The great man is one who can put into words the will of his age,

So one of the classes I'm taking is Imágenes del deseo en la literatura ibérica medieval. We've been talking a lot about amor cortés and amor real--how they are both depicted and understood, etc. Since the class covers literature from shortly after the Reconquista in 1492 through the early/mid-1500s, I tend to try to relate the topics to Cesare, or at least the general understanding of his time. I'll probably tl;dr with one or two other topics from class at some point, but this one in particular caught my attention.

( I put a spell on you / because you're mine )

And then I changed my focus from irrationality to identity formation.

Redone first ten pages of "holy crap this is due tomorrow". Sections in here, especially towards the beginning are taken directly from my first go at this. The main difference is that it starts to go more in depth about ethnicity and less about a more generally defined irrationality in belief systems.

( I fell asleep partway through this. :|a It's quite rough. )

The idea of virtù was an important one in Cesare's time and had great influence on him. Although related to the English concept of virtue, the two are not synonymous, although they do overlap. Virtù might be more accurately described as ability, although a certain level of morality was implicit as well. Fortune (unlike "virtue", the English translation of the term works fine) refers to the changing and unseen forces in the world that affect one's standing. Other terms that are occasionally substituted are "fate" and "chance".

( and they say that a hero can save us / I'm not gonna stand here and wait )