Showing 1 - 2 of 2 posts found matching keyword: love
Wednesday 8 May 2024
"Love is the most important thing on Earth. Especially to a man and a woman."
—Captain James T. Kirk, "Gamesters of Triskelion"
My Webster's New Twentieth Century Dictionary, Unabridged has eight different definitions for the noun form of love, chief among them "a strong affection or attachment or devotion to a person or persons." That pretty much matches the good captain's use of the word. (I'm sure Kirk also loves the fifth definition: "sexual passion or its gratification," which, you may note, does not require any "person or persons" on this earth or any other).
Maybe I'm devoid of strong passion, but my personal definition of love has always been a little more concrete. So far as I can tell, anything you love is something that you value more than yourself. For most people, that's not a lot of things, if any. (It's no wonder I'm still single after all these years.)
The word gets thrown around a lot (especially by starship captains on the make), but how often is it accurately employed? It's a common trope of art and literature that one lover would be willing to die for another, and I accept that most parents (usually) place their children's interests before their own. But how often do you meet anyone willing to lay down their lives for property? Or strangers? Or a whole society? Or chocolate? Maybe we don't encounter those people often because they don't have long lives.
Conversely, my definition of hate is disliking something enough that you're willing to destroy yourself to destroy it (also a common trope in literature, usually for villains and anti-heroes). I've used that word a lot in my life, but like my use of the word love, it has usually been an exaggeration when all I really want is a word stronger than dislike or disapprove. (Despise? Detest? Disdain?) Rationally I recognize that anything I might hate is rarely actually worth my being sacrificed for it.
Obviously, human beings are not governed by the Three Laws of Robotics, which place the priority of self-preservation dead last, meaning that by my definition, Asimovian robots have a greater capacity for love (and hate) than human beings. I don't know what Mr. Spock would have to say about that, but I'm reasonably certain that Kirk wouldn't hesitate to love a machine, assuming it had enough I/O interfaces.
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Saturday 23 February 2008
You may have noticed that in that last post (Feb. 20), Superman was hiding behind a rock on the Action Comics and Superman covers. You may have asked yourself why the Man of Steel was spying on Bizarro's love life. Turns out that's just the way Superman rolls.
And it's probably justified. It seems that Superman's supporting cast can't go anywhere without getting into some improbable fix that only an invulnerable interplanetary alien with the powers of flight, speed, and strength (among others) can extricate them from. Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen got into so much trouble, Superman had to give him a beeper.
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Some friends Superman has there. What happens when Superman isn't paying enough attention? That's right: Bizarro attacks.
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Lois wears bridal fashions like I wear Batman t-shirts. She appears in a bridal gown on 9 different covers (twice on issue 37 and four times on issue 86!) of her 137 issue run in Superman's Girlfriend Lois Lane. Make that 10 covers, if you count her red cloak worn during her marriage to Satan -- yes, Satan -- on the cover of issue 103.
Meanwhile, Jimmy appears dressed as Superman on only 6 covers of the 163 issue run of Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen. Seven covers, if you count Jimmy's remote control usage of a Superman robot on the cover of issue 9. In a rare guest appearance, Lois Lane manages to wear her fraying wedding gown when she weds Jimmy on the cover of Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen issue 21, but Jimmy misses the golden opportunity and lamely wears a tux.
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