Two dude writers who describe love better than we feel it
When I read about love, I don’t want your basic words. I despise authors who simply write, “I love you.” It feels lazy and I don’t think true love can be genuinely described in three words. I want why. Why do these people love each other? If there’s no reason then it’s infatuation and depleting. My favorite variety of writing in terms of love is the male perspective. As someone from the… opposite gender, I like getting insight into what my counterpart is thinking, so here are two authors that nailed their male descriptions of love.
F. Scott Fitzgerald: More than a pretty face
“She was beautiful, but not like those girls in magazines. She was beautiful, for the way she thought. She was beautiful, for the sparkle in her eyes when she talked about something she loved. She was beautiful, for her ability to make other people smile, even if she was sad. No, she wasn’t beautiful for something as temporary as her looks. She was beautiful, deep down to her soul. She is beautiful.”
I know I know, you’re probably thinking, “I never want to be referred to as ‘pretty’ or ‘easy on the eyes,’” again. I do not blame you in the slightest. When someone has the ability to understand you and see you as something more than just your face or body, it means a lot. Sometimes the first thing that is seen is easier to accept. I like to think that when you understand someone truly and deeply, there is no possible way to dislike them. To truly pick apart thoughts and feelings and not associate them with something so replaceable, changeable, and degrading thing as an outside appearance makes a person something astounding to behold.
Another thought that I love about how this is written is how we are literally told that she is NOT conventionally beautiful, and yet, after reading it, I couldn’t disagree more. “No, she wasn’t beautiful for something as temporary as her looks.” I think this is one of the rarest things ever written. A girl is straight up not seen psychically beautiful, yet is loved anyways. To be honest, non-conventionally beautiful girls are hardly ever written, and when they are, they are not the main character. They are the “funny best friend.” Or an inspiring adult. Or someone that the author can easily avoid having to make that person more than their looks. You can admire the beauty all you want but you cannot so easily look at a soul. So no, this girl is not beautiful. Yet she is, in all the ways that count.
Breaking it down like that makes it seem like it would be really easy to write about what they love about a person. This brings us to the second writer that made me pause my reading and smile.
Edgar Allen Poe: Lost, lonely, and in love
With a love that the wingèd seraphs of Heaven
Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago,
In this kingdom by the sea,
A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling
My beautiful Annabel Lee;
So that her highborn kinsmen came
And bore her away from me,
To shut her up in a sepulchre
In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in Heaven,
Went envying her and me —
Yes! — that was the reason (as all men know,
In this kingdom by the sea)
That the wind came out of the cloud by night,
Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
Read the entire poem here → https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44885/annabel-lee
While of course, a lot of authors write love while it is at its peak… and that tends to be when the significant other is… well… alive.
Not Edgar though. How this guy can write a better love tragedy than 99% of the writers out there in a POEM? Well, that’s because he’s Edgar Allen Poe. I like the way he used angels as the outside source that acknowledges their love. If he would have said someone as minuscule or simpleminded as another person, it would have had a less impactful meaning. Instead, he chose a being that does in fact know the desires of man. And BEYOND that, he went as far as to say that the angels envied Annabelle and him even after death. If that isn’t dedication then I don’t know what is.
More than just “I love you”
Being able to describe someone with more than just those words is cause enough for me to respect the author. So here are a few more examples (not necessarily written by a dude) that I love. — and don’t worry I won’t rant after each one. :)
“Eleanor was right. She never looked nice. She looked like art, and art wasn’t supposed to look nice; it was supposed to make you feel something.”
— Rainbow Rowell (Eleanor and Park)
“I can offer you my life, but it is a short life; I can offer you my heart, though I have no idea how many more beats it shall sustain.”
— “Cassandra Clare (Infernal Devices)
“‘What was it like?’ Manon asked quietly. ‘To love.”
“It was like being alive, too. It was joy so complete it was pain. It destroyed me and unmade me and forged me. I hated it because I couldn’t escape it, and I knew it would forever change me.”
— “Sarah J. Maas (Throne of Glass)
“If all else perished, and he remained, I should still continue to be; and if all else remained, and he were annihilated, the universe would turn to a mighty stranger.”
— Emily Bronte
“By you I am forever undone.”
— Holly Black (Cruel Prince)
“My heart is yours. Please don’t ever give it back to me.”
— Tahereh Mafi (Shatter me)
