About love and death

Author's name: Patrick Süskind Publisher: Dar Al-Mada for Publishing and Distribution Year of publication: 2017 Literary classification: Intellectual - Literary study Brief about the book: Patrick Süskind talks in his book "About Love and Death" (Dar Al-Mada; translation by Nabil Al-Hafar and introduction by Lotfia Al-Dulaimi) which is closer to a novel, about a duality he has always mastered to address in his literary works. Here he approaches them until you feel as if he is talking about two sides of the same coin. The eternal struggle of Eros and Thanatos; neither love encompasses death, nor death excludes love. Both are enemies lurking forever against each other. In his most famous novel "Perfume," which has been translated into about 46 languages, sold nearly 15 million copies, and was made into a film in 2006; death is the natural end for every girl, whose perfume the hero extracts, summarizing her qualities and moments of love she experienced. Love departs, and death remains looming, never justified by having immortalized her by keeping her perfume dissolving in the waves of the universe, swimming in an endless eternity. As for "About Love and Death," he talks about the mystery accompanying both love and death, and he decides that poets and writers write about what they do not know and want to know, not about what they already know. He constantly questions the reader about the mystery of love, its bizarre customs, and sees it as something causing confusion. He offers no advice or prescriptions, only contemplates and observes, presenting what he saw from others' experiences in a sarcastic and critical manner with his precise analyses and his own point of view. He reviews models of three couples of lovers differing in appearance, age group, and economic and social level, gradually making the reader get closer to them to see how far this love can live and how lovers endure, and if death occurs, who will prevail, and what tools each uses to prove his sovereignty over the other. He views love as a life energy (a stimulant), so when we lose it and decide to live without it, we are ready to welcome death. Death is not the opposite of love, but the opposite of life. Through his review of the three models, he sees that, according to Plato's theory, the first couple is animalistic because they follow only their instincts and pleasures, and they are completely foolish. The second couple, from his perspective, is insane because of the complete disappearance of rational judgment in choice, thinking, and lifestyle. The third type, also according to Plato, is ideal because it stimulates creativity and contains no physical contact of any kind; it is more like an idea or a dream, but it is flawed by being homosexual, and here we face another problem in classifying its essence! Süskind decides that all three models are accompanied by a considerable amount of stupidity; as if, in his sarcastic view, stupidity is what makes falling in love easy. He sees that the state of infatuation is a state of stupidity, where the lover is willing to give up everything except the admiration of the beloved. If love is mutual, they isolate themselves from the world, produce nothing significant, and their love is more like a disease—not a mild one, but one of the most heinous. We do not know whether the effect of love is blessed or destructive. As for death, it is a companion to love, not its opposite. When passion intensifies, the beloved wishes for death to be near their lover. Death does not reject death because it has not seen a mortal human, but wishes to continue its journey of love until death gently takes it, completing the journey believing it will be safe and peaceful like the first journey. Or it suffers from unbearable love torments and seeks death as the possible and only salvation from its torments. Whether this stance or that, Süskind believes we can understand and comprehend these positions, but we cannot accept them or consider deviation from nature as the origin; we can only understand those who commit suicide because of love’s torments or those who risk their lives for love. Only understanding, empathy, and comprehension, nothing more. As for accepting Eros throwing itself forcefully into Thanatos’ arms as if seeking to dissolve into it—when love seeks its highest and purest form and sees its realization only through death—that is exciting, not disgusting. The 19th century witnessed cases of this corrupted maturity where love reaches death and death reaches love to the peak of ecstasy, including Novalis’ "Songs of Night" and Baudelaire’s poems ("Flowers of Evil"). Dual suicide also appeared as the greatest expression of intimacy and mutual fidelity. Meanwhile, the Orpheus model, who entered the realm of the dead to demand the return of his dead beloved (Eurydice) to life, contrasts with the previous; he does not want her to have eternal life. No, all he desires is to regain her, but not permanently or forever, only for the natural lifespan of a human, to be happy with her in this world. Here, love is what drove him to invade the realm of the dead to snatch his beloved from death and bring her back to life. Love here is commanding and represents authority accepted by all parties, as is art (singing), which he used as a means to persuade the inhabitants of the underworld. Even animals and pale spirits agreed to return his beloved. Orpheus’ attempt is a wonderful example of reconciling the two mysterious forces in human life—love and death—and moving the more violent one (death) at least to a simple settlement, but unfortunately, it ultimately failed.