Valentine’s Day Public Service Special Feature.

Hello youse. It’s Valentine’s Day. Well, at least it’s Valentine’s Day in my part of the world. If you’re anything like me, you’ll probably have nothing to do! (If you’re not like me, you’re probably struggling to put together a love letter. Well, struggle no longer. Let Alain de Botton and Jeanette Winterson give you a little help!) I know just how you feel — cold, sad, and brutally shut out from the semiotic system!

So, for us outsiders, stragglers, Othered aliens, I offer the illusion of participation in the hegemonic discourse. Specifically, I offer cultural texts that will arm you with the necessary… romanticism and wonder if you’re the optimistic sort: sadness and self-pity if you’re the Hamlet sort.

Sure, you could go all Camus Rebel Mode and attack the artificiality of this silly day. You could ignore it and pretend nothing’s going on too. Well, this post isn’t meant for people like you. This post is meant for people who like to feel sad about themselves sometimes.

Besides, the only way to defeat the enemy is to know the enemy first.

Fiction
The Invention of Morel, Adolfo Bioy Casares

Adolfo Bioy Casares, "The Invention of Morel", NYRB Classics (Source: The Book Depository)

I always, always tell folks that The Invention of Morel is one of my favourite literary love stories, if not the favourite outright. The issue with it, of course, is that it can all seem rather creepy and very pathetic. That’s really all I can say about it without giving away the plot to the precious few who have yet to read it. It’s an unnerving love story, but it is beautiful in its own twisted way, and one that will stay with you for all of your life.

(Also a quick read, so you can actually finish it on Valentine’s Day.)

Philosophy
A Lover’s Discourse, Roland Barthes

Roland Barthes, "A Lover's Discourse", Vintage (Source: The Book Depository)

The most obvious thing that Barthes’s incredible volume offers you is a perspective — or even a few perspectives — on love. The cliche is that it’s a book that will change the way you think about love comprehensively, but it’s one of those cliches that’s actually very true. This is the work that introduced me to new ways of thinking, new areas of exploration for my own writing, and new hope against an idea — that of love — that made less and less sense to me.

This also makes good ammunition against the hegemonic discourse. Charge!

Poetry
The Smoke of Distant Fires, Eduardo Chirinos

Eduardo Chirinos, "The Smoke of Distant Fires", Open Letter (Source: The Book Depository)

[7]

to summon forth fire and not be burned that’s the second
exercise first i saw her feet i was tired feeling really
sleepy that’s a lie i wasn’t tired didn’t feel sleepy at all
the party had ended and seeing her feet made me so happy
that’s how it all began the decision to kiss her to travel together
through europe to start a family we danced until dawn
i told her you will be my poem but she didn’t say a word

Excerpt from “Exercises for blocking out the rain” (Ejercicios para borrar la lluvia), trans. G. J. Racz

Music
Father, Son, Holy Ghost, Girls

["Vomit" via YouTube]

Father, Son, Holy Ghost is an album about many powerful things, but it also is a fine collection of love songs. All sorts of romantic love are described here: the self-deprecating kind, the gentle and innocent kind, the young and flamboyant kind, the obsessive kind, and the sorry-I-messed-up kind. The enterprise of Girls, to me, is built upon an exploratory bent that looks to stretch the pop vernacular to its very limits of expression, but they are also masters of an art that lies in more familiar territory: the love song.

“Come into my heart,” sings Christopher Owens, his voice calm and subdued in the midst of the escalating emotion around him, and in the tension between the two is an expression of longing far more lucid than any in recent memory.

Film
Millenium Actress, Satoshi Kon

[Clip via YouTube]

This was the film that first convinced me of Satoshi Kon’s brilliance. And it probably is my favourite Satoshi Kon movie to this day. I could go on and on about it, to talk about its metafilmic qualities, its remarkable use of narrative, its references and influences… But really, Millenium Actress is, at its heart, a love story. And what a fine love story it is. I’m just going to quote Kevin Williams in his Chicago Tribune review: “It’s animated, but it’s human and will touch the soul of anyone who has loved deeply.”

Right then, go get ‘em!

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