FEEL ROMANTIC

Sometimes I feel I am reading about myself in a book or watching myself in a movie. In these moments I feel romantic.

To feel romantic is to experience a continuity from one's past self into one's present self and/or to experience the present self as though it were in the past.

To see the present moment from afar - from the other side of a window, a mirror, a dimension (time) - is to align ones gaze with the gaze of the other while at the same time identifying with the object of the gaze itself. The dream of being in a movie is the dream of being able to possess ones own image, to be both consumer and producer.



Feeling romantic is similar to feeling nostalgic. To fool oneself into imagining the past as present. In the past and future everything is an image / a memory / words / music. Only in the present does the concrete exist.

"Every lie creates a parallel world; the world in which it is true." -Momus

Narratives are inherently romantic because they deal with images of the past/future. Still, some narratives seem more romantic than others. These include narratives that emphasize transdimensional connections (between literal and figurative language, psychological and architectural space, mystical/mythical and quotidien, timeless and contemporary, etc), characters who cherish the roles of actor/model while inhabiting them, and the overwhelming influence of the image.

Some creators romanticize their own role as creator and their work is an extension of that role. This character is a product of culture (La Boheme offering one archetypal example). Being romantic is also linked to Romanticism, of course, and its resulting archetype: "a gifted, perhaps misunderstood loner, creatively following the dictates of his inspiration rather than the mores of contemporary society."