literature, part one from Correlli’s Mandolin
by Louis de Berniéres
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Chapter 47: Dr. Iannis Counsels his Daughter
“…Love is a temporary madness, it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether you roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of promises of eternal paradise, it is not the desire to mate every second minute of the day, it is not lying awake at night imagining that he is kissing every cranny of your body. No, don’t blush, I am telling you some truths. That is just being “in love,” which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Your mother and I had it, we had roots that grew toward each other underground, and when all the pretty blossom had fallen from our branches we found that we were one tree and not two. But sometimes the petals fall away and the roots have not entwined. Imagine giving up your home and your people, only to discover after six months later, a year, three years, that the trees have had no roots and have fallen over. Imagine the desolation. Imagine the imprisonment.
…Pelagia, you know as well as I do that love delayed is lust augmented. No, don’t look at me like that. I am not ignorant or stupid, and I was not born yesterday. Also I am a doctor and I deal not in impossible moral commands but in demonstrable facts. No one can tell me that just because someone is young, good-looking, well-educated and sensible, they are not also inflamed. Do you think I don’t know that young girls can be eaten by desire? I am even resigned to the possibility that my dear little daughter may be in such a state. Don’t hang your head, you should not be ashamed. I am a not a priest, I am a doctor, my attitude is anthropological, and besides, when I was young… well, that’s enough of that. Suffice it to say that I am not prepared to be a hypocrite or affect a sudden and amenable amnesia.
But this gives us even more problems, does it not? When we are mad, we lose control of ourselves. We become driven. This is why our forefathers chose to control the natural madness of the young by tarrying it with shame. This is why in some places they still hang out the blotted sheet on the bridal morning. I saw on in Assos last week when I was called to that broken arm, remember? If we were not made ashamed of this beautiful thing then we would do nothing else. We would not work, we would be inundated with babies, and because of this there would be no civilization. In short we would still be in the caves, mating relentlessly and without discrimination. If we had not reserved a time and place, we would be living like dogs, and life would possess little beauty or peace...”
Current Mood: bleh.bleh.bleh.
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