"Women...have a purpose which is not their own purpose, but that of the whole universe, a man is nothing to them but the instrument of that purpose." George Bernard Shaw
In my experience, it is hard to find a book on evolution that isn't quick to establish its bona fides by asserting the dominant scientific consensus, namely, that evolution has no purpose. Welcome aboard, GBS.
Nunc verum inter saxum et locum durum summus. [ Now we are truly between a rock and a hard place. ]
"There are stacks and stacks of 'How to Meet and Marry Mr. Right', the terrible book Donna told me about, terrible because it works. I take my copy to the counter as furtively as I would a girdle or a vibrator." Melissa Bank
It seems credible that there would be a plethora of books for women on the subject of how to secure a mate. But what about books for men offering advice on how to secure a wife?
[ After research on the internet ] Okay, I'm schooled. Such books do exist, though I never met a man who volunteered that he had read one, nor have I ever seen one for sale on a bookstore shelf.
"A man, should he not know everything, excel in manifold activities, initiate you into the energies of passion, the refinements of life, all mysteries?" Gustav Flaubert
"Husbands should be at least six feet two inches tall...thirty-five years old forever...have thick dark hair...black Izod shirts and a pilot's license. They should provide emotional bedrock...always." Suzanne Finnamore
The first quotation is broadly cast, interrogative, invites dialogue; the second is tightly specified, declarative and represents an out-take from an on-going interior monologue. Can anything be made of this?
"I was a hopeless romantic... I wanted passion...companionship...deep discussions and lots of compliments delivered to me regularly without any misgivings or posturing." Amy Sohn
Do these desires make a woman a hopeless romantic? What woman wouldn't be happy to have this definition of romance characterize her love life?
Alas, while achieving a steady state of romance is always a possibility, it is never a birthright. Let the games begin.
"Oh, life is a glorious cycle of song / A medley of extemporanea / And love is a thing that can never go wrong / And I am Marie of Roumania." Dorothy Parker
"Only beginnings are truly beautiful." Annie Ernaux
These women are certifiably brilliant, but are we condemned to believe them, in the same way we're condemned to be free?