Romantic Fiction, Reality Shaping and The Work

Je viens de terminer "Le revenant" de la série " La Légende des 4 Soldats" Tome 4 d'Elizabeth HOYT.
C'est celui qui m'a le plus plu quoique je me doutais un peu de qui était ce revenant ...
Je vais commencer " Le Chef du Clan " de Grace Burrowes.

I just finished "The revenant" of the series "The Legend of the 4 Soldiers" Volume 4 by Elizabeth HOYT.
I liked it the most, although I was a little suspicious of who this revenant was...
I'm going to start "The Clan Chief" by Grace Burrowes.
 
I finished "the ideal wife" and its prequel/sequel "a precious jewel" from Mary Balogh. I loved both of them and it although they are quite simple stories, they did their number on me and opened the flood gates. Characters are endearing and I wanted to alternatively hug and strangle some of them, especially Gerald and the countess of Severn. I didn't like them at first, only to later realise that their wounds mirrored mine. Both of them have trust issues and are afraid to "lower the shield". I was very invested in their stories and was moved when they managed to overcome their fear, a bit like a proud mama😁. They both come from families that were less than loving and respectable, and even if today the rule is to judge the person by its actions and not by its familial background, there is still that very human desire to be born in a loving, tight-knit family, to have a place you can return to, a safe haven.
Prissy made me cried all the way through.
Her story deals with prostitution, and being treated like an object by men is a wound all women must bear. The author shows well how one's soul is damaged by having to sell yourself to survive, how it eats at you and destroys your sanity bit by bit. And how treating women as object damages men too, which is a nice and elegant "f**k you" to both enraged 3rd wave feminists and staunch defender of the trade. I think Balogh made a wonderful job at showing that in this transaction, both the employer and "employee" are loosing. And how love and kindness can heal, can make the most downrodden, despised people human again.
 
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I would like to write something from my point of view, which moves me a lot and is connected with romantic literature on the edge. Many people have difficulty activating their feelings. Emotional injuries as well as unsatisfied needs and longings, disappointments, traumas cause people to not want to feel anything. I used to notice that people are not able to turn off just one feeling - they feel much less overall or end up feeling nothing. And so there are again 2 possibilities how the further life will turn out. One becomes perhaps a disappointed, cold egoist or a wishful thinking, depressive person with the permanent feeling to live in the lack.
I just realized in the last few days that I read only 3 kinds of literature as a child: Romantic literature, heroic stories and books about foreign or extinct cultures. It was the happy ending with painful stories. Today I know that on the one hand I was looking for confirmation that everything would end well in the end and that love would triumph. On the other hand, I saw in the stories that there was chaos there too, confusion, disappointment, pain.
As in myself, my birth family - I felt very well understood and taken care of in my stories. My personal story, however, did not have a happy ending. This is where wishful thinking and reality collided, which rather aggravated my personal condition. Heroic stories were another form of literature. Today I am aware that I have been looking for this hero, the strong man, all my life. What was missing in my life since my childhood?
Stability, a strong shoulder, a person who defends me, who stands in front of me when things get difficult. In terms of black and white thinking, a good way to reflect and also to recognize why you read certain literature. Today, I've finished looking for heroes. I realized that heroes are not born, heroes are made. And you have to find the hero in yourself. Seeking heroes would mean weakening oneself and needing to be saved. As long as you look for strength outside, you will not find your own strength. For that you have to be very disappointed - the heroes are usually the biggest cowards. The happy ending is also just the desire for harmony and love. That beautiful feeling we all chase. The dream that so terribly often turns out differently in reality and then feels very weird. The beautiful movie that in reality has many tickets to hell. At some point I understood that one is responsible for the happy ending alone. You can be very happy alone if you fill your life with life. Being happy is the happy ending.
Happiness is the feeling of doing something for others so that they are happy. This deep inner joy is the true happy ending.

I think that books are a very good help to feel one's own emotions again that are buried. You can cry for yourself and perhaps tears will flow here that have never been cried before. In my practice I see this very often, especially with men. They react very emotionally when they come into contact with life stories that are very similar to their own experiences. If you were to ask them about their own story directly, they are very often not able to talk about it. The more real these things become, the more dangerous for the emotional life. I myself have such conversations through the emotional back door with good success. Real stories are the higher level of perception and have the high danger of breaking down or activating the emotional system. I see a thick wall of fear here - if just one emotion is allowed in, the dams will break and the fear that they will drown in the "great sea of emotions".

Perhaps in conclusion, my conclusion is that the kind of literature you read as a child says a lot about what you are looking for in yourself, what you would like to be, and how you would like the world to be. This helps a lot as an adult to reflect better. A closed emotional field can be reactivated by reading emotional literature, to activate buried feelings again via this redirection. One often recognizes his own life by the stories, can also develop other solutions than his own. The highest level after literature is life and the true stories from your life and from the lives of others. Reading is one thing - actively participating in the stories and learning from them is the highest level of learning.

