The Romantic Tragedy of Our Age

Enjoy the following snippets from this great NYT article about using books to gauge the long-term romantic potential of a future partner-in-reading-crime:

Judy Heiblum, literary agent: "When a guy tells me [Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance] changed his life, I wish he’d saved us both the embarrassment.”

James Collins, author: "I know there were occasions when I just wrote people off completely because of what they were reading long before it ever got near the point of falling in or out of love: Baudrillard (way too pretentious), John Irving (way too middlebrow), Virginia Woolf (way too Virginia Woolf).”

Marco Roth, editor of n+1: "I think sometimes it’s better if books are just books. It’s part of the romantic tragedy of our age that our partners must be seen as compatible on every level."

But I did take pause when I read this description of one Sloane Crosley, an interviewee for this article who is, "a publicist at Vintage/Anchor Books and the author of “I Was Told There’d Be Cake,” essays about single life in New York..."

Now, I've watched Sex & the City and Will & Grace, and I'm sure there are enough essays about being single in Manhattan to fill an entire bookstore. But still, it's depressing that there are. As Augusten Burroughs says in the article, "Manhattan dating is a highly competitive, ruthlessly selective sport."

So indulge me as I channel my inner Carrie for a moment, cause I don't ordinarily do this...

In any athletic competition, there is a winner and a loser. But not all competitions are the same. There's a big difference between the small-town Idaho middle school volleyball championship and the World Series, and in the dating world, Manhattan is the World Series. Like a good athlete, a single New Yorker puts on his uniform, enters the arena, sizes up the competition, and looks to score.

But I couldn't help but wonder: How do you ever win in the game of love if the very nature of games is a battle between one winner and one loser?

I thought about this as I went to meet Miranda for a quick lunch at the Gramercy Tavern...