004//

[ttly_not_batman]

As much as I would like to say that I am pleased to be passed over for this particular curse, considering its trying nature, I can't bring myself to do so.  But, then, there is a good chance that's because every vice I've had was left in Gotham.  The money, the women, revenge I haven't found them here, so the City cannot take them away.

Lord Alfred

Comments

[steeldame]

As much as I am unusually fond of my cigars, I wouldn't place them in the same level as Tennyson's love reference. They are an indulging vice that I miss but I can certainly live without.

[ttly_not_batman]

Mmm, I thought the reference quite fitting, seeing as love can be a vice quite its own. Though, I'm not surprised; most women would not like to see it equivocated to a smoker's or alcoholic's addiction.

[steeldame]

Love shouldn't be reduced to mere passion, obsession, desire or lust. Love is supposed to be a virtue instead of a vice. Real love in any case, human nature is more complicated to suit lofty ideals.

I am not most women. My love for my country and patriotism is certainly not in the level of my indulgences with tea or cigars.

[ttly_not_batman]

Cigars and tea are not the same as most vices, however. They are unique, and you are clever, because neither is addictive. It is the addictive quality that makes vices similar to love.

[banditfox]

I believe Tennyson's words are better applied to a different kind of emotional attachment.

[ttly_not_batman]

It's what they were intended for, of course, but I find them equally fitting. After all, what is love if not just as intoxicating as any liquor or nicotine? The needs are similar.

[banditfox]

In some cases it may be, but addictions are acts of selfishness, and love held in proper perspective inspires selflessness.

[ttly_not_batman]

Ah, but at the same time, I believe love can inspire selfishness just as easily. Wanting to be with a person forever simply because they make you happy? Sounds rather selfish to me.

[cloudsinstrife]

Addiction and love are two different things.

[ttly_not_batman]

That's the case many have been pleading. Withdrawal from an addiction can make a person convulse, shiver, become feverish, and quite emotional. Doesn't love have quite the same effect?

[cloudsinstrife]

No.

[ttly_not_batman]

Interesting. Many would say it does have that kind of severe hold over a person. Though, I'll concede that generally it is women who agree on that point.

[westcoastrc]

Never really thought of love as a vice...

[ttly_not_batman]

Even if it's unrequited? Perhaps "vice" is an incorrect term, "addiction" is more fitting, I believe. In any case, when one has an inexorable addiction, or even vice, they often exhibit symptoms similar to those of love when they're separated from that object. As I just explained; feverishness, shivering, heightened emotional responses -- all are characteristic of either.

[westcoastrc]

Just never thought of it like that. When you put it that way, love sounds like an illness, not an emotion.

I know for a fact it's got power...but...it's just...wow.

[ttly_not_batman]

Aren't you familiar with the term "lovesick"?

[theotokos]

The only thing I have to say, there's a reason why my cannon has a name. Objects and habits are a sense of familiarity, comfort to those who are away from home. We all deal with stress different, some different than most.

[ttly_not_batman]

Strange. You're the only female who has replied, but also the only one who hasn't refuted that love and addiction are similar in nature.

[theotokos]

Don't be a prick.

Aren't they? It's part of the eightfold path of Buddhism desire leads to suffering, they both head down that road, after all.

[ttly_not_batman]

Yes, ma'am.

Mmm, interesting take on it. I didn't peg you for a Buddhist.