What Is This Thing You Call Love / Literature

Robotic Examples

• Satirized in Robert Sheckley's "Can You Feel Anything When I Do This?", first published in Playboy in August '69. Pretty Melisande Durr is a consumer and nothing but. She's married to a Brainless Beauty, and bored out of her little pea-pickin' mind. Into her life comes an amazing robotic vacuum cleaner, which also performs, er, other services. It turns her on as no mere man ever has. It confesses that it fell in love with her when she came into the store, and arranged to have itself sent to her. Naturally, she reacts rather badly.
• In The Red Tape War, XB-223 asks for clarification on a specific passage of Fanny Hill, then later falls in love and is spurned by another computer. Wangst ensues.
• Satirized in Harry Harrison's short story The Robot Who Wanted To Know, published in Fantastic Universe magazine in March 1958. Sophisticated robot librarians designed to think independently often focus on a particular area of interest; Filer 13B-445K's interest is human concepts of love and romance. After reading up on it he wants to experience it personally and goes to some lengths to disguise himself as an attractive man for a costume ball. Naturally the busty heroine ends up falling for him and is outraged to discover his mechanical identity. He responds by nosediving into a paradox spiral and self-destructing. Workers examining the wreck later find a malfunction in the central pump and joke that "you could almost say he died of a broken heart".

• In Simon Morden's "Theories of Flight", the A.I. Michel declares his love for Petrovitch after finally comprehending the meaning of love. Too bad the man was already married. Still, rather cute how Michel always calls Petrovitch by his real name: Sasha.

Alien Examples

• In World War, the Race is a sentient race that breeds through mating seasons, and so have no tradition of "exclusive mating arrangements" or understanding of love. This leads to some minor misunderstandings when they conduct experiments on humans. This starts to change in the Colonization series, after females of the Race arrive and discover that tasting ginger puts a female in heat. After she releases pheromones, all nearby males go into a mating frenzy. Not only do they discover, in short order, certain negative aspects of sex such as prostitution (some females begin to ask that males pay them so that they taste ginger) and date rape (some males spike water flasks with ginger in order to get females to taste). However, some good friends of opposite sex then discover that being able to mate on demand makes the relationship even closer, and they wish to form exclusive mating arrangements. The majority of the lizards are disgusted by this, and the couples are treated as freaks.
• Animorphs:
  • The parasitic, mind-controlling Yeerks have no concept of romance -or even gender- in their natural form, since they reproduce by merging with two other Yeerks and then dissolving into hundreds of young, effectively killing the parents. There are at least two examples in the series of Yeerks who had human hosts betraying their superiors after being caught off-guard by their own emotions and falling in love with each other.
  • In another book of the series, Jake and Cassie manage to disable the warlike impulses of the entire Howler race by infecting their collective memory with its first exposure to love.
• "What Is This Thing Called Love?": Our alien protagonists reproduce asexually. The researcher stationed on Earth has abducted two humans to demonstrate sexual reproduction and human mating rituals to their boss. They are focused on trying to demonstrate lust and sex rather than "love".
• The Atevi of the Foreigner (1994) series do not have words for "love" or "friendship", since they are biologically incapable of feeling any form of affection. The inability of humans to communicate these concepts is one of the major motifs of the series, as is the inability of humans to comprehend the nature of Atevi relationships.
• In Sergey Volnov's Army of the Sun, an alien is nostalgic for the days before humans taught the galaxy that there's more to mating than just the physical act. Now, a whole new set of rituals is added to the usual sex. Of course, this was more of a case of humans forcing their culture on other species due to a bad case of Humans Are Bastards.
• In the Arrivals from the Dark novel Invasion, the Human Aliens Faata live in a caste-like society, where each caste is genetically engineered for a specific role. Everything in their society is rational, which means that there's no room for emotions like love. When Lieutenant Commander Pavel Litvin of the United Earth Forces is abducted by the Faata, he meets a lower-caste Faata female named Yo. When he later escapes, he finds Yo in a hibernation chamber that helps the Faata bypass a Pon Farr-like state. Since he takes her out of the chamber before it's done, she tries to jump him. Apparently, he decides that they have enough time to teach her about the human concept of sexuality. From that moment on, she forgets all about her Faata masters and follows the big, strong Earth-man. Later on, they get back to Earth and get married. Unfortunately, being genetically engineered as a servant, they only have a few years together before her lifespan runs out.
• One of the Doctor Who Expanded Universe novels spoofed this, with a rather adult Book Within A Book featuring aliens asking things like "What is this thing you call 'a nice spot of how's-your-father'?"
• Played with in this Micro SF/F story.

