A Man in Love by Martin Walser

Author:Martin Walser
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781628728743
Publisher: Arcade
Published: 2019-07-08T16:00:00+00:00

A Man in Love

Women are the objective sex. A man experiences everything only as a mood. As his mood. The woman always experiences the thing. The thing itself. Then she deals with the thing, about which she has an opinion. The opinion is determined more by the thing than by her. This constitutes her objectivity. The man judges according to what he’s feeling at the moment. His opinion has less to do with the thing than with himself. If the world is to be administered more in harmony with itself, it must be administered by women. When will that be? Men belong in the sandboxes and the ivory towers, women at the helm.

Since he is a man, this statement says more about him than about its object. Wanting to maintain a bit of accountability, he has to add that.

A woman is more transparent than a man. Ulrike almost said it: the more she reads by him, the less she knows who he is. Only someone sure of herself can talk that way. High-flown tall tales is what she called his writing. But who is he? she asked quite objectively. He will ask Ulrike before they part—i.e., tomorrow—he will ask her if he still seems as ambiguous as he did in his works, if he is still only who he is in any given situation.

One isn’t responsible for oneself. Know thyself: an agreeable illusion. Or an invitation to invent yourself. Then it’s not you, but an invention. Only others can know you. The more they love you, the more precisely they know you.

He is clearer to himself now than ever before. Through Ulrike. All vagueness ends with her. The way she reacts to him shows him how he is, who he is, what he is. He will become freer toward her. Involuntarily. She will know him as the person he is through her. That’s who he will be. Through his love for her.

Already, in anticipation, he senses how the world will be then: peaceful, because those who need each other have each other. Then they will need nothing else. The world is no longer a globe with nerves. It is a benevolent event when those who love each other are together. If that succeeds a single time, Ulrike, the world will be changed forever. Not a leaf or bloom, not a jailor or president will remain untouched by it. All the ills of the world have arisen through lack of love. Ulrike and he will redeem the world of all evil because they are sufficient unto themselves.

Even he can see his own grandiosity, Ulrike. His tone sounds exaggerated because humanity is trained to suppress, denigrate, and silence. To belittle.

The explosiveness of his words comes from something that was missing his whole life long: love. And now it’s here. So it exists. That is not just playing with words. It is the greatest precision possible. It is the most vivid possible presence and fills you to the brim. The greatest possible certainty.

He gives himself over to Ulrike’s objectivity.

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