It's just my perspective and of course it may be completely wrong for others. But at the moment I find myself in the middle of real stories again, which have triggered fears and longings in me that were buried many years ago. Now it is time for me to face these as well. If the universe forces us to recognize and dissolve old patterns then I face the issue - I can't go back anyway. The lid is gone.
 
This excerpt is from Peterson's new book and it seems fitting for this thread:

An unforgettable story captures the essence of humanity and distills, communicates,
and clarifies it, bringing what we are and what we should be into focus. It speaks to us,
motivating the attention that inspires us to imitate. We learn to see and act in the
manner of the heroes of the stories that captivate us. These stories call to capacities that
lie deep within our nature but might still never develop without that call. We are
dormant adventurers, lovers, leaders, artists, and rebels, but need to discover that we
are all those things by seeing the reflection of such patterns in dramatic and literary
form. That is part of being a creature that is part nature and part culture. An
unforgettable story advances our capacity to understand our behavior, beyond habit and
expectation, toward an imaginative and then verbalized understanding. Such a story
presents us in the most compelling manner with the ultimate adventure, the divine
romance, and the eternal battle between good and evil. All this helps us clarify our
understanding of moral and immoral attitude and action, personal and social. This can
be seen everywhere, and always.
Click to expand...
 
J'ai terminé ce matin "Le Chef du Clan" de Grace Burrowes
Un belle histoire riche en rebondissements, on entre dans ce livre facilement les héros étant très attachants, je l'ai lu avec plaisir...
J'ai commencé "Passion d'une nuit d'été" d'Eloisa James de la série "Les PLaisirs"

I finished this morning "The Clan Chief" by Grace Burrowes
A beautiful story rich in twists and turns, we enter this book easily the heroes being very endearing, I read it with pleasure...
I started "A Midsummer Night's Passion" by Eloisa James from the "Les PLaisirs" series
 
PERLOU said:
J'ai terminé ce matin "Le Chef du Clan" de Grace Burrowes
Un belle histoire riche en rebondissements, on entre dans ce livre facilement les héros étant très attachants, je l'ai lu avec plaisir...
J'ai commencé "Passion d'une nuit d'été" d'Eloisa James de la série "Les PLaisirs"

I finished this morning "The Clan Chief" by Grace Burrowes
A beautiful story rich in twists and turns, we enter this book easily the heroes being very endearing, I read it with pleasure...
I started "A Midsummer Night's Passion" by Eloisa James from the "Les PLaisirs" series
Click to expand...

Speaking of Burrowes, I just read "The Captive" and it was quite an interesting story of a guy captured in the Napoleonic Wars, tortured for months, and then finally is freed and returns home. During his captivity, his wife and son die and his little daughter becomes mute. At home, he encounters his deceased wife's cousin who is now widowed and the rest of the story should be read.

There are some very interesting comparisons between a prisoner of war and his torture and a woman trapped in a marriage with a cruel and vicious husband. It is definitely not an easy story to read, but the relationship that develops is really quite beautiful.
 
Grace BurrowesCaptive Hearts (Burrowes) series3The LairdEBookLe chef du clan
Malheureusement c'est le seul livre de la série qui soit traduit en Français...

Unfortunately this is the only book of the series that is translated into French...
 
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Sur ce lien de livres d'occasion, il y a des livres en langues étrangères si cela vous intéresse...

On this link of used books, there are books in foreign languages if you are interested...
 
PERLOU said:
Grace BurrowesCaptive Hearts (Burrowes) series3The LairdEBookLe chef du clan
Malheureusement c'est le seul livre de la série qui soit traduit en Français...

Unfortunately this is the only book of the series that is translated into French...
Click to expand...
In fact, the two other titles of the series "Captive Hearts" are well translated into French. But they weren't on the recommended books list, even in English.

The Captive *** Le Captif
The Traitor *** Le Traitre
The Laird *** Le Chef du Clan
 
Talking about waltz... and romantic situation, this scene in the Russian movie "War and Peace" give us the feeling how it was important dancing for young girls at that epoch, how romantic the situation was. Apart that this scene is a little masterpiece, it give us a look about dresses and fashion of that moment. I am in love with this scene even if I am not a romantic woman. But who knows, maybe reading all the books I can become romantic. Who knows! :-D

Enjoy this magical and so important moment for Natasha.

 
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loreta said:
Talking about waltz... and romantic situation, this scene in the Russian movie "War and Peace" give us the feeling how it was important dancing for young girls at that epoch, how romantic the situation was. Apart that this scene is a little masterpiece, it give us a look about dresses and fashion of that moment. I am in love with this scene even if I am not a romantic woman. But who knows, maybe reading all the books I can become romantic. Who knows! :-D

Enjoy this magical and so important moment for Natasha.

Click to expand...
The beauty, grace, and elegance of romance, captured so well in this scene, raises one to a higher level of being.
OSIT
 
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