Friday, April 29, 2022

The End of the Affair With Man or God?

“People can love without seeing each other, can’t they, They love You all their lives without seeing You...” This line from Graham Greene’s The End of the Affair creates an extraordinary double entendre, with man and God, faith and passion interposed. The author proposes a kind of free love, intermingling  the carnal and the divine. Remember Bergman’s Passion of Anna?  In German “leidenschaft,” or “passion” contains the root word for “suffering.” The transverbation of Saint Teresa similarly creates the spiritual chimera both human and divine of Bernini's famed "Ecstasy."  The “affair” of the novel's title refers to the relationship between Sarah, the wife of a civil servant, Henry Miles and Maurice, a writer, but what is it? Is the affair, a brief almost elicit fling with God or is it simply the more literal meaning of the word a sexual relationship between two people in which one is being unfaithful to someone else? Caveat Emptor: Grief is one the emotions the novel elicits.

Read "Rome Journal: "Saint Teresa, on Ecstasy" by Francis Levy, HuffPost

and listen to "Cry Baby" by Garnet Mimms




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