“What an imbecility! Has it occurred to no one, surveying the all the love stories of European literature, that one should actually lose all appetite for falling in love? But even acknowledging so much defeat and devastation, who would ever lose his desire for love? Yet, why this vast magnitude of tears, blood, poison, revenge and murder, on top of all the frenzy, madness, wailing and hysteria? (...) Why do the heroes of our beloved romantic novels drive their lovers to their deaths? If not them, then who? Fate? What is that? God? Who is He? (...) Does everyone who reads a romance novel long for death? Why have we considered unhappiness beautiful for so many centuries? Why do we enjoy the sight of others’ suffering when at other times we consider it wrong? (...) In such a world, is it possible to distinguish between hit songs and philosophies?”
(Péter Nádas: On Heavenly and Earthly Love)
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