Today I should be going to have my 'submission package' critiqued, by my critique group but because it's THAT day of the year, the bubba and I will be supping on jacket potatoes and beans. It's not just because the Frog is on a business trip this year that I'm a tad moany, it's that actually I'm just not a big fan of Valentine's Day. I've never bought it. As a teenager it was a popularity contest and the one and only time I got an anonymous card, I knew who it was from and my feelings were not reciprocal. To me it is yet another excuse to give money to hallmark and chocolate companies, but is that love? Not in my book.
But you know, that doesn't stop me from being a big soppy romantic. I believe in those special moments.
Gustav Klimt's The Kiss - Those snuggly moments on the sofa on friday night, as you doze in each other's arms while there is some tosh on TV.
Art of Noise Moments in love - There's just something about that moment when you take out a record and hold it carefully, ensuring no fingerprints are transferred onto the vinyl. Then you slip it onto the turntable. I had a 12" of Moments in Love and this amazing record player that would clunk and then brrrbuzzclunkchunk to the other side of the record. You could stick it on repeat and listen for hours and hours and hours.
(I never ever saw the video, but I have to say my teenage fantasies did not include tortoises)
Alain de Botton On Love - I don't agree with all of it, but the part on falling in love is classic.
Pablo Neruda Twenty love poems and a song of despair - erotic love poetry, not really to be read on the bus.
And coming in at number one for me Julian Barnes A History of the World in 10 1/2 chapters. The half chapter is called Parenthesis. I once wrote a poem about it. And here are some quotes from Parenthesis to whet your appetite:
[I love you] We must keep these words in their box behind glass. And when we take them out we must be careful with them. pg. 277
And so it is with love. We must believe in it, or we're lost...If we don't then we merely surrender to the history of the world and someone else's truth. pg 296
2 comments:
I know how over-exposed it is but I've always loved that Klimt picture. I bought supermum a card with a picture of the goddess Freya on which had no discernible relation to Valentines.
Excellent. I bought the Frog a packet of Haribo for the plane which he left behind because he decided he couldn't brush his teeth properly on the plane and then I couldn't resist and started eating them! Who said romance is dead?
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