Love and Novels
Had a long conversation about novels with Avery the other day. She's the only person here in London who reads as many novels as I do (apart from Tim, but he's a librarian, and therefore disqualified!).
We were trading recommendations, and she commented about how most of my favorite novels are in some way related to love and relationships (that day I think I recommended Time Traveler's Wife, hence her comment. Of course I also recommended Life of Pi and Everything Is Illuminated, neither of which have anything to do with love.)
I replied with some offhand comment that I didn't entirely mean about how I like books that are about "real" humanity, and that humanity is consumed by either the pursuit of or recovery from love. I still don't think that's entirely true. Nor are all my favorite novels about love. But even the Eternal Joker didn't respond with a sarcastic comment.
Therefore, it does seem something to think about. I'd like to think it's not what life boils down to, because that oversimplifies us as creatures, but I cannot deny how quickly it changes things: our priorities, our commitments.
We were trading recommendations, and she commented about how most of my favorite novels are in some way related to love and relationships (that day I think I recommended Time Traveler's Wife, hence her comment. Of course I also recommended Life of Pi and Everything Is Illuminated, neither of which have anything to do with love.)
I replied with some offhand comment that I didn't entirely mean about how I like books that are about "real" humanity, and that humanity is consumed by either the pursuit of or recovery from love. I still don't think that's entirely true. Nor are all my favorite novels about love. But even the Eternal Joker didn't respond with a sarcastic comment.
Therefore, it does seem something to think about. I'd like to think it's not what life boils down to, because that oversimplifies us as creatures, but I cannot deny how quickly it changes things: our priorities, our commitments.