Day Eighteen

This week, as suggested by my Journalism professor, I want to try working with a more specific subject and carry that theme through the whole week. We'll see how it goes, and if I like it, I'll stick with it for at least the next few weeks.

Stories.

There are countless stories about finding love or losing love or being conflicted over love or even mocking love. If you're trying to find a movie or a book that isn't about love, I say good luck to you, because as I've said before in this blog, romantic love isn't the only kind of love. Sure, Of Mice and Men barely touches the subject of romance, but it does have a lot to say about the bond shared between two best friends. To give a more modern example of best friend love, there's these two:

(I happen to disagree with the theories that say Frodo and Sam are IN love. 

They're close friends. Just sayin'.)

The entire Lord of the Rings series is more about brotherhood and friendship than it is about romance. Does Alpha Male Aragorn get the girl in the end? Yeah. But I'd argue that the relationship between Aragorn, Legolas and Gimli is more central to the films than Aragorn and Arwen's love is.

Then of course there's these two:

I could go on and on, but my point is that the most celebrated relationships in the Lord of the Rings are friendships.

The same can be said of father-son relationships when talking about the Lion King. I tear up when Simba finds Mufasa dead. Every time. Again, Simba gets the girl at the end (it's kind of the standard prize for being a hero) but the most important relationship is between Simba and his father, even after Mufasa's death.

I don't want to discount romantic love though, because it does provide some of the most interesting dynamics in both books and movies. It's hard not to root for love, except when the two characters obviously shouldn't be together, but that's a whole other issue. I just want to spend the next week looking at a few "love" stories, whatever kind of love that may be.

Since I'm trying out something new this week, I'd love to get some feedback. Shoot me an email, or even better, comment below if you've got something to say :)