How do we define in the West, the Erotic, Birth & Death, cross-cultural Love ?

Question

Wikipedia's choice of Annie Leibovitz's photos' perspective.
The latest New Yorker - June 11-18. 2007
This has to be the last of the last Question for the sake of all Stars, who were never Crowned.

Ouverte en Francais cette Question capitale.

Fan Mulsulmane, qui ne cesse de m'envoyer des signaux de fumee (pas d'e-mail toi, claire comme le Debut du Coran) - ne crains rien ici.
MemeLeo de France: bienvenue aussi.
Ne dormez point sous la Lune - Chantons face au Vent:
" C'est un Fameux Trois Mats,
Long-la, Isse-ho, Santiano,
4 NOEUDS et 600 Tonneaux,
Nous irons [toutes trois] a San Malo !
Tiens Bon la Barre et tiens Bon le Flot !
Isse-ho, Isse-ho Santiano,
Si Dieu Veult...
Nous irons a San Francisco !"
( Barbe -Rouge)

Categories for the Sophisticated - for the ones who can categorise only.
We are Playing Tennis on the Ship L'Epervier ?
"Tennis ? Not when you can play at
Two-handed Put (18th-early 19th C.)
Pully-Hauly (late 18th C.)
Pickle-Me-Tickle-Me (mid-17th-18th C.)
Cuddle-My-Cuddle (D'Urfey)

or have
A Rootle
A Poopnoddy
A Squeeze and a Squirt (all 19th C.)
p24. "The Erotic Tongue" - a Sexual Lexicon by Lawrence Paros 1984
All Good Pirates have a Lawrence Parrot.

While the dreamy Crew, under the stars, is sleeping its Ya-ho-ho & and bottle of Rhum, like the Bons-Vivants they are:

"HARD A-PORT !" / "BARBE TOUTE !"

Sapristi !
I spy the Merchant Fleet under Escort, in front of my very Eye...
Lo and Behold: the Escorting Vessel's Lawrence Parrot Has Landed on our Pristine Deck !
(Oh de la Vigie ? Vous dormez ? Manque de pot ! Bon !)

Repeat after me friendly Lawrence:

" pretty please."
" p-r-e-t-t-y p-l-e-a-s-e"

Let Minstrel / troubadoure L. Paros guide you, parrot:
Page 22 "The Erotic Tongue" [= 4 sometimes]:

"Pretty Please.
There are words which sound better and are often used before company, instead of 'swiving' and $$$$, which is too gross and downright bawdery, fit only to be used among dissolute persons. To avoid scandal, men modestly say: 'I kissed her, made much of her, received a favor from her," or the like.
- The School of Venus, or The Ladies Delight Reduced into Rules of Practice,1744.
Well, it is ...

"...(p22)...Well, it is sort of a favor. Isn't it ? I mean when a girl lets you kiss her and, you know, go on from there...............and the rest of it. I mean isn't it a favor ? What is in it for her ? I mean she's not getting paid or anything ?
- Jules Feiffer, Carnal Knowledge,
1971
When The New York Times and other august publications report such goings-on, they often describe them as 'sexual favors' or 'plain' favors. 'Favors' traditionally are 'granted' or 'bestowed', 'lavished upon', or 'yielded'. William Safire, the columnist and wordsmith, defines such 'favors' as the hats, bonbons, noise-makers and other souvenirs one brings back from an orgy.
Favors can be granted by both sexe[ssss]. For a time, it was men who 'did' or 'worked their kind', did the 'act' or 'deed of kind' (1230 [parrot, not vintage for Vilaines, the Middle Ages]), or 'did a kindness' (18th-20thC.), but for the most part, it's been women who've extended every courtesy thus .."

