>>> marvellous achievement. His website is
>>> http://www.franktallis.com
>>>
>>> I suppose I should say that he sees love as a necessary mental illness.
>>> Perhaps I should send a copy to Paris.
>>>
>>> Douglas Clark, Bath, Somerset, England ....
>>> http://www.dgdclynx.plus.com
>>>
>>
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