MirrorCrush · 17d
Why is the heart romanticised in the first place? I've read it so many times, but never understood it.
Even if we see it from the cannibalistic perspective -I've read in so many fictions that eating your lover's heart is the ultimate act of love, when logically, it should be the brain.
Heart just pumps blood, it doesn't think. Eating it is the equivalent of eating steak. It grants you no knowledge, no memories, and no essence. It's an empty, biological gesture.
Everything that makes a lover them -their private jokes, fears, memories etc. is encoded in the neurons and synapses of the brain. If a cannibal truly wants to "consume" and "become one" with the person they love, they have to eat the organ that actually contains that person.
And here is where the romance actually peaks -a knowledgeable cannibal knows that eating the brain might kill him. Prions are concentrated in nervous tissue. By choosing the brain, the cannibal isn't trying to survive the lover; he is choosing to join them in annihilation.
Eating the heart is selfish. It's about keeping the lover's "love" inside you while you continue living while eating the brain is selfless.
I found where it all begun -it was the Egyptians. When they mummified people, they scooped out the brain through the nose with a hook and threw it away. They thought the brain was useless packing material. But the heart? They left it in the body cuz they believed it was the seat of intelligence, memory, and the soul.
That cultural bias bled into Greek philosophy, and Aristotle doubled down, declaring the heart was the center of all emotions and thought.
Eating a heart is a symbolic act that says, "Your life force is now mine." It is a beautiful fairy tale. While eating a brain says, "Your specific, dangerous, messy consciousness is now inside my skull." Its almost a psychological horror.
Do you think we romanticize the heart simply cuz society is lazy and sentimental -choosing easy, safe symbols over difficult, dangerous truths? Or is there a deeper, more generous reason we cling to the heart that I'm missing?
I think we think similarly some times.
While I had never sat with this particular topic and picked it apart, I have toyed with close subjects.
While the heart and brain are interdependent and both equally important... The world views them on different levels.
The heart is romanticized more, in my opinion, simply because it houses the complete life-force and written code that makes us.. well, us.
Everyone believes the heart to be far more superior, but they don't understand that while the heart's job is important, it is regulated and told what to do by the brain.
And the brain is far more interesting, which to me is much more romantic.
If I wanted to pronounce my love in a way that said "I want to rewrite my biological rhythm and code until it syncopated with yours" then I'd focus on the heart..
But if I wanted to profess my devotion in a way that said, "There is no part of you that I could ever see myself without, I don't need you just by my side, I need you within me" then I'd focus on the brain.
But, ah... The truest form...
I'd think somewhat like Hobbs... And leave no part unappreciated. "I not only want to consume you, but I want to kneel at your feet as You consume my soul and devote myself to worshiping every morsel of your being."
I may have gotten carried away, but I hope I answered your question. While it may seem lazy to choose the heart, and can be at times, it's only because people can be terrified of admitting just how dangerously enamored they are.
And it's funny to me how, for life and love, the heart is the beginning, while the brain is the end.
