Love at First Sight

[Paul Whybrow]

There are fictional love affairs that have resonated through the ages. Some involved love at first sight, such as the Greek tales of Cupid firing a love arrows into the heart of someone’s intended.

In his 1598 poem Hero and Leander, Christopher Marlowe wrote: “Who ever loved that loved not at first sight?”

Shakespeare had Romeo fall for Juliet on first seeing her. Victor Hugo threw Marius Pontmercy and Cosette together in Les Misérables.

Modern stories include The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer and The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins.

A cynic might say that love at first sight is mere infatuation. Or, that it’s lust at first sight. But, it’s such a common trope in fiction that there has to be something to it. I’ve certainly fancied someone at first sight, but falling in love, for me, involves more than surface impressions. I once had a social date with a woman who told me of the first time she saw her husband. Seated in the upper story of a restaurant, she was waiting for him to arrive. Looking down to the entrance courtyard, she saw him appear and knew then and there that she’d love him forever. They married within weeks. Their union lasted for twenty-five years until he died of cancer.

Scientists have shown that love at first sight is possible:

You Can Love at First Sight: Scientists Discover Brain Region Responsible for Instant Attraction

I’ve just started writing a love at first sight scene for my American Civil War veteran, where he is enraptured by the sudden appearance of a beautiful woman, a freed slave on his sister’s plantation. He’s shunned love for eight years since his fiancée died, so this is going to be a hammer blow to his heart.

Do you have any favourite love at first sight scenes from literature?

Have you written any?

Even Homer Simpson fell in love at first sight with Marge.

Has it happened to you?

 

[Steve C]

They have an expression here - Ping - It means instant attraction and if it's mutual the sky's the limit
There's a huge amount of Pinging goes on in the Bars of Bangkok but at the moment they are all closed. No doubt when they open again it will resume with increased fervour, it is after all what makes the world go round. Meanwhile, here in rural Thailand, I am busy organising our next round of planting in our tapioca fields. Oh to be young again!

 

[CageSage]

It happens, even to the most cynical. And when it does, there is no running from it. The mind takes you back there with everything you see a reminder, everything you touch bringing a tingle to the body, everything you should be doing lost at the back of the mind. Mistakes at work, at home, trying to put your house key in the wrong door of the wrong house on the wrong street in the wrong suburb. Feeding the dog the chicken you were going to eat that night.
Trying harder to stay away, to stay sane, only brings the madness closer. You do stupid things like forget to wear shoes out of the house, wear the wrong uniform to work, take someone else's lunch from the fridge, call your mother by the wrong name ...
Every scent in the air, every movement anyone makes, every moment you draw breath there is a tug to return to that person. Or die inside.