152: Julian Barnes - Love etc. - clever lines

Many years ago I read an author called Julian Barnes - http://www.julianbarnes.com/. In his book A History of the World in Ten and Half Chapters, I particularly remember an essay on the different constructions of the expression I Love You - object after subject etc, Ti amo, je t'aime. In the same section, I think, there was a paragraph or two on love being like a remote control of a garage; always expect it to be there but then one day it does not work.

Anyway, I've also read Sense of an Ending and there are always clever passages on love and relationships and character and the power of words and actions.

I just finished Love etc. and it is no different. Like any good novel, and any good novelist, the writing resonates - reflects back one's own thoughts and feelings; we may be individuals but, actually, everything has been felt and thought before.

Hope I am not busting any copyright rules here but the following sections cover several strands in my thoughts that I have tried to put down - albeit rather less eloquently than Mr Barnes:

Entry 94: Betrayal from those I trust - Barnes writes, 'No, real betrayal occurs among friends, among those you love. Friendship and love are meant to make people behave better, aren't they? But that's not  been my experience. Trust leads to betrayal. You could even say that trust invites betrayal.'

Entry 125: Alone but not lonely - Barnes writes in a voice of one of the characters who has been divorced. 'It is not so much that I do not want, as that I do not want to want. I do not desire to desire.'

Entry 107: No Dependency/ Fear of the Same  - I want to be alone in the future for fear of repeating the same situation again. The same character as the one above has an affair with a married man. One day they have to go shopping at Waitrose and the man sees the future as the same as the past - shopping, daily cooking, cleaning etc.. He blanches and walks away from the affair. Am I like him? 'He knew, or at least he could not persuade himself from thinking, that love was not a magical state, or not one only, but rather the start of a journey, which led, sooner or later, to a Waitrose card.'

Entry 150 - Looking to the Future - 'and if you're on your own, you don't have to worry about someone else wanting something. Because that takes up a lot of time too.'

Entry 52: Reaching the ADI (!) - 'ADI (how much pesticide our body can absorb) is acceptable daily intake. MRL (amount of pesticide allowed in food) is maximum residue limit.... When people live together, some of them produce the equivalent of pesticides which are harmful to others. What's the MRL of him over there, that fellow who is always sneering? Or, if you lived with her for any length of time, what would be your ADI?'

I read History of the World in 10 ½ Chapters perhaps three decades ago, and a line about History being like a burp came to mind when I found an old letter - Entry 155 - History - when will she burp again?