Arnon Grunberg

Visitors

Theory

“Die Liebe kommt nicht über das Tier hinaus,” Frank Wedekind wrote in his play “Lulu”. (“Love doesn’t overcome the animal.” But a better translation is possible.)
Interesting enough I couldn’t find this sentence in the text, maybe I should search more carefully.
This evening I was having dinner in the kitchen of a young couple and I noticed a postcard hanging on the wall with these words: "Die Liebe kommt nicht über das Tier hinaus."
After dinner my host said: “Love is an ideal, the immortal souls should stay together forever.”
I guess that’s why the postcard was hanging in the kitchen, to remind the visitors and the inhabitants of this place that we cannot help but betray our ideals, that we may have ideals in order to be able to betray them. To fully enjoy our animalistic instincts we must realize that at least in theory we could overcome them.

discuss on facebook, 6 comments