in some ways, this explains so much about my life

[muir_wolf]

"Another thing she'd gathered, from archived data and personal observation, was that a man in love would infinitely rather dismantle and repair the cylinder-head gaskets on his beloved's car just to earn a fleeting smile than talk for five minutes about the true nature of his feelings. There were loads of Earth folk-tales about princesses who'd set knights errant a variety of bizarrely difficult tasks - bring me a hair from the Great Cham's beard, fetch me a slice of the Moon to make into a comb - and it was fairly obvious, at least to her as an objective observer, that these were wish-fulfillment stories dreamed up by men, for men. To the audience, taught from childhood to regard women as insoluble enigmas, it'd never occur to them to wonder what any rational girl would want with a tuft off some perfect stranger's chin, or why it would ever occur to her to comb her hair with a chunk of mildly radioactive rock. To the teller of tales, it was so much more attractive to believe that true love could be achieved through simple but strenuous action, avoiding all the difficult, soppy stuff. And if a real princess had ever set such a task, it could only have been because she was sick to death of watching her chosen suitor mumbling awkwardly and looking at his feet."

Blonde Bombshell by Tom Holt, p.261

This book is amazing for a myriad of reasons, and although I'm not yet finished with it I feel confident rec'ing it to any and all. This small section doesn't spoil anything, but I feel like it does explain...a lot. About a lot of things. I don't even know, I read it and just - yes. I feel like I might eventually have more coherent, put together thoughts about this, but right now it's 4am and I'm going to bed.