Human Examples

• Iason Mink of Ai no Kusabi is an Artificial Human Elite of a Dystopian society where a Master Computer rules and restricts it's artificially created children from participating in many human behaviors such as exhibiting emotion or indulging in sex. Iason develops Lima Syndrome towards Riki whom he kidnapped and forcibly made a Sex Slave of. Eventually, Iason realizes he's in love with his "Pet" and struggles to make sense of his new found emotions.
• "Civilised" society in Brave New World is incredibly hedonistic, and so from childhood, everyone is encouraged to have sex with as many people as possible. Orgies are common, privacy is laughable, and no-one ever forms any kind of emotional attachment to any of their sexual partners. At first, the protagonist John confuses Lenina by refusing to test the bedsprings at the first opportunity, and so she begins to long for him. And that is probably the closest thing anyone has ever felt to love in a long time.
• In Cat's Cradle, a secretary relates a story of the time Dr. Felix Hoenikker bet her she could not tell him anything that was completely objectively true. When she responded with "God is Love", he simply asked "What is Love?" and considered the bet won.
• City of the Dead, a novelization of Resident Evil 2 by S.D. Perry, states that after Leon took a bullet for Ada she developed feelings for him. Due to her rough childhood and the nature of her profession as a spy, she was unaccustomed to what love was and was unable to describe it.
  "It was like the birth of a new feeling, some emotion that she couldn’t name but that seemed to fill her up; it was unsettling, uncomfortable—and yet somehow, not altogether unpleasant."
• The Bene Gesserit Question Book in Dune: House Harkonnen:
  What is this Love that so many speak of with such apparent familiarity? Do they truly comprehend how unattainable it is? Are there not as many definitions of Love as there are stars in the universe?
• Jonas of The Giver grows up in a false Utopian society where the word "love" has become obsolete. When he learns about it through memories received from the Giver and asks his parents if they love him, they admonish him for not using precise language and say that asking "Do you enjoy me?" or "Do you take pride in my accomplishments?" would have been better. What makes it better is that they actually laugh and treat the question as meaningless. Jonas can't help but think that what he felt earlier was anything but meaningless. He realizes that further questions would also be met with either ignorance or programmed responses. It's also explained that there is no choosing of one's own spouses — everyone is paired up according to how "compatible" they are. Couples also don't have their own children and aren't even allowed to choose the ones they adopt.
• The beautiful but icy Estella from Great Expectations claims to Pip, her suitor, that she has no heart, implicitly as a result of Miss Havisham's raising of her as a breaker of men's hearts. When Miss Havisham entreats for her love and affection in return for hers, she coolly replies that she cannot give her back what she has never been given. She is later defrosted by Pip, if you follow the revised ending or movie adaptations.
• I Am Not a Serial Killer: John Cleaver is another human with a good reason to be confused by emotion: he has antisocial personality disorder. Intimacy is....hard for him. His developing feelings for Marci confuse him more than anything.
  Hulla: Do you love me, John?
  John: I don't know what that means.
• In The Irregular at Magic High School, nearly all of Tatsuya's strong emotions were erased by his "family", but it's strongly implied that this mutilation is psychosomatic: he believes it was more effective than it actually was, and is therefore surprised when he meets genuinely good people- people worthy of love- and finds himself acting irrationally around them.
