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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