Love: A Case Study

Reader was at once horrified and delighted as she read about Subject and Interviewer. Reader felt pity both for Subject and for Interviewer (much as they felt pity for each other). However, Reader believed Interviewer the one to be pitied; though not institutionalized, he was the more trapped of the two in his need for love, in his need to be a hero.

Interviewer is obsessed with Subject, for Subject is a free spirit. Subject has the adoration and focus of his parents. Subject has vision.

Reader believes that Interviewer, in his secret heart, wishes he were Subject or, at the very least that, like his wish for the organ grinder’s monkey, Subject would throw his arms around Interviewer “for little while, and love him back.”

—Myfanwy Collins