FICTION FOCUS
Love is all around
Margaret James explores different kinds of love you could engage with in your fiction
Margaret James
I’m prepared to bet that the love of someone or something strongly influences the behaviour of most of us in the course of our daily lives.
Our children, our partners, our friends, our work, even our hobbies: love for any of these can develop into ruling passions that provide powerful motivation for the worst and the best of human behaviour, both in fiction and in life.
Some of us are in love with the thought of success, fame or even notoriety.
Others are hooked on exercise, alcohol, power or serial adultery. It’s no wonder storytellers love to write about love.
The English language doesn’t score highly when it comes to defining the various aspects of love, that single, solitary word which in English is obliged to encompass the Greek eros (romantic and/or sexual love), philia (affectionate, nonsexual love), agape (generalised love for the universe, nature and our fellow sentient beings), storge (love for our families and wider kinships), mania (any kind of obsessive, addictive love – we’re all familiar with that one), ludus (playful love: fancying a celebrity or a teacher, perhaps, or having a crush on the boss), pragma (the kind of mature, enduring love we can observe in long-established relationships), and philautia (self-love or self-respect). Other languages no doubt have many additional words for different kinds of love, but you get my drift.