On Earthly and Heavenly Love

In the extensive philosophical essay "On Earthly and Heavenly Love," world-renowned Hungarian novelist Péter Nádas (b. 1942) explores our inability to talk about love and our struggle to find words for what troubles us. In the essay, the title of which alludes to the famous painting by Titian, the analysis of ancient myths, Ovid's "Metamorphoses," and Plato's dialogues is followed by an examination of everyday stories, obscene vocabulary, and the norms of love prescribed to people in different societies. The discourse, where the exploration of one question leads to the emergence of another, as Teresa of Avila engages in conversation with Wittgenstein, concludes with a lecture in which Nádas presents his own concept of love. This text is the work of a novelist in the role of a philosopher, a kind of reverse parallel to Roland Barthes' "Fragments of a Lover's Discourse."