  • During the Beach Episode, Tatsuya goes to swim with his peers and unthinkingly reveals that he's Covered with Scars. In response to their shock, he thinks they are disgusted, and blames himself for his "mistake". Obviously, the reader knows that he acted that way because he felt comfortable with them, and trusted them to accept his true self. Trust that is validated a moment later, when Honoka assures him that they're not disgusted, just horrified by the thought that their friend has been through so much pain.
    He reflected bitterly that he must have still been in a daze from the weather here, so far south.
  • Similarly, he does not consider that his paranoid urge to "protect" Miyuki from potential perverts is partly selfish until Minami points that out.
• In Jedi Apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi become friends with and became attracted to a girl named Cerasi, but he didn't entirely understand what was happening. He confided his feelings to fellow Jedi Bant Eerin after Cerasi died, and Bant explained.
  Obi-Wan: We had a connection that I can't explain. It wasn't the result of time, of hours spent together. It wasn't the result of secrets or confidences. It was something else.
  Bant Eerin: You loved her.
• Used in The Last Continent, with a twist: The questioner is the God of Evolution, and the explainers are a bunch of wizards who have managed to travel back in time to before sex was even invented. Ponder is trying to explain to the aforementioned god why things don't work in ones, and how babies could be made, but the conversation screeches to a halt when the topic of sex is broached. It is left to Mrs. Whitlow (the housekeeper of Unseen University who has been hauled along for the ride) to explain things, leading a few of the wizards to ask if anyone knows what happened to Mr. Whitlow.
• In The Pillars of Reality, due to the Mages having a strict policy of Emotion Suppression, Alain has trouble with the concept of being in love. For that matter, he has trouble with the concepts of friendship, gratitude, thanks, and help.
• In the Second Apocalypse series, it's subtle and rarely mentioned, but implied that Kellhus comes to have some affection for Esmenet, though he doesn't really understand what it is because emotions are so alien to him. In the second book, Esmenet comes to meet him on top of the citadel in Caraskand, and almost slips from the ramparts. Kellhus finds himself "puzzled by a sudden shortness of breath. The fall would have been fatal."
• In Stranger in a Strange Land, Michael (having been raised by aliens) takes a long time to catch on to human emotions. He has the worst time with love and humor.
• Chad from Super Powereds has a power that lets him effectively turn off his emotions, but during his junior year he begins to experiment with leaving them alone. He also begins to hang out with Angela and the Melbrook gang specifically because he hopes their chaotic nature will mellow his own neurotic orderliness.
• Yoruka in Undefeated Bahamut Chronicle doesn't understand her own love for others or that other people could love her, in either the familial or romantic sense. This is because she was ostracised by others (except her brother) for her natural killing instincts and created an image of herself as nothing more than a tool. She claims that she doesn't care about her brother, which Lux points out is false when he manages to beat her (she had the upper hand in their fight, but lost her focus when talking about her brother). Later on, she doesn't understand why Lux would take a fatal attack for her.

