It’s in the blood

When you look past the hearts and flowers, the sappy songs and silly greeting cards, dating is actually a deadly serious business. It’s the process of Darwinian selection itself at work — the one sphere of our lives in which we are most clearly operating not merely for the sake of our own individual now, but as an agent of future generations yet unborn.

The reason a novel by Jane Austen can be so gripping is that readers understand that the game afoot is far more serious than it appears. Behind the witty drawing room banter and well wrought bon mots lies a fight to the death — not necessarily of the self, but certainly of the bloodline.

When we are in the grip of romantic passion we are operating partway outside of the sphere of rational thought, for we are treading into the land of the uncontrollable id. Perhaps that is why there is such euphemism around romance and sexual passion. Society instinctively understands that it is not dealing with anything as malleable as individual difference, consumer preference, or interest groups, but rather with the unforgiving, inexorable, and often savage drive of DNA to survive. And so we build innocuous walls around the process — romantic comedies, dinners by candlelight, midnight walks along the beach.

But it is no accident that the genre of teenage romance has become entangled with the genre of bloodthirsty vampires who hunt and kill and feast by night. Young people everywhere flock to these tales because they understand the subtext.

You could say it’s in the blood.

7 thoughts on “It’s in the blood”

  1. Challenge: write a story using your theory around this line, “I miss you. Why do you have to be such a nightmare?” 🙂

  2. Dear Soulmate,

    I miss you. Every time I close my eyes when you’re far away you flutter behind my eyelids. If only you weren’t such a nightmare when you’re here. I dreampt that I took you to the movies and you dumped popcorn on my head. Your usual giggles didn’t sound playful at all. All I wanted to do was wake up and close my eyes, run my hands through your hair and kiss you like there were no tomorrow. I told my friends I’d never see you again, but I don’t think they believed me.

    Bloodied and broken,

    Eyes open

  3. Heather, your entry makes me think of the Genesis song “That’s All”, which you can hear on YouTube.

    These are the lyrics:

    Just as I thought it was going alright
    I find out I’m wrong, when I thought I was right
    It’s always the same, it’s just a shame, that’s all
    I could say day, you’d say night
    Tell me it’s black when I know that it’s white
    It’s always the same, it’s just a shame, that’s all

    I could leave but I won’t go
    Though my heart might tell me so
    I can’t feel a thing from my head down to my toes
    So why does it always seem to be
    Me looking at you, you looking at me
    It’s always the same, it’s just a shame, that’s all

    Turning me on, turning me off
    Making me feel like I want too much
    Living with you’s just putting me through it all of the time
    Running around, staying out all night
    Taking it all instead of taking one bite
    Living with you’s just putting me through it all of the time

    Truth is I love you
    More that I wanted to
    There’s no point in trying to pretend
    There’s been no-one who
    Makes me feel like you do
    Say we’ll be together till the end

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