El paraí­so se escribe con B

Abstract

The following is a personal thesis, a creative thesis. Its main concern is the expression of love. The object of the amorous passion in these pages is not, however, a human being; rather a city, a moment and a way of being. There was a time and a place in which I felt entirely fulfilled: Barcelona from the Fall of 2015 to the Spring of 2016. The cosmopolitan city’s extreme difference from my native Midwest gave life to a part of me that had never seen the light of day until then and there. I was reborn in Barcelona and suffered a painful, albeit symbolic, death upon leaving. The desire to write this thesis, then, is also a desire to return to what was lost. Stated so plainly, it becomes clear that my specific story is only one of infinite iterations. It is, perhaps, a desire that hounds all those sensible to the touch of that which exists beyond our physical bounds. This can be clearly seen in the long history of literature about love gained and love lost. That is why, in Chapter One, I focus on perusing the annals of the written word that recreates a love in order to some way return to it. In the second chapter, I tell my own story with various deviations from the facts but never from the truth. In Chapter Three, finally, I reflect on what can be done with all these feelings in need of physical or, in the absence thereof, poetic attachment. If I’ve piqued the reader’s interest at all, I welcome you to my humble offering to the long tradition of word made paradise.