Romance feeds on prohibition, asymmetry, rank, danger, impossibility. Modernity flattens these into a horizontal world less fertile for tragedy and eros. Impossible objects summon heroic spirits. Remove every barrier and you void desire
in the sufi tradition, taʿāruf al-arwāḥ, the recognition of souls, draws upon the prophetic saying, (“souls are gathered hosts; those that recognise one another find affinity”). some forms of closeness precede explanation, as though affinity is felt before it can be reasoned.
homer’s odyssey (XVIII.130) calls the human mind ἀκηχανίη, a state of helpless perplexity. what interests me is how often homeric psychology refuses the idea of a perfectly sovereign self. thought is embodied, vulnerable to circumstance, sometimes unable to command even itself.