"(p.23. continued)... women...thus making 'courtesans' out of many of them. Often, they've given everything save the 'last favor'. Moll Flanders proudly reported,
'Though he took these freedoms with me, it did not go to that which they call the 'last favor'.
Makes you wonder, doesn't it, that 'sex' might be indeed a favor of sorts.
....[friendly parrot:] Nice of You to Drop In

These two did often 'do the two-backed beast' together...in so far that at last she became 'great with child'.
-Rabelais, tramslated by Sir Thomas Urquhart, 1653 [ parrot: say Re-nais-sance]
If all this still seems too serious, perhaps you should simply treat it as fun. Shakespeare made the 'beast with two backs' and 'went groping for trout in the peculiar river', one aspect of the sport that somehow eluded both Sir Isaac Walton [AND] our English teacher.
For a bit of even more offbeat recreation a man could try 'burying' or 'dipping his wick ' (c.1850).[parrot ?]
A contemporary parallel is ....

"....(page 26 [ = 2 x $$$$]
Wayland Young in " Eros Denied" commented that both dancing & ["the 20thC 's national indoor sport"] are not a series of positions but, rather, a flow of movement. He considered the fact that we refer to sexual positions [parrot:
BIRTH IS SEXUAL, OUI] in this context as the result of blocked imaginations."

Thank you Lawrence Paros "Odd Man Out "(page 157) & petit perroquet:
Fly away....

Parbleu ! Fini les Vaisseaux fantomes ...
Quel 'Parler' Elogieux, les Nouvelles Vagues !
(How am I going to draw straws ? Hisse-Haut !)

Methinks a sort of "Point-to-Point Navigation" will suffice for Barbe-Rouge & his adopted Son Eric.
Good trajectory for an American Man to feel so adopted by Europe's Soul - even graciously by Barbe-Rouge, 'the Faithful'.
Perhaps, we don't know how to adopt so well anymore, but then the Foundations of our Temples are shaky:
Buccaneers: A VOS POSTES /////////
A Good Pirate, always announces its assault:
it is Form: you show your Colours - even at the Last out-maneuver. It's the real parlez !
If you die after that, well.... let's hope JON C. plays in the Locker. M'enfin , Jon C: Barbe-Rouge doesn't lie (even Captain Hook says amidst weird overdone colour:
"the Truth is much too much Fun !" Barbe-Rouge has proof: ALL the Cinderella missing Slippers - bloodied & all - still Frederique is my Name. Fully-fledged Woman - how is it possible you had the illusion I was .... a Bearded-Man ?
No cues, no clues. Well, it is true that in some West parts , the Beacon Gulliver's Travels is restricted

"LANCEZ LES CORDES !"
Jean-Paul La Perle qui ne se reconnait point.
Tous les Pirates aiment les perles comme Victor Hugo aimait les Miserables

Alors pour vous, que le Barde rescape Marylin Manson vous adapte Pearl Jam:
"This whole World'll be different soon
And my World will be relieved ...."

Prenez exemple sur l'Apogee de Byzance - Rome c'etait du toc jusqu'a ce que les Arts y arrivent de Constantinople assaillie.
Meme Will Durant dans L'Age de la Foi (Barbe-Rouge - comme vous - ne croit pas dans la Foi des Collectionneurs de Papillons, surtout des Vilains):

" IV. L'Empereur Paien
Il s'enorgueillissait de garder la simplicite d'un philosophe au milieu du luxe de la cour. Il se debarrassa immediatement des eunnuques, barbiers et espions qui avaient servi Constance. Sa jeune femme etant morte, il se resolut de ne pas se remarier et n'eut ainsi plus besoin d'eunnuques; un seul barbier a son avis, pouvait s'occuper de tout le personnel du palais." p35 Histoire de la Civilisation X

Pas de poudre d'escampette pour
Capitaine Haddock & 'Pretty Dirty Things':

"A L'ABORDAGE !"
"PAS DE QUARTIERS !"

For Julie and I'll attempt to quote another form of 'Witchy's Speech' - Julie, you see, She is
The Woman of France ( Elle n'est pas sortie de Jules, mais de Julien d'Antan):

"The Erotic - it is all that summons that which is the most Feminine : The Animal in me - We are ill-born because we do not Birth well; Birthing is the greatest "stress" which we have to undergo in Our Lives, therefore it is [HIGH] Time to change things...."

