Romantics: A blessing or a curse?

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I've been a romantic since I was little, but I wonder if things might have been better had I not been. Dreaming the life away, an aesthetic pilgrim on a journey to nowhere - I know it exasperated my father.

I see wonder in things that others don't, but I'm also troubled by city life, banal things like wireless ads, etc. They don't fit in the romantic mindset.

As an example, three men of the desert:

Everett Ruess - the Ultimate Romantic, wandering around with a burro in a dreamy state of troubled bliss, until he just vanished in thin air in the canyons of Utah.

Lawrence of Arabia - A romantic, yes, but also very driven and functional, and very capable at causing mayhem in the desert.

A Chevron Geologist - he sees the desert for what it is: a bunch of inhospitable dust sitting on top of black gold, oil. The desert is an inconvenience, an obstacle preventing him from profit.

Which are you? Come into my salon, ye lovers of pastoral whimsy...

― andy --, Friday, 4 March 2005 00:26 (twenty years ago)

I think I used to be, but I've mellowed out considerably (in a good way). I probably would've stuck with fewer bad ideas (read: relationships) if I hadn't been. But I think it would be lame if no one was.

― sugarpants (sugarpants), Friday, 4 March 2005 00:53 (twenty years ago)

If the oil companies' ads are to be believed, some of these geologists are lovely people with a sense of beauty.

― Michael White (Hereward), Friday, 4 March 2005 01:00 (twenty years ago)

I think I'm the top one. I'm a typical "air sign".

― dog latin (dog latin), Friday, 4 March 2005 01:10 (twenty years ago)

http://www.sanford-artedventures.com/study/images/fragonard_swing_l.jpg

"We'll have a gayyyyyy olllll' tiiiiiiimmmmmeeee!"

― Jimmy Mod Has Returned With Spices And Silks (ModJ), Friday, 4 March 2005 01:36 (twenty years ago)

Perhaps a petroleum exec is not the most sympathetic I could have chosen. But some are born of practicality and pragmatism, and don't waste their days dreaming...

― andy --, Friday, 4 March 2005 01:37 (twenty years ago)

I see wonder in things that others don't, but I'm also troubled by city life, banal things like wireless ads, etc. They don't fit in the romantic mindset.

i sort of know what you mean, i'm too usually upset by the vulgar or craven.

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 4 March 2005 01:39 (twenty years ago)

i mean "too easily"

i can't type well tonight

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 4 March 2005 01:39 (twenty years ago)

i would never claim to be a "romantic" though

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 4 March 2005 01:39 (twenty years ago)

I hate that "What I Like About You" song.

― Shakey Mo Collier, Friday, 4 March 2005 01:45 (twenty years ago)

romantics are the fundamentalists of the matters of the heart, and therefore dud.

― bass braille (....), Friday, 4 March 2005 02:01 (twenty years ago)

Normally the second kind, except when drunk or otherwise emotionally vulnerable at which I become the first. Ugh.

― edward o (edwardo), Friday, 4 March 2005 02:07 (twenty years ago)

i'm SO lawrence of arabia.

― jbr (Jody Beth Rosen), Friday, 4 March 2005 02:32 (twenty years ago)

Why is it that people insist on conflating romantics with a small r and Romantics with a capital R? I am definitely the latter, but not the former.

If you are going to practise your Romanticism in the desert, I'd rather be a Paul Bowles on a spiritual journey to nowhere except dissolution and self destruction.

But, being a British Romantic, I seek my Arcadia in forests and the countryside and Scottish mountains. Not deserts.

― Masonic Cathedral (kate), Friday, 4 March 2005 14:07 (twenty years ago)

I often find that big-R Romantic art/music/literature a tad bombastic and heavy-handed, and it is informed by a value system I cannot get behind (that is, fetishizing intense feeling over Classicist spareness and refinement; lionizing experiment and invention rather than seeking excellence within a preexisting form). The Doors are Romanticist; the Beatles are Classicist. DeNiro is a Romanticist and Nicholson a Classicist. The Simpsons is Classicist and South Park is Romanticist.

Now.

By small-r romantic, do we mean people who get weepy at Hallmark commercials? Do we mean people who walk around wearing long silk scarves and hats with peacock plumes, striking dramatic poses of sophisticated ennui? Do we mean people who quit their jobs on a moment's notice to pursue their wild dream of seeing the spires of the Taj Mahal at first light? Or do we just mean people whose love lives are very important to them, and they shape their lives around opportunities to engage in matters of the heart?

― The Mad Puffin (The Mad Puffin), Friday, 4 March 2005 16:28 (twenty years ago)

I'm a cynical romantic.

― Madchen (Madchen), Friday, 4 March 2005 16:37 (twenty years ago)

http://www.lub.lu.se/handskrift/schubert/qsl9701.gif

― Amateur(ist) (Amateur(ist)), Friday, 4 March 2005 18:17 (twenty years ago)

ihttp://rds.yahoo.com/S=96062883/K=Chopin/v=2/SID=e/l=IVI/SIG=12mgp6oob/EXP=1110046706/*-http%3A//www.beethovenlives.net/Chopin%20Resimleri/chopin2_buyuk.jpg

― Michael White (Hereward), Friday, 4 March 2005 18:19 (twenty years ago)

Maybe this one will work.

http://www.marcelproust.it/musica/chopin_delac.jpg

― Michael White (Hereward), Friday, 4 March 2005 18:20 (twenty years ago)

http://www.ruicambraia.net/editoriais/images/friedrich_sea_of_fog.jpg

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Friday, 4 March 2005 18:24 (twenty years ago)

I'm a neoromantic

― walter kranz (walterkranz), Friday, 4 March 2005 23:55 (twenty years ago)

If you are going to practise your Romanticism in the desert, I'd rather be a Paul Bowles on a spiritual journey to nowhere except dissolution and self destruction.

so otm.

walter, that's better than a necromantic, i guess.

― hstencil (hstencil), Friday, 4 March 2005 23:58 (twenty years ago)

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