Marriage of the creative, authored by: Shawqi Buzaygh

This book addresses the lives of thirty-two dual couples of the most famous creators. Perhaps what most catches the attentive reader in their biographies is that most of the relationships that tried to soar with the wings of love, passion for union with the other, and longing for the absolute, later shattered on the rock of the institution and its exhausting consequences. These burdens may be less burdensome in material terms, while the rest is divided between differences in temperaments, possessiveness, clashes of ideas and convictions, and shrinking space for freedom. However, these issues take on more intense dimensions among writers and creators, each of whom needs the full spatial area they occupy, the entire surrounding space, and the full air they breathe. It is no wonder that creators, in general, are successful lovers, because love at its core feeds on the same materials that nourish creativity, foremost among them absence, distance, internal storms, the density of time, and the joy of discovery. Conversely, they are, with few exceptions, unsuccessful marriages, because they are beings of intense capriciousness and demanding nature, and are not amenable to domestication. This is clearly evident through most of the dyads we studied, which were corrupted by discord, betrayal, glaring narcissism, and domestic violence, with their tragic outcomes distributed among separation, divorce, murder, suicide, and frequent page visits: 351.