Why Does Romance Now Feel Like Work?
There is a good deal of implicit sentiment around relationships that troubles me, because it assumes a fundamentally defensive posture: You have to be happy first, you should date around a lot, you should reject quickly and on small pretenses, you shouldn’t take dating too seriously, etc. For some even attachment is a dirty word! 1 All of this is n... See more
Simon Sarris • quests, failure, desire
Every relationship is fundamentally a power struggle, and the individual in power is whoever likes the other person less. But When Harry Met Sally gives the powerless, unrequited lover a reason to live.
Chuck Klosterman • Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs
Reflecting on the history of Romanticism should be consoling because it suggests that quite a lot of the troubles we have with relationships don’t stem (as we normally, guiltily, end up thinking) from our ineptitude, our inadequacy or our regrettable choice of partners. Knowing the history invites another, more useful idea: we were set an incredibl
... See moreAlain De Botton • The School of Life: An Emotional Education
For thousands and thousands of years, apart from a casual meeting or two in public, men and women didn’t know each other before their wedding night. Their real introduction to each other was having sex. Relationships thrived and divorce was rare. Now fast-forward to today. We are so much smarter, much more romantic and now greatly enlightened; yet
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