It’s coming… somewhere in the next few chapters. The longed
for kiss. I can feel my characters working up to it, and there’s not much I can
do to stop them. So in preparation, I’m doing research on how to write the
perfect kiss. The perfect literary kiss
is different than an actual kiss because it’s about the idea of a kiss. You
know how the idea of something is often better than the real something? In real
life noses get in the way, or someone has just eaten onions, has really chapped
lips or hiccups right in the middle. But the literary first kiss has to embody
everybody’s dream of a kiss. It has to be steeped in longing. Kiss with a
capital K. That’s a tall order, and that’s why I’ve avoided it for so long. But
the time has come. In preparation, and to help my characters out a little, I’ve
been evaluating literary kisses and asking people about their favorite ones. Some
nominees…
The Princess Bride
“Since the invention of the
kiss, there have only been five kisses that were rated the most passionate, the
most pure. This one left them all behind.” S Morgenstern
Crank
“He wanted
to kiss me. I felt it with every nerve, every fiber, every molecule of my being.
I wanted him to kiss me, with every nerve, every fiber, every molecule of my
being. But I was scared to kiss him. Every nerve, every fiber, every molecule
screamed! He leaned forward, parted those perfect lips. At that exact moment,
every single thing about my life changed. Forever.” Ellen
Hopkins
Fault in Our Stars
“Augustus Waters,' I said,
looking up at him, thinking that you cannot kiss anyone in the Anne Frank
House, and then thinking that Anne Frank, after all, kissed someone in the Anne
Frank House, and that she would probably like nothing more than for her home to
have become a place where the young and irreparably broken sink into love....
And then we
were kissing. My hand let go of the oxygen cart and I reached up for his neck,
and he pulled me up by my waist onto my tiptoes. As his parted lips met mine, I
started to feel breathless in a new and fascinating way. The space around us
evaporated, and for a weird moment I really liked my body; this cancer-ruined
thing I'd spent years dragging around suddenly seemed worth the struggle, worth
the chest tubes and the PICC lines and the ceaseless bodily betrayal of the
tumors," John Green
What are your favorite literary kisses?
What are your favorite literary kisses?
3 comments:
Hmmm.... going to have to think about this one a bit.
WOW. Loved the John Greene one. NICE. Okay, I totally can't answer this. I have too many. LOL!
Great post, Maureen!
Great examples. Great post. I'm traveling today, so I can't play along, but I really want to...with every nerve, every fiber, every molecule of my being.
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