Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- I The ineffability of meaning
- II Meaning in mind
- Chapter 3 Patterns in language, patterns in the mind
- Chapter 4 Time is our fruit fly
- Chapter 5 Concepts body forth
- Chapter 6 The concept-making engine (or how to build a baby)
- Chapter 7 The act of creation
- III Meaning in language
- Epilogue: The golden triangle
- Notes
- References
- Index
Chapter 3 - Patterns in language, patterns in the mind
from II - Meaning in mind
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2015
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Epigraph
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- I The ineffability of meaning
- II Meaning in mind
- Chapter 3 Patterns in language, patterns in the mind
- Chapter 4 Time is our fruit fly
- Chapter 5 Concepts body forth
- Chapter 6 The concept-making engine (or how to build a baby)
- Chapter 7 The act of creation
- III Meaning in language
- Epilogue: The golden triangle
- Notes
- References
- Index
Summary
Gillian What people want to know, whether they ask it directly or not, is how I fell in love with Stuart and married him, then fell in love with Oliver and married him, all within as short a space as is legally possible. Well, the answer is that I did just that. I don't especially recommend you try it, but I promise it's possible. Emotionally as well as legally.
I genuinely loved Stuart. I fell in love with him straightforwardly, simply. We got on, the sex worked, I loved the fact that he loved me – and that was it. And then, after we were married, I fell in love with Oliver, not simply at all, but very complicatedly, entirely against my instincts and my reason. I refused it, I resisted it, I felt intensely guilty. I also felt intensely excited, intensely alive, intensely sexy. No, as a matter of fact we didn't ‘have an affair’, as the saying goes. Just because I'm half French people start muttering ménage a trois. It wasn't remotely like that. It felt much more primitive for a start. And besides, Oliver and I didn't sleep with one another until Stuart and I had separated. Why are people such experts on what they don't know about? Everyone ‘knows’ that it was all about sex, that Stuart wasn't much good in bed, whereas Oliver was terrific, and that while I might look pretty level-headed I'm a flirt and a tart and probably a bitch as well. So if you really want to know, the first time Oliver and I went to bed together he had a serious attack of first-night nerves and absolutely nothing happened. The second night wasn't much better. Then we got going. In a funny sort of way, he's much more insecure in that area than Stuart.
This passage, from the novel Love etc. by Julian Barnes, is about Gillian falling in and out of love. Love is one of the most majestic and humbling of human experiences. And it can be as painful when we are loved as it is when our love is rejected. Those of us who have suffered from unrequited love can attest to this.
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- Information
- The Crucible of LanguageHow Language and Mind Create Meaning, pp. 35 - 57Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2015