not equal seemd” (4.295-296). Adam accepts God’s ways and is thus aligned because God’s ways benefit him, whereas they put Eve at a natural disadvantage based on her sex alone.
The problem of pleasure as a pedagogical strategy for Eve is that she inherently cannot absolve herself from life’s complications and inequalities as easily as Adam can, if she can at all. When Satan seduces Eve, he uses rhetorical devices that function in opposition to the rhetoric that Raphael uses for Adam. Whereas Raphael quells Adam’s curiosities through pleasure, Satan introduces a sense of inequality or displeasure to spark Eve’s interest. Satan tells her that the fruit is only forbidden to keep her “low and ignorant,” echoing Raphael’s command to stay “lowlie …show more content…
She believes that accessing knowledge would “render [her] more equal, and perhaps, a thing not undesireable, somtime superior” (9.823-825). It’s not that Eve herself is flawed, it’s that she, like other marginalized bodies, lacks “the qualities or attributes required for a happy state of existence” because of the historical definition of this “happy state” and those who are privy to enjoying it (Ahmed 589). When Raphael warns Adam and Eve of the dangers of disobedience, he says “Warne thy weaker; let it profit thee to have heard by terrible Example the reward of disobedience; firm they might have stood, yet fell” (6.909-912). However, Eve disobeys for the sake of equality. We can reframe this as an obedience to a subversive, radical orientation that attempts to undo inequality. Eve stands firm in her orientation, and although catastrophic, protects her attempt access the “sweet of life” that is already readily available to Adam. If she had obeyed traditionally, she still would have fallen by way of inequality because the gap between her and Adam’s access to the pleasure of life would have only continued to …show more content…
The difference between the ways that Adam and Eve approach their respective interruptions to the “sweet of life,” shows the ways in which a pleasurable orientation can function as an evasive, even ignorant pedagogical tool for learning. God’s creation doesn’t allow Eve to participate in pleasurable restraint, because she must act upon, rather than stave off, her questions and curiosities as they immediately affect her status and position. Herein lies the problem with effective practice. This modern day capitalistic tendency complicates an ability to think, ponder, and wonder simply for the sake of intellectualism. Societal status and positions of power greatly affect our ability to either interrupt the supposed “sweet of life,” or benefit from the sweet life, which likely came at the cost of another’s sweetness. Only in redefining this pleasurable orientation as not just learning, but unlearning, can we begin to incorporate pleasure as a pedagogical
The problem of pleasure as a pedagogical strategy for Eve is that she inherently cannot absolve herself from life’s complications and inequalities as easily as Adam can, if she can at all. When Satan seduces Eve, he uses rhetorical devices that function in opposition to the rhetoric that Raphael uses for Adam. Whereas Raphael quells Adam’s curiosities through pleasure, Satan introduces a sense of inequality or displeasure to spark Eve’s interest. Satan tells her that the fruit is only forbidden to keep her “low and ignorant,” echoing Raphael’s command to stay “lowlie …show more content…
She believes that accessing knowledge would “render [her] more equal, and perhaps, a thing not undesireable, somtime superior” (9.823-825). It’s not that Eve herself is flawed, it’s that she, like other marginalized bodies, lacks “the qualities or attributes required for a happy state of existence” because of the historical definition of this “happy state” and those who are privy to enjoying it (Ahmed 589). When Raphael warns Adam and Eve of the dangers of disobedience, he says “Warne thy weaker; let it profit thee to have heard by terrible Example the reward of disobedience; firm they might have stood, yet fell” (6.909-912). However, Eve disobeys for the sake of equality. We can reframe this as an obedience to a subversive, radical orientation that attempts to undo inequality. Eve stands firm in her orientation, and although catastrophic, protects her attempt access the “sweet of life” that is already readily available to Adam. If she had obeyed traditionally, she still would have fallen by way of inequality because the gap between her and Adam’s access to the pleasure of life would have only continued to …show more content…
The difference between the ways that Adam and Eve approach their respective interruptions to the “sweet of life,” shows the ways in which a pleasurable orientation can function as an evasive, even ignorant pedagogical tool for learning. God’s creation doesn’t allow Eve to participate in pleasurable restraint, because she must act upon, rather than stave off, her questions and curiosities as they immediately affect her status and position. Herein lies the problem with effective practice. This modern day capitalistic tendency complicates an ability to think, ponder, and wonder simply for the sake of intellectualism. Societal status and positions of power greatly affect our ability to either interrupt the supposed “sweet of life,” or benefit from the sweet life, which likely came at the cost of another’s sweetness. Only in redefining this pleasurable orientation as not just learning, but unlearning, can we begin to incorporate pleasure as a pedagogical