This one has been prompted by an agonizing Reuters report and accompanying picture of disfigured face of the victim Patricia Lefrance, 46, who two years after acid attack on her by her jilted lover, is still struggling to come to terms with life and full import of the word 'love' with all its fancied romantic associations. The savagery of the attack left her 3 months in coma. More to her trauma, she lost sight of one eye, became partially deaf and has undergone 86 surgical procedures. The corrosive effects of gnawing acid attack wouldn't go so easily, as they continue to eat away her skin and nose. Besides this grievous physical hurt, she is suffering the psychological, social and emotional baggage and trauma that entails such 'disfiguring hurt'. As of now, she is locked in a legal battle with her lover-turned- tormentor, Richard Remes, 57, in a Brussels court where she attended trial as recently as March 12, 2012. The love story of Patricia gone awry goes thus. Patricia was a female janitor in the apartment where Remes had been living with his wife and children. They grew closer into an affair and when Patricia chose to grow apart, he felt jilted and decided to destroy his vessel of love by spraying acid on her face. How strange? And savage too! This type of Trial by Acid Test of 'love' is not an isolated incident. It keeps repeating in different climes and times. Only characters change. At times, even the gender does, as in some queer cases suspicious, violent women are reported to have thrown acid or bobbitised their unfaithful husbands or lovers. The plot remains more or less the same with usual 'love-hate' ingredients thrown in. This brings us to the question: what 'love' means to a couple involved in such a relationship? Is love a matter of convenience or commoditization? Is it an emotion to be exacted from others in an equal measure of intensity and interpretation? Is it owning and possessing the object of love all to oneself, or believing in intrinsic, innate force of love that by its very nature can't and mustn't be suppressed or repressed? If love, particularly the intimate variety involving man-woman relationship, was only a gender specific emotion, what explains its more harmonious benign and sublime variants seen in brother- sister, mother-son, father-daughter relationships? Love in more benign and sublime form doesn't have to carry the cumbersome burden of expectations, and al
This one has been prompted by an agonizing Reuters report and
ReplyDeleteaccompanying picture of disfigured face of the victim Patricia
Lefrance, 46, who two years after acid attack on her by her jilted
lover, is still struggling to come to terms with life and full import of
the word 'love' with all its fancied romantic associations.
The savagery of the attack left her 3 months in coma. More to her
trauma, she lost sight of one eye, became partially deaf and has
undergone 86 surgical procedures. The corrosive effects of
gnawing acid attack wouldn't go so easily, as they continue to eat
away her skin and nose. Besides this grievous physical hurt, she
is suffering the psychological, social and emotional baggage and
trauma that entails such 'disfiguring hurt'.
As of now, she is locked in a legal battle with her lover-turned-
tormentor, Richard Remes, 57, in a Brussels court where she
attended trial as recently as March 12, 2012.
The love story of Patricia gone awry goes thus. Patricia was a
female janitor in the apartment where Remes had been living with
his wife and children. They grew closer into an affair and when
Patricia chose to grow apart, he felt jilted and decided to destroy
his vessel of love by spraying acid on her face. How strange? And
savage too!
This type of Trial by Acid Test of 'love' is not an isolated incident. It
keeps repeating in different climes and times. Only characters
change. At times, even the gender does, as in some queer cases
suspicious, violent women are reported to have thrown acid or
bobbitised their unfaithful husbands or lovers. The plot remains
more or less the same with usual 'love-hate' ingredients thrown
in.
This brings us to the question: what 'love' means to a couple
involved in such a relationship? Is love a matter of convenience or
commoditization? Is it an emotion to be exacted from others in an
equal measure of intensity and interpretation? Is it owning and
possessing the object of love all to oneself, or believing in
intrinsic, innate force of love that by its very nature can't and
mustn't be suppressed or repressed?
If love, particularly the intimate variety involving man-woman
relationship, was only a gender specific emotion, what explains its
more harmonious benign and sublime variants seen in brother-
sister, mother-son, father-daughter relationships? Love in more
benign and sublime form doesn't have to carry the cumbersome
burden of expectations, and al