Love in the Western World

To the Editors:

At the end of his flattering review of my book of stories, Behold Goliath, Robert M. Adams asks the following question: “Why is it that in much modern fiction a homosexual prowling the streets for a pickup is engaged in a poignant human search for love—while characters who seek love in ways and places where perhaps it is a little more likely to be found are represented as mere clods?”

I would say, as my answer to this, that such a literary convention has arisen as a consequence of the fact that romantic love has degenerated into a sentiment (or concept) which is credible only when depicted in the behavior of the very stupid or the completely depraved.

Alfred Chester

Tangiers, Morocco

Robert M Adams replies:

I don’t agree.