Quelle est Belle, Julie. Elle vous parle d'Etre FORTE. Bon Sang !

Julie wants to be a Strong Sexual Being. She wants to Birth & Die with Dignity: at Home or on the Beach ... You deserve your Place in the Sun.
There is a Women's Museum in Washington DC on exhibit, at the time, I saw a 'Flow' of sketches of a Mother Dying at Home, her Quietening recorded by her Artist Daughter.
It did not look like an auto-dafe a la Goya.
There was Elegance.
FC

Answer 1

l'érotisme pour moi c'est se qui me porte a vouloir sexuellement l'autre, c'est ce qui fait appel a se qui il a de plus féminin et animal en moi! Nous naisons mal parce que les femmes accouchent mal, la naissance est le plus grand stress que nous vivons dans notre vie alors il est grand temps que des changement soit fait... La femme doit croire en ça force et en elle même, moi je dit naître à la maison! La mort semble faire peur, moi elle me réconforte... savoir qu'un jour il y aura une fin, je rêve mourrir dans un hamac près de l'océan, seule de préférence, je veux pas mourir entouré de personne qui pleure mon départ, je veux que ce soit la fête, parce que j'ai eu une bonne vie et j'en est profiter a maximun, j'ai aimé, pleurer, ris j'ai vécu! Personne ne devraient mourrir a l'hopital... c'est froid et autère, ça dénature l'humain et la mort! Si j'aime autrui... bien sur, nous devons apprendre que la méfiance n'est pas la clé masi que c'est l'ouverture sur les autre qui nous rend plus grand et plus fort. Autrui nous donne la chance de voir la vie d'une autre façon, a travers d'autre yeux!!! De prendre confiance en nos valeurs et croyance et parfois nous offre les yeux sur la réalité!!! Je crois que aimer est une clé importante de notre vie!

Answer 2

A one-off return by Jon C by special request.

As one who feels he should leave here for a little while - for his own good - I respond to one who feels he must leave, not only for good, but also for 'the good'.

While I respect your decision to leave, I am always a little concerned at such finality because it does absent us from the field of battle. Still, no-one can do better than to follow their conscience.

The erotic, I see as anything which arouses my sexual appetite without demeaning love.

The processes of birth and death are a whole different thing from the concepts thereof. The concepts are a bit of an illusion.The processes, (both of which I know a fair bit about), can be both messy and bloody painful. Ain't no dignity in the process of birth but there can and should be in death.

Erich Fromm wrote a book called The Art of Loving in which he proposed that 'love' is something which we can learn to do - and need to learn to do if we are to survive as sane human beings.
I support his thesis!
There is not cross-cultural love as distinct from mother-love and the love I feel for my friends; there is just LOVE; and it has little to do with sex. And you'd better start getting that, humanity, or you are f***ing doomed!

Frederique, wherever you go and whatever you do, you have my love and respect.
I hope your wife and child are well and that they came through the birth process OK. While I am in favour of 'natural birth' in general, I am also aware that child-birth is the area where the medical profession have been most successful in saving lives.

'bye, my friend.
Jon C

Answer 3

Je ne pense pas qu'il y ait, en Occident, UNE définition des termes proposés dans la question. Mais je pense que l'Occident qui fait de plus en plus question dans le monde est de moins en moins capable de répondre aux questions qu'il pose. Tout croule sous le poids d'une marchandisation forcenée, devient marchandise aussi strictement que possible. En espérant de plantureux profits. L'Occident est en voie de sous-développement, a tout à attendre des autres cultures - qu'il devrait commencer par respecter... et comprendre. D'où, en Occident, tous ces "trucs" qui viennent d'ailleurs, mais ne sont, en Occident, que des trucs, des techniques et non des arts de vivre. En Occident, on sait de moins en moins vivre. Chaque terme de la question est à replonger dans ce cadre général, dont il ne peut ressortir qu'en ayant perdu toutes ses couleurs.