Posted by Ritch on November 19, 2002, at 22:57:24
In reply to Re: OK, I ended up reading the book » susan C, posted by Dinah on November 6, 2002, at 0:51:56
> And you're right about the unconditional love as well. Feeling both understood and accepted is wonderful. But does it really exist? In this book I didn't see it. Antonapoulas certainly felt no genuine love, acceptance, or understanding of Singer. Singer seemed to feel kindly enough towards his guests, and did accept them, but from the rare glimpses into his thoughts it seems clear he didn't love or understand them. Everyone felt this wonderful feeling of connection, but it was all based on misunderstandings. Is the fake unconditional love, acceptance, and understanding preferable to the real conditional and flawed love we can reasonably hope to find? Is its loss worth dying over? What did Singer have left to live for when his friend died? How can a somewhat acceptable reality compete with a perfect fantasy?
Unconditional love either *happens* or it doesn't given any time (and it happens to everybody sometime or other-albeit fleetingly). It really exists at the moment the person who is feeling the unconditional love experiences it. So it is REAL in a subjective sense. So Jake, Mick, Dr. Copeland, and Singer all are *experiencing* this. It is REAL to them, but only at the *time* they are experiencing it. It is also IRRATIONAL in the sense that you describe.
"How can a somewhat acceptable reality compete with a perfect fantasy?"
You have hit the nail on the head! I don't think it *can* compete with it. Perfect fantasies are the stuff that makes the world go round. It seems that Southern writers somehow wander towards this topic somehow-and I always get drawn to it. Other suggestions might be Robert Penn Warren's "World Enough and Time" and Faulkner's "Light In August".
poster:Ritch
thread:699
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/books/20020616/msgs/748.html