great works ii – 2850 jta 12:25-2:05: love letters from the world

Francesca Furca:

Love has become intensely popular through out the story about the “Life of a Sensuous Woman”. This “Sensuous Woman” really has showed that she has experienced a lot through out her lifetime, especially when it comes to love. In “A Teacher of Calligraphy and Manner” she begins to share about how she was once a teacher of Calligraphy and it seemed that teaching this writing to younger girls was a way for her to get away from men. She says “To avoid rumors, I completely gave up relationships with men and managed to overcome every temptation to meet them”. Even though she seems to have been using the writing as a barrier from men she eventually begins to sleep with another man. As we move along she begins to worn the man out, but seems as if she is doing it on purpose. She says “I made love with the man day and night. When he lost his desire, I strengthened him with loach, broth, eggs and yams, and we continued”. This made me believe she may have been somewhat torturing him until he couldn’t any more. If we move to the first story, “An Old Woman’s Hermitage” she tells the two men the story of her first love and how terribly it had ended. A few days after he was killed for having relations with her she couldn’t sleep. She says “But the days went by, and you know, I completely forgot about that man.” She then continues and shares that she was only thirteen, which may have shown that she was too young anyways and maybe she really had no love for the man. That this was all a fantasy and that how quickly her mind went from guilt to just forgetting.

Annie Wang:

In the story “From Life of a Sensuous Women”, this “Sensuous women” had explored love at a young age and in the beginning she expressive about herself, “When people did my hair, I wouldn’t be satisfied and I’d redo it myself”. But as the story goes on she seem to have more urge for lust and desire. She says “Whenever I saw women and men lying together, I’d feel excited, and when I’d hear them in the dark, my heart pounded”, from here this is where she begins to think about love and wants to explore the feeling of being loved. After she got caught with the first person she felt shocked and sudicial, but then she goes on saying, “But the days went by, and you know, I completely forgot about that man. It’s amazing how quickly a woman’s mind can change.” This experience eventually changes her, like what Francesca pointed out that eventually she will continue sleeping with numerous men and burn them out.

Jacqueline Devine:

Just as Francesca says in her response, the concept of love surrounds all of the stories told by the woman in “Life of a Sensuous Woman”. Francesca talks about how this intense idea of love wears the woman out throughout her life. I also can see that this need for love and a good life makes the woman quite vulnerable. With each man that she encounters, the woman shows her vulnerability in different ways. In “A Monk’s Wife in a Worldly Temple”, she is locked away by the priest who uses her for sex within the temple. She is help captive, but she succumbs to the situation because she is vulnerable to love and the need for it. The author writes about the woman’s change in opinion by writing, “Later I got used to the situation, and I even came to enjoy it.” Another example of this vulnerability comes into play when the woman is faced with being taken advantage of by a man in the story “A Teacher of Calligraphy and Manners”. She does not plan on falling for the man who is depending on her to write love letters to another woman, but she lets her guard down once she sees that she likes him. Her search for love leaves her vulnerable, and in turn the man puts himself onto her. The woman says, “Taking advantage of the darkness, the man threw himself on me and grabbed me tightly.” She realizes that the predicaments she becomes stuck in are because of need for life and love, and she works through them with every story.