Troubadour Poetry, Slavoj Žižek, and Buñuel’s “That Obscure Object of Desire”

Concerning the themes discussed in last weeks discussion, both the poetry and essay collective elaborate and support the ideas of love possessing an oxymoronic relationship of torment and pleasure as well as the object of one's desire never being captured.

Troubador Poetry;

"My heart sighs, my eyes weep, because I love her so much, and I suffer for it."

 

Why would one suffer for having an immense love for someone else? Revealed in this quote, I believe it is safe to assume that the poet realizes that to love he must be tormented by the lacking of what humans desire the most, the reciprocation of love. However, a new theme of love is explored throughout the poem. An idea that the suffering of love is only for a moment, a test to prove to Love that he is worthy.

"This love wounds my heart with a sweet taste, so gently, I die of grief a hundred times a day and a hundred times revive with joy. My pain seems beautiful, this pain is worth more than any pleasure; and since I find this bad so good, how the good will be when this suffering is done."

The question here though remains, will the suffering end? What causes the poet to believe that his suffering will leave. As long as he continues to love, he will always suffer in some way. 

Courtly Love, or Woman as Thing;

Early on in this essay a new philosophy was proposed about both themes, the mirror and the object of desire, sharing an intricate.

"The mirror may on occasion imply the mechanics of narcism, and especially the dimension of destruction or aggression that we will encounter subsequently. But it also fulfills another role, a role as limit. It is that which cannot be crossed. And the only organization in which it participates is that the inaccessibility of the object."

This thought causes me to assume that what we see in the mirror is not only what we desire to understand but also our limiting factor in ever being complete. The object we see in the mirror is all but attainable. 

That Obscure Object of Desire;

1. With thoughts of why the film is titled, "That Obscure Object of Desire," I am brought to a quote in the film made by Conchita that expresses and reveals the very nature of desire.

"You want what I won't give you. It's not me you want...If I gave you what you want, you'd stop loving me."

Conchita understands that Mathieu is not in the pursuit of loving her but what he cannot have, let alone see. This revelation is awfully similar to the one made in Narcissus. At the point of Narcissus' tormenting ordeal of knowing himself, the narrator propose an explanation, almost identical to the one of Conchta's to Mateo's. It reads, "The thing you are seeing does not exist: only turn aside and you will lose what you love. What you see is but the shadow cast by your own reflection, in itself it is nothing. It comes with you, and lasts while you are there; it will go when you go, if go you can."

The solidifying meaning of the "obscure object" of desire is something that has no form of existence. It is desire that causes one to see what cannot be seen and pursue what does not exist. The evidence of absence has no true validation.