The Anatomy of Love

Pokojnici stavljaju šećer samo onda kad im gurnemo žličicu u ruku i sami opisujemo kružnicu po dnu šalice. Kristalići šećera imitiraju tornada, zračni vrtlozi postavljaju listiće čaja na vrtuljak. Vrte se i nakon što su se žličice, odložene na tanjuriće, ohladile. Neka bude pokret. Neka mrav bježi preko stolnjaka vukući mrvicu kolača. Treba nam osa iznad stola. Neka nešto zuji. Neka ukine tišinu te scene, prije nego što pokojnici progovore jezikom koji smo za njih sastavili od tankih papirića sačuvanih riječi. Prije nego što se skrijemo iza njihovih leđa i počnemo govoriti umjesto njih, zamišljajući da miču usnama. Poslije ćemo nad tanjure prinijeti njihove prste koji će razlomiti kekse, pokupit ćemo mrvice njihovim jagodicama, koje ćemo mi polizati. Na kraju, umorni od težine marioneta, spustit ćemo njihove ruke na koljena, prihvaćajući da tu završava i popodnevni čaj i uspomena. Pokojnici se ne odijevaju sami. Mi to činimo za njih. Isto je i sa češljanjem, brijanjem, stavljanjem ukos...

Love has traditionally been understood either as an objective, transcendentforce, or a subjective ability. Through a number of steps,the article argues that both these options have lost their credibility due to changes in the media through which love is performed. First, the article demonstrates how the attempts,in the life sciences, to explain love biologically or physically reproduce a traditional romantic ideology. Then, the implications of the inflation of explicit love declarations, and the consequences of internet dating, are discussed. What these examples amount to is the fact that the medium is brought to the fore. A consequence of this is that the romantic ideology is strengthened, while the premises of romantic love – the autonomous subject and the transcendent objectivity – are weakened or even dissolved.Keywords:idealism, materialism, narcissism, subjectivity, reification,internet dating, controlJennifer Lopez, Haddaway, Howard Jones – yes, virtually every singer, author,or...

Alciphron's Letters (2nd or 3rd century AD) belong to Greek fictional epistolography, a subgenre whose literary conventions forbid direct portrayals of nudity or physical contacts. However, once the author chose erotica as a prevalent theme for his letters, he found himself entrapped; he had the obligation to obey the “chastity” of the literary subgenre and avoid any drifts into pornography and impropriety, but, at the same time, he was expected to satisfy his readers' curiosity and tantalize their imagination with shy innuendos. Consequently, he had to make sure that his stylistic devices used for erotic allusions (metaphors, metonymies, euphemisms etc.) were as vivid and various in origin as possible. Those erotic expressions are at the focus of this paper. In accordance with the given theme, the ones that contain the idea of violence, conflict, and warfare or its consequences are scrutinized. Once the erotic expressions of this kind are detected, they will be placed into a wider con...

Francuski medievalist i jedan od najznačajnijih povjesničara Europe, sad već pokojni Jacques Le Goff, napisao je knjižicu pod naslovom Treba li povijest zaista dijeliti na razdoblja? Većina ljudi ne promišlja o ovom pitanju, a da nije samo riječ o problemu koji ostaje na margini svakodnevnog života svjedoče i podatci da mnogi povjesničari nisu svjesni ovog pitanja što je utjelovljeno u studijskim programima koji su podijeljeni kronološki po razdobljima i oformljeni po vremenskom slijedu, posebno u Hrvatskoj. Le Goff ide korak naprijed pokazujući zašto je promišljanje o vremenu jedno od temeljnih pitanja povijesne znanosti.Knjižica od 124 stranice sastavljena je od sljedećih osam ključnih poglavlja: Stare periodizacije, Kasna pojava srednjeg vijeka, Povijest, obrazovanje, periodi, Rođenje renesanse, Renesansa danas, Srednji vijek postaje mračno doba, Dugi srednji vijek, Periodizacija i globalizacija. Knjiga započinje Predgovorom i Uvodom, a nakon ovih osam poglavlja slijedi Izabrana bib...

Dead but not Forgotten is a collection of short stories about the characters presented in the thirteen Sookie Stackhouse novels published by Charlaine Harris between 2001 and 2013. The fifteen short stories were not written by Harris herself, but by a series of novelists and best-selling authors. The tales are compelling and their plots are as suspenseful as the original novels by Harris, whose contents they are consistent with. Indeed, the characters are faithful to the spirit of Harris' books and their adventures are a (super)natural and logical continuation or anticipation of what occurs to them in Harris' fictional universe. The stories are indeed set in different time periods: they fill the gaps between the novels or they either precede or follow the facts narrated in Harris' books. Jeffrey J. Mariotte's “Taproot,” for example, focuses on a case assigned to Detective Andy Bellefleur during Sookie's sojourn in Dallas in the second novel. “Nobody's Business,” written by Rachel Caine...

Izgleda tako slatko, ali živi je otrov. Pogledajmo malo dvoranu: svi su unutra. Trećini njih, a i to sam malo rekao, nisam baš drag. Sve su to moji protivnici, moji krvnici i moje žrtve. Petnaest sam godina u firmi, zadnjih pet kao šef kadrovske – nije lako. Ali od svih tih dama i gospode koji me mrze, vrlo dobro znam, najgora je ona. Moja najveća neprijateljica. Znam što govorim jer dobro je poznajem: to mi je žena.A konkurencija je jaka, tu su svi moji najratoborniji, najžilaviji protivnici: Donatella, ekonomistica s magisterijem s Harvarda, koju sam zaposlio kao tajnicu kad zbog krize nije mogla naći posao i koja mi je jednom prigodom, lagano i namjerno, izlila kipuću kavu po hlačama jer sam je zamolio da nam na sastanak direktora donese piće (A što sam mogao? Nisam ja kriv za krizu. A na sastanku je bio generalni direktor. I lijepo sam je zamolio). Zaldíbar, koji se iživljavao nada mnom šest godina kad mi je bio šef, potpisujući – bez moga znanja – sva moja izvješća kao svoja. Cont...