Jetsetting is now not the privilege of the elite so much as a veritiginous mundanity for a permanently dispossessed global workforce.
The most powerful love songs always turn on the discrepancy between the act of declaring love and the knowledge that the ostensible addressee is no longer there, was never there, and could never be there.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the emotional conflict in love songs between expressing love and the realization that the loved one may not truly exist or be present.
Mark Fisher's quote delves into the profound tension in love songs, where the act of declaring love is often juxtaposed with the stark awareness that the object of affection is either absent, unattainable, or possibly nonexistent. This discrepancy captures the essence of longing and the bittersweet nature of romantic expression, revealing how art can convey deep emotional truths about love and desire even in the face of loss or absence.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the emotional weight of music, one might quote this to illustrate the complexity of love.
More from Mark Fisher
All quotes βIf it is true, for instance, that depression is constituted by low serotonin levels, what still needs to be explained is why particular individuals have low levels of serotonin. This requires a social and political explanation.
Little Axe's records are wracked with collective grief. Spectral harmonicas resemble howling wolves; echoes linger like wounds that will never heal; the voices of the living harmonise with the voices of the dead in songs thick with reproach, recrimination and the hunger for redemption.
If people dying as a consequence of the implementation of measures cannot count as evidence that the legislation has detrimental effects, what would?
What many students most want from college, although they would never admit it, is an authority structure. There is a demand for an authority which they can then reject; they want to be told what to do, so they can disobey. It is a textbook case of bad faith, a flight from freedom.
Sometimes a disappearance can be more haunting than an apparition.
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Absence in love is like water upon fire; a little quickens, but much extinguishes it.
This maiden she lived with no other thought_x000D_ _x000D_ Than to love and be loved by me.
The moon gives you light, and the bugles and the drums give you music, and my heart, O my soldiers, my veterans, my heart gives you love.
It's total bullshit," he said. "The whole thing. Eighty percent survival rate and he's in the twenty percent? Bullshit. He was such a bright kid. It's bullshit. I hate it. But it was sure a privilege to love him, huh?
When you are in love, things make even more sense, he thought.
O Jesus! on this day, you have fulfilled all my desires. From now on, near the Eucharist, I shall be able To sacrifice myself in silence, to wait for Heaven in peace. Keeping myself open to the rays of the Divine Host, In this furnace of love, I shall be consumed, And like a seraphim, Lord, I shall love You.