Supernatural Fiction Readers discussion

Has anyone else read Eros and Magic in the Renaissance by Ioan Couliano? It's an academic work, and can be a difficult read, but once you do you'll read paranormal works with a new perspective.

For example, the book explains the ancient Greek philosophy of the soul that is the basis for the myth that vampires are not reflected in mirrors. The book, for me anyway, had lots of those ah-ha moments.

M.A. wrote: "Has anyone else read Eros and Magic in the Renaissance by Ioan Couliano? It's an academic work, and can be a difficult read, but once you do you'll read paranormal works with a new perspective.

Fo..."

I haven't read it, but I want to read it now that you've made me aware of it. Great theme! Thanks for mentioning it!

The interesting thing about the book is that it doesn't mention vampires directly (it's an academic work, after all), but once you read the Greek concept of the communication of souls (pneuma), you suddenly understand why vampires have no reflection.

The ancient Greeks believed that we all project an idealized version of ourselves in front of our true selves. When two people interact, the process is this: our soul (pneuma), which resides in the heart, rises through the body and out of our eyes, then through the eyes of our projected self, through the eyes of the projected self of the person we are talking to, then into their real eyes and down into their own heart. What we said is then processed by the heart of the other and the process is reversed. Only when the message remains unadulterated by the reflected selves are we said to truly understand the other.

You can see why so much of what we say is misunderstood by others: the message is filtered not only by our own fake image but by the projected image of the other.

This is why it is often said when we fall in love, or create meaningful friendships, that he/she "truly understands me."

Since a vampire has no soul, the soul cannot be reflected in the eyes (the mirror) of another, nor in a physical mirror.

Further to this, the Renaissance philosophers argued that all love is a form of narcissism, since what we are falling in love with is our own reflection in the eyes of the other. In many popular books, the plot line is the woman who (at least initially, before she is saved) falls in love with a cruel but charismatic man, who sucks her heart dry and leaves her bereft. In romance novels he is called an "emotional vampire," in paranormal books he is a literal vampire. As Couliano puts it:

"Having too rashly welcomed the phantasm of the devourer, the imagination of the subject then chased the subject from its own dwelling place, turning it loose on the roads to nothingness where bodies have no shadow and mirrors reflect nothing."

The vampire can neither give a woman his heart/soul (he has none), nor reflect hers back to her because he lacks the mechanism (a heart) to do so. He is "heartless."

As Couliano argues, Greek (and later) Renaissance ideas formed the basis of modern advertising, modern psychology, and, one can argue, much of our modern popular culture, we just don't realize it.

P.S. I'm going to change the title of this thread to more accurately reflect the turn of the conversation. :-)

I read Eros Eros and Magic in the Renaissance by Ioan Couliano.

Here, I want to explain how I came across the book. I live in Chicago, and I heard about the murder of a University of Chicago professor from the local news. Then I didn't think about Couliano for a few years. Ted Anton came out with a book about the life and murder of Couliano, which I found fascinating, I gave it a 4 star review here at goodreads.

That led me to the "primary texts" as it were. Obviously a brilliant man, probably murdered by the Romanian secret police. Couliano had some interesting ideas about the evolution of idea systems. For example, it has been observed the Schopenhauer's philosophy has similarities to Buddhism. Another example is that sometime individuals come up with the same idea around the same time. Couliano argues that if two idea systems have similar premises, these idea systems will unfold logically in time in similar ways.

All the posts in this thread are interesting. I agree that Couliano held that " Greek (and later) Renaissance ideas formed the basis of modern advertising, modern psychology." I think Couliano was on the right track. I see a parallel with alchemy: Alchemy is considered a precursor to chemistry; Renaissance ideas were a precursor to modern psychology.

A good friend of mine who is a theologian with ties to the University of Chicago told me that the Romanian secret police theory has all but been rejected. It is generally accepted that he was more likely killed by a Christian fundamentalist who was angry with Couliano's recent lectures on witchcraft, which placed it in a positive light. But that is just what is said among academics; the press still consider it a political assassination. Each scenario is just as likely, considering how radical the religious right in the U.S. is.

I would really would like to know what makes this theologian think that the Religious Right in the US to be such a danger that they resort to violence. I don't hear about the US Religious Right blowing up things, beheading people, hiring assassins to kill professors.

Maybe: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christi... Scroll down to "United States." Also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-ab... and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terrori....