Last night I saw a live musical performance of Once and told my Viking husband afterwards that I would rather see someone was being bludgeoned to death in a Takeshi Kitano gangster movie than the romantic stuff that happened on stage. “I wonder why this is?” I wondered out loud. “It’s because you understand violence more than romance,” he replied.
We continued our conversation a bit more. To his surprise, I told him that all throughout high school I had read a lot of romance novels, ranging from Harlequins to Amanda Quick. This was popular with the students because I attended an all-girls Catholic high school and many girls wanted to know what the opposite sex was like in relationships. The plots were fairly predictable as there was usually a free spirited girl rebelling against something, then she meets a handsome man and there is some conflict before they usually fall into each other’s arms reluctantly while rolling around several times having hot sex. There is usually a serious commitment at the end of the book to seal a happy ending and the woman lives happily ever after.
Having fallen in love and experienced crushes, I am familiar with the irrationality of such emotions. There is this high of joy you get when you discover another person. However, such feelings don’t last forever or else you will burn out as you devote all your energy into feeding this love or crush obsession.
Perhaps I am just annoyed that romance stories are very one sided as they are written generally by women for women and the men behave oddly in them. If I meet men who was incredibly good looking, charming and with a silky tongue; I would wonder how many women he has charmed and if he has any STDs. Also, what are his motives for acting in such a manner? Why would they talk to me out of all the females available?
To genuinely fall in love takes time; as I believe true love is learning and totally accepting someone for who they are, including all their faults. Over the course of a novel, film or musical, character development is usually rushed so I usually don’t have time to comprehend why someone would fall head over heels with someone else. The story lines run so fast that in the blink of an eye, people have gone from being strangers to getting married. People are complicated creatures and the notion of longing for romance confuses me. It’s like “Waiting for Godot” – the harsh truth is that most of the men on the planet don’t have a clue about romance as it’s mostly stuff made up by women.
OK, I am sounding very old and cynical, so let’s change the topic!
The latest Takeshi Kitano movie, “Beyond Outrage”, is about a war between crime families so the different generations of gangsters go out and kill each other in creative ways; ranging from a drill to a baseball throwing machine. Simple, primitive and understandable!
Update: My husband argues that love is a chemical reaction in the brain after meeting someone, a type of attraction. That’s fine because you have to be attracted to the person in the first place, but I stand by my belief to fully love someone you still have to know them or at least think you do. There has to be some type of connection!
Musings of a Generic Asian 