Contro l’amore e il romanticismo

Love, Inc. è un libro che va controcorrente, almeno per l’argomento principe che lo contraddistingue. Il romanticismo (e l’amore)non sarebbe altro che una fuga, una soluzione privata a problemi che dovrebbero essere risolti in altro modo. Punto di vista certamente originale e interessante. Copertina adorabile.

That is the argument of this book: that the worse things get, the more we turn to romance to feel hopeful about the future. It is not that capitalism causes romance, but rather that romance is both the most pleasurable and the most future-oriented escape from the grimness of globalized capitalism. Americans turn to a number of belief systems for sustenance: religion, nationalism, football. And some of these, like religion, even promise a better future in the afterlife. Yet romance promises us a better future in this life, with the added bonus of an enchantment of the everyday as we hunt for our prince or princess. After all, today could be the day we meet our true love or maybe we are already with our true love and didn’t realize it until today. We turn to romance because romance can make our lives better, more bearable, and more sustainable. We turn to romance because unlike having religious faith or even supporting the Jets, only a terrible cynic could begrudge us love.

At the risk of being a terrible cynic, however, I want to point out that romance is a privatized solution to what in fact are structural and global threats. I’m not arguing that married people are less likely to engage in political change, but rather that people who believe that romance will allow them to ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after, many of them single, are looking at the world through rose-colored glasses. True love can no more solve our future than nationalism can. It can only distract us from what we really need: a realistic sense that our future is collective and is seriously endangered at this point in history. Our love affair with romance is like any dysfunctional relationship: the worse things are, the more we believe in the power of romantic love to fix it.

Libro scoperto dal mitico LA Review of books.