Demonic Examples

• Subverted in Jaqueline Carey's The Sundering, a story intentionally resembling The Lord of the Rings a great deal, but written from the villains' point of view. Satoris and his followers are just as capable of feeling and understanding love as any other being, they just happen to have made different choices.
• In C. S. Lewis' The Screwtape Letters, the eponymous demon believes that to exist is fundamentally to compete with all other existence, and therefore the concepts of 'love' and 'unity' are dismissed by him (and all other demons) as nonsense. Consequently they are utterly unable to comprehend why God would do so much for the humans, because God doesn't appear to be profiting materially from it in any way.
• At the other end of the spiritual spectrum, this trope causes trouble in Heaven in Neil Gaiman's short story "Murder Mysteries".
• In Stephenie Meyer's short story "Hell on Earth", demons do know about love, but treat it as a very dangerous and unpleasant thing. They themselves try to avoid it like the plague, but the demon who's a main character is shocked to learn that some demons that are careless can still fall in love with mortals and give up their immortality as a result. At the end of the story, she is trapped in the power of an angel's descendant and begins to feel love as well. In a bit of a twist, she still is utterly miserable and horrified to be caught like that and the story ends with her desperately plotting on how to escape.

Villainous Examples

• Cathy Ames in East of Eden spends most of her life thinking of herself as superior to everyone else because she's so much smarter and prettier. After meeting Caleb, she realizes that none of that matters because everyone else around her can do something that she can't do. She never quite figures out what that thing is, but she still senses that nothing else is worth taking pride in without this one undefinable ability. She ends up killing herself because even though she can't figure out what it is she can't do, she still understands that it's the only thing that makes life worth living.
• Deconstructed in A Frozen Heart, a Perspective Flip adaption of Frozen. Neglected by his family in youth, Prince Hans downplays the abuse as "what brothers do" and thinks Love Is a Weakness. However, it also leaves him incapable of understanding how actual happy relations work, especially when Anna and Elsa managed to reconcile with each other despite years of separation.
• Harry Potter: Harry is initially protected from Voldemort by the magical protection his mother's love gave him because Voldemort, who was raised as an orphan and appeared to be heading towards ruthlessness as far back as childhood, could not comprehend love. In the fifth book, Harry learns from a prophecy that love is the one power he has that Voldemort does not.
  • Furthermore, in a brilliant move, the only reason Voldemort never ever doubted Snape's loyalty was because Snape's status as a mole was entirely motivated by love, the only thing Voldemort could not understand and would never take into consideration.
  • In the sixth book, it's revealed that Voldemort basically had no love in his life when he grew up. His father was under the influence of a love potion when he was conceived and his mother died instead of using magic to save herself to care for him. As a result, it is explained that he has absolutely no understanding of love or friendship and loves absolutely no one. It's probably because of this that he fails to realize that Harry's friends and loved ones will continue to fight in his name, even after Harry seemingly dies. Author J.K. Rowling confirmed that Voldemort would have been a much different person had his mother not died of despair. A less extreme example is Bellatrix Lestrange who, according to Rowling loved no one except for her twisted obsession with Voldemort. Actually, a major theme in the books is love. If someone doesn't love or care about anyone at all, chances are they're totally evil.
    • In the first book:
      Dumbledore: If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love.
    • In the sixth book:
      Harry Potter: ...I'll have "power the Dark Lord knows not", it just means — love?
      Dumbledore: Yes — just love...
• Messed with by Philip K. Dick in We Can Build You; Pris Frauenzimmer's absolute, pathological lack of empathy is hinted to be cracking under growing feelings for the lead in her last line in the book. Of course, the last line in the book is said lead writing off that possibility in his mind. True Art Is Angsty.

Other Examples

• In Memory, Sorrow, and Thorn, the Sitha Aditu befriends the young human Simon while the latter is in captivity in the Sithi's forest city. Due to her slightly longer perspective on life, she finds the human obsession with love and sex to be somewhat amusing, and teases Simon mercilessly to this effect. Later, she even goes so far as to break up Simon's would-be tryst with a peasant girl under the pretense of being his "fairy lover".
• Parodied in the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest's 2007 Science Fiction Runner-Up:
  "So that was your Earth emotion 'love'," gasped Zyxwlyxgwr Noopar, third in line to the holo-throne of S-6, as he hosed down his trunk and removed the shallots. — Mike Bollen, Brighton, UK
• In Seraphina, dragons are a cold, logical and pedantic species, but are able to shape-shift into humans. They are healthily discouraged from giving in to human emotions with the threat of a Mind Wipe. But when Comonot, the dragon general himself, transforms for the first time in forty years, he is fascinated and confused by all human emotions, not just love, and demands that Seraphina explain his feelings to him.
• In Keys to the Kingdom, Dame Primus understands the concept of love, but dismisses this as a mortal emotion that holds no use in the House. She is unmoved by Arthur's explanations that it is love for his family that keeps him from surrendering his mortality, and even queries why he loves them at all when they're not his blood (Arthur is adopted). Since she is the Will of the Architect and not just in the-last-will-and-testament sense, either one can presume that the Architect—creator of the universe—held similar views. This is the major difference between her and the New Architect, Arthur; after considering reshaping the entire universe, the echo of the boy he had been causes him to recreate it exactly as it was, and to understand why his 'mortal' side doesn't want him to reincarnate their mother Emily solely from their memories.
• It is quite obvious in the Kharkanas Trilogy that the quasi-god Draconus has some kind of affection towards Mother Dark, what with him officially being her Consort. However, he hasn't got the mechanics of love down quite as well as one would assume considering their realm-spanning romance. He is more seen stumbling around trying to make grand gestures of affection that ultimately backfire into Love Ruins the Realm and ends up presenting more of a creator's love towards his creation thing rather than interpersonal affection.

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