Architecture of Love
To Health and Prosperity of the Right Tower, To Happiness and Wisdom of the Left Tower, To Love and Kisses Between Them and To the Millions of Lost Souls Who Find It Hard to Feed the Spider. Cheers!
The extract below was written on a concrete ledge near Simfoni Lake in Kuala Lumpur City Centre on July 31. 2018 and finished in Restoran President Corner. It is now part of the chapter ‘Away from the Great Venerable Murtabak to a certain Bebek Penyet’ in Other Eyes for Johnny Rocco. It is in today’s newsletter because today, on August 22. 2022, some time after 4 p.m., my son Michał will say ‘I do’. It is a Big Day for him. It is a Big Day for all of us. I dedicate the post to you, Michał and Sarah:
A little tired of the three-dimensional maze of Central Kuala Lumpur, I sniff Guinness Stout at a corner shop unimaginatively called: KK Buka 24 Jam.
With Petronas Towers high above treetops around, I estimate that I should buy a can for each of the two towers to celebrate their beauty and good fortune. On second thought, looking at the spider connecting the two towers into one whole, I judge that as part of a campaign promoting family stability in this shaky, short-distance, video-clipped world of the 21st century, it would also be appropriate to celebrate the inseparability and timelessness of the relationship between the towers with the third can of Guinness Stout. Three it is then.
The first drink is extra cold (just like in Irish pubs for modern consumers) and in it goes to health and prosperity of the right tower. The second drink is just cold and in it goes to happiness and wisdom of the left tower, after which, a long while after, an unsteady movement of my right hand produces the third can of this divine beverage, bathes it in the consecrated glow emanating from the love towers and down into my digestive tract goes the regular, almost warm velvet stream (just like in traditional, conservative and appreciative Irish ale houses), as if wanting to softly say: let the traditional custom of drafting Guinness at room temperature set an example of resilience and indissolubility for the millions of lost souls who find it hard to feed the spider.
Wikipedia says that the Petronas spider is a 58-metre-long suspension bridge at the level of floors 41 and 42. It is meant to bond the two towers erected by two separately contracted companies: Hazama Corporations responsible for the left tower and Samsung Constructions responsible for the right tower.
Just like people. One Mum&Dad Joint Venture builds a feminine edifice and another Mum&Dad Joint Venture builds a masculine edifice. At one point they sniff each other out and chemical sparks get showered at the level of the 41st and the 42nd floors. Psst! Psst! The welding process begins:
1. Psst, psst: the great architect casts some phenylethylamine* onto them and they go:
❈
I am filled with you.
Skin, blood, bone, brain, and soul.
There's no room for lack of trust, or trust. Nothing in this existence but that existence.**
❈
2. Psst, psst: the great architect casts some serotonin*** onto them and they go:
❈
I want to hold you close like a lute,
so we can cry out with loving.
❈
3. Psst, psst: the great architect casts some norepinephrine**** onto them and they go:
❈
When I am with you, we stay up all night.
When you're not here, I can't go to sleep.
Praise God for these two insomnias!
And the difference between them.
❈
4. Psst, psst: the great architect casts some oxytocin***** onto them and they go:
❈
I want to sing like the birds sing,
Not worrying about who hears or what they think.
❈
5. Psst, psst: the great architect casts some vasopressin****** onto them and they go:
❈
Do you love yourself more
than you love me?…
I have died to myself
and I live for you.
❈
6. Psst, psst: finally for good measure, the great architect casts some endorphins******* onto them and they go:
Now when all the necessary docking hooks have been deployed, the primary connection is firmly established:
The great architect’s intention is to facilitate the docking procedures by means of chemical spraying which blinds, deprives of reason, puts the head over the heels and promotes multiplication of our species. Because,
❈
whenever two are linked this way,
there comes another
from the unseen world********
❈
Unfortunately, this archaic and long unupdated system fails to provide special supporting circumstances for the period after conception.
Meanwhile, our great-to-the-power-of-ten grandfathers and great-to-the-power-of-ten grandmothers decided to stand on their hind legs at the cost of the narrowing of the potential of their pelvises. This way, children are now born infirm and full of hope that the chemical soup in their parents will last for at least 18 years. But not so, my dear toddlers! The Mum&Dad Joint Venture’s spider has its expiry date. A secondary emergency system established by social conventions and economic norms used to be very helpful in running family enterprises. However, its activation has nothing to do with the automation of the primary solution. Now, when every man, as every woman, wants to stand on their own economic legs, it is easy to yield to all sorts of individualistic fancies.
My dear 21st-Century Earlings, please bear in mind and heart that
‘love is a temporary madness; it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of eternal passion. That is just being in love, which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Those that truly love have roots that grow towards each other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two.’*********
In this way, the stability of the two-tower structure depends on the art of higher-order love. If we are fortunate to learn how to go beyond the chemically-supported phase, we get to hear the ‘happy song’:
If we are in back luck, prone to an unfortunate accident or don’t bother to try hard enough, then we get to hear the ‘ugly song’:
We adults can listen to all we want. However, to wrap the whole architectural enterprise up, let me ask the final question by paraphrasing Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī:
Whenever two are unlinked this way,
what with the others
already brought from the unseen world?
* Phenylethylamine or PEA is a neurotransmitter involved in passionate love. It is a chemical associated with amphetamines, and its effects on people's moods and energy are similar to those of various stimulants. This is why people in love feel energised, upbeat, and optimistic (Wikipedia).
** All quotations in the welding process section are by Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī and are cited from Coleman Barks, The Essential Rumi, HarperOne, 2004.
*** Serotonin is a neurotransmitter that mediates satisfaction, happiness and optimism (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4449495/).
**** Norepinephrine makes us giddy, energetic, and euphoric, even leading to decreased appetite and insomnia – which means you actually can be so “in love” that you can’t eat and can’t sleep (https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2017/love-actually-science-behind-lust-attraction-companionship/).
***** Oxytocin (Oxt or OT) is a peptide hormone and neuropeptide that plays a role in social bonding […] (Wikipedia).
****** Human vasopressin is a hormone that among other functions plays an important role in social behaviour, sexual motivation and pair bonding.
******* Endorphins are neurotransmitters that can relieve pain and give a feeling of well-being (https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/endorphin).
******** ”Sexual Urgency” cf. Coleman Barks, The Essential Rumi, HarperOne, 2004
********* “Captain Corelli's Mandolin” by Louis de Bernières.
I took the ‘Love carved in rock’ photo when I was in Laos, far away from my just-met girlfriend.
It was right in the middle of our welding process. She is now my wife.
The Drinking Song by Shanren pops up in Other Eyes for Johnny Rocco whenever the author treats himself of alcoholic beverages, which is not very often, but still…
Finally, I am writing this in Greece. There is plenty of good music around, but one song sticks out:
It is Apanemic’s remake of an old Greek song by Nadia Konstantopoulous ‘As You Came into My Life, My Love’. I just love it and it is about love:
…When you came into my life, my love
the sky faded
and my breath became a song,…
Next week, there will be a postcard. And remember my dear subscriber that whatever’s been published before, can be found in the archives. Also, if you can’t find our post on a Monday, don’t think that Nova Literary has forgotten about you. No, never! Check your Spam, Social or Promotions inbox tabs and we’ll surely be there. Finally, it is a good idea to click open in browser in the top right-hand corner of your newsletter message.