It was love at first sight

Do you believe in love at first sight?

I believe in love.
I do not believe in our ability to see.

- from 'Interview', September 2004.

I do believe in love at first sight. I've lived through it.

The most authentic experience of being instantly attracted to something I've ever had was with The Catcher in the Rye. Remember that glorious opening paragraph:

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, my parents would have about two hemorrhages apiece if I told anything pretty personal about them. They're quite touchy about anything like that, especially my father. They're nice and all-I'm not saying that-but they're also touchy as hell. Besides, I'm not going to tell you my whole goddam autobiography or anything."

The first time I read that it grabbed me by the throat and took my breath away. I knew immediately that this was a book I couldn't help falling in love with, and that even though with time my fervour for it would lose some of its intensity, it was a book I was never going to be able to get over.

So it is possible. To judge. To know. To fall. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye.[2]

Just not with people.

Notes:

[1] The title of this post is, of course, another of my favourite opening lines.

[2] 1 Corinthians 15:52.