What's Love but a Second-hand Emotion? by V.S. Alexander

What’s Love Got to Do with It?

 

On May 1^st, 1984, recording artist Tina Turner asked an intriguing question that captivated the public and gave the singer her first Billboard Hot 100 number one single, followed by countless accolades and 2,000,000 record sales worldwide.

 In the song, Turner sings about love being a “second-hand emotion,” and asks what good is a heart when it can be broken? The song is, ultimately, about the fear of falling in love. This somewhat cynical take on love touched many listeners and revitalized Turner’s career in stunning fashion.

So, what has love got to do with it? I would argue everything no matter the genre, even in commercial and literary fiction. A great love story is what makes a book great, and it doesn’t always have to be a man and a woman, a same-sex relationship, or any of the other human combinations that have been expressed upon our planet. Our heroes and heroines can love nature, an animal, a journey to Tibet, or an exploration into the far reaches of space. Through these journeys our protagonists often seek the love or redemption that will heal their bodies and souls and lead to happiness.

Without pondering the obvious, we know that romance fiction is based on romantic relationships. Usually, it involves keeping two people apart for two hundred pages, through a myriad of problems and conflict, until they are happily united. That’s a tried and true formula and romance readers devour it. But let’s look at some other examples.

Doctor Zhivago by Boris Pasternak is a novel of love and betrayal set against the drama of the Russian Revolution and beyond. The book and the subsequent film are epic, historical, and romantic—a perfect combination as far as I’m concerned. The love story between Yuri and Lara is complex and many characters suffer along the way, but the novel is driven by their romantic relationship and all that it entails. The film, in particular, emphasizes the dramatic with its sweeping score and scenery—images that are etched into the mind after the first viewing. Despite the novel’s troubled history, it made a lasting impact on history upon its release in 1957 by a little-known Italian publisher.

One can take the love of Buck, a 140-pound mixed breed dog, and John Thornton in The Call of the Wild as an example of the love between man and animal. Author Jack London takes a story about animal adoption and its related cruelty, sets it in the Yukon, and transforms his adventure novel into a lasting fable of archetype and myth.

What about novels of obsession? Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, a perverse love story many would say, details Humbert Humbert’s obsession with the young girl Dolores Haze. If you are a writer, one can admire Nabokov’s command of language and the world he builds despite the subject matter. There is little eroticism in the book, although early readers shelved it as an “erotic novel.” Josephine Hart’s 1991 novel, Damage, also builds a fictional world of obsessive love and its consequences through the character of a British politician who has an affair with his son’s girlfriend. The book was ably translated into a movie starring Jeremy Irons and Juliette Binoche.

What of the true literary classics by the Brontës? Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, all have love stories at their core. The authorial sisters also thrill us with their world and character building despite the lack of guns, bombs, and fast cars that pepper current thrillers and action movies.

I’m sure you can name one of your favorite contemporary novels and find a strong love story at its core. Much of my fiction relates to World War II and German resistance movements, individual and group. My characters develop love relationships that get them through the war, from characters who rescue their family members, to a young woman who tastes food for Adolf Hitler. She falls in love with an SS man who’s involved in a plot to kill Hitler. Some survive and some don’t but the core of their love remains.

Take the time to analyze the love stories that abound in fiction. I’m sure that you’ll find that the books that touch your heart are the ones you’d wished you’d written. As a reader, there is much love to enjoy, and, as a writer, still much of the heart to explore.

V. S. Alexander

V.S. Alexander writes across genres, including historical fiction, mystery, psychological suspense, and romance. His eleven novels have been published in more than a dozen countries around the world, in addition to domestic sales.  His second novel for Kensington Publishing, The Taster, has been optioned for film. His books have received critical acclaim from Publisher’s Weekly, Library Journal, and other industry publications. He has been a speaker at numerous writing conferences and events around the United States. Some of his early influencers include Edgar Allan Poe, Shirley Jackson, Oscar Wilde, Jules Verne, H. G. Wells, and any work by the exquisite Brontë sisters.