Love, whether it’s the PLATO-nic kind or the romantic sort, is a great thing.
I was at the point of my week when I was dreading Valentine’s Day. I recieved no roses yesterday from girls, but I did hand out one Valentine to a very special lady in my Studies of Religion class who will not be named here for privacy purposes. She had no roses given to her, so I did what I could and drew her one on a folded piece of paper. It made her smile, and it made me smile too. Because when it comes down to it, Valentine’s Day isn’t just about giving roses to girls in hope of getting laid. It’s showing people that you care. So they don’t feel left out.
Hynavian despite her questionable standards of what the ideal man should be (since I could hardly live up to shojo manga standards) has some good points about not being jealous of people who do have a special day to share with somebody else. Despite what that dude who’s friends with Satou from Welcome to the NHK! says, romance is nothing to hate, just because you got hurt along the way.
I am no bishonen, but I’m not exactly going to despise Johnny Depp because he attracts the ladies by the score. In the same way I don’t despise Shah Rukh Khan for being a smouldering hunk of man who I admire for his Bollywood movies.
This is Shah Rukh Khan, I’m lost in his eyes already.
Anyway, Leonard Cohen, that licentious old man who keeps young by the making of love to nubile young ladies, has written a number of great love songs, one of my favorite of which is “Ain’t No Cure For Love” on his I’m Your Man album. It reminds me, especially on a day like this, that you can’t get away from love even if you want to, so you might as well accept it as natural.
As for my manga list in response to Hynavian’s, here’s my top three romantic manga:
3: Read or Die. Because sometimes love hurts, yet an acceptance of loss, like in a Leonard Cohen song, is necessary to move on. Even if you were the one who messed up.
2: Sorcerors and Secretaries. It’s an English Language manga but it’s an eternal reminder to me that realising that the people who love you in the real world can’t be forsaken for your adolescent fantasies, or artmaking. It’s a lovely story with a good message to both men and women alike.
1: Train Man.
I come back to this one constantly because it always makes me feel better when I feel a bit lonely. Mainly because it’s about a nerdy guy who finds love after standing up for women in an age when such an act is difficult to do. This strategy so far for me has had mixed success, but I keep on trying.
So Happy Valentine’s Day. If you have somebody you love who you don’t want to get married to because they’re a friend you deeply care about, give them a PLATO-nic Valentine using the picture at the beginning of this post. I hope you have a great day!
5 comments ↓
Ah “Train Man”! Till date, I haven’t read the manga version yet but I’ll get to it after completing my 2 assignments. :X
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Technically I imagine my favourite romance-centred manga is Hot Gimmick, because it’s the only romance-centred manga I’ve completed. It’s also pretty weird, so perhaps I oughtn’t have mentioned it here.
As for a PLATOnic Valentine’s celebration, I kind of imagine it involves a symposium where we all get very, very drunk while arguing about increasingly abstruse problems.
shahrukh khan
HI Shahrukh you are the king of the indian. becouse you are best actor. all of the people LOVE YOU. BEZA FROM Ethiopia
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