Causational Love

Causational Love: The idea that love can be both a cause and effect of actions and thoughts, represented by mass media and created by the individual.

In English 313: Popular Culture, we'll be focusing on the "Radical Romance" and seeing how the world and, specifically, our American society views and portrays love.  What is love, and what are its implications on our own lives?

I originally became interested in this course after Professor Wexler came to my English 455: Literacy, Rhetoric, and Culture class as a guest lecturer in 2009 to help us discuss the evolving concept of technologically-based literacy.  Extremely intrigued by the idea of integrating blogging with literature, in addition to finding out that the theme would be the "Radical Romance" once again, I simply had to jump at the opportunity to take this course!

As I dive into this semester, I personally hope to take an in-depth look at how love can be both real and fake, but also how it is a cause, effect, and catalyst for much of what we do and who we are as human beings.

:)


Following my notion of how love is causational, I'll end this first post with a prime example of love, as represented by a modern-day movie: my favorite scene from the 2006 film, Casino Royale.  Vesper has just witnessed James Bond recklessly and viciously kill Steven Obanno, a leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, and his bodyguard after a brutal fight in the stairwell in the hotel.  Extremely shaken by the event, Vesper withdraws to the shower, where Bond finds her.  This is just one of the multitude of scenes in the movie that show how the more-popular personality of Bond develops.  Bond's love for Vesper becomes the reason for his careless behavior and, at the same time, is the consequence of becoming a young, double-0 agent for the MI6.