LIVING TOGETHER ALONE is hell between consenting adults.
In the life of a couple, most often there will be at the beginning certain details, certain discordances about which it is decided to say nothing, in the enthusiastic certainty that love will end up solving all problems.
The Possibility of an Island
Michel Houellebecq
Category: MARRIAGE
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Isabelle didn’t have friends either, and, especially in the final years, she had been surrounded only by people who dreamed of taking her place. Thus we never had anyone to invite round to our sumptuous residence; no one with whom to share a glass of rioja while watching the stars. What could we do, then? We asked ourselves the question while crossing the dunes. Live? It’s precisely in this kind of situation that, crushed by the sense of their own insignificance, people decide to have children; this is how the species reproduces, although less and less, it must be said.
The Possibility of an Island
Michel Houellebecq -
I didn’t fully know what it was that happened to my facial expression in those moments that made her suffer so much; I would have given a great deal to avoid it, for, I repeat, I loved her; but manifestly that wasn’t possible. Nor could I reiterate that she was still as desirable, still as beautiful; I never felt, in the slightest way, capable of lying to her.
The Possibility of an Island
Michel Houellebecq -
I absolutely love “You’re the Best” from the first album. The first lines really struck me: “All I know is / when you hold me / I still feel lonely / lonely when you hold me.” Can you explain them a bit?
I wrote that song when I was at a point in a relationship that I often get to in relationships: I’m there. I am finally with the person I wanted to be with. And then he falls asleep and I realize I’m still alone. As much as I try and want to be bonded with this person, the dominant feeling that I feel at all times is a loneliness. It just doesn’t go away. And I think that resonated for a lot of people. Relationships doesn’t make that go away. You can be more lonely in a relationship sometimes than you would be on your own.
We had brunch with Kelly Zutrau from the band Wet—and talked about almost everything
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But loneliness in marriage can be bitter. Caroline, now 47 and a successful writer, was married for 12 years to a man who, though never cruel, felt increasingly absent. “He was very gregarious,” she says, “always the life and soul of the party, but really very insecure. When we were alone, he would disappear into himself. He didn’t really either talk or listen. There was nothing I could put my finger on, but in a way that was the trouble: there was nothing.”
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The second time, when I was twenty-three, I was thinking of getting married. It never occurred to me that I should do anything else. I met a doctor who spoke to me of the Church and of the beauty of serving her with one’s whole being, while remaining in the world. I do not know what happened at that time nor how it happened; the fact is that I was praying in an empty church where I had gone to escape from my state of inner confusion. I heard the same voice the I had heard during my confession with the old missionary. “Marriage is not for you. You will offer your life to me. I shall be your Lover for ever.”
Letters from the Desert
Carlo Carretto -
If you
were married to yourself
could you stay with yourself?
My house
would be frightening and wild.
—Yrsa Daley-Ward’s book of poems, Bone -
As I glanced around, the sight of these families appeared picture-perfect. I couldn’t help but imagine their seemingly flawless marriages and unwavering commitment to family life, not to mention resoluteness in their identity. Meanwhile, my marriage seemed to echo death’s knell, while I desired to belong to the same genetic bottleneck as these Anglo-Ashkos.
I am inbred, but not in the way I’d like.
I attempted to shake off my thoughts by pouring myself a flute of prosecco. As I sipped, I noticed two distinguished middle-aged men, their knit kippot perched atop their heads, seated at a nearby table overlooking the sea. They glanced in my direction, prompting one of them, the more attractive of the pair, to shyly avert his gaze and acknowledge his spouse—a well-dressed woman in a modest floral dress, Golden Goose sneakers, and an expensive sheitel—who had just arrived with an infant in her pram.
I wandered off, pondering whether couples like them ever desired more from their marriage.
Bimbo Ubermensch
ZOGGING OUT
SO GOOD QUOTES 