A Playlist for a Blue Valentine
Roland Barthes and I are here for you, in the lovers’ disco
I was fortunate in the depths of my greatest erotic humiliation, some years ago, to seek solace in a cavernous bookstore. I spied a book, spine out, with a price sticker that said: “Lover’s Disco, $9.99.”
I snorted; pulled it out of its hidey-hole. The real title was Lover’s Discourse, by Roland Barthes, the greatest book ever written on love’s labors, and love lost.
I muttered whole chapters of “Lover’s Disco” to myself like prayers for months on end, my heartbreak bringing me to my knees. I barely made it out alive and Barthes gets all the credit.
In homage to him, I’ve composed a playlist for the stages of love, from infatuation to contempt— and finally, to picking yourself up again.