Net Love(PART 2 OF 3)
The Chatroom Lovers
A married couple are divorcing after they chatted each other up on the Internet using fake names.
Sana Klaric and husband Adnan poured their hearts out to each other over their marriage troubles.
Using the names 'Sweetie' and 'Prince of Joy' in an online chatroom, the pair thought they had found a soulmate with whom to spend the rest of their lives.
It should have turned out like a real-life version of the 1979 Rupert Holmes song, Escape, where a couple meet through advert by someone 'who likes pina coladas and getting caught in the rain'.
But, unlike in the song, there was no happy ending after they turned up for a date and realised their mistake.
Now the pair, from Zenica, Central Bosnia, are divorcing after accusing each other of being unfaithful.
Sana, 27, said: 'I was suddenly in love. It was amazing, we seemed to be stuck in the same kind of miserable marriages. How right that turned out to be.'
But when it dawned on her what had happened, she said: 'I felt so betrayed.'
Adnan, 32, said: 'I still find it hard to believe that Sweetie, who wrote such wonderful things, is actually the same woman I married and who has not said a nice word to me for years.'
SOURCE: "The Chatroom Lovers"
PICTURES: from the Denman Library
QUOTED IN: "Tragedy on the Net"
(In Japanese)
(『ネット恋愛の悲劇』)
Unbelievable! Kato, I can hardly believe this!
Well, any couple tend to know each other quite well. Yet, deep inside, they seldom know their partner, though they have plenty of face-to-face interactions, as Sana Klaric and husband Adnan showed in the above episode.
Yes, you're right in a sense.
The funny thing is that people get along with very well in the chatroom on the net.
Why is that?
Well, I'd say, people tend to more sincere and straight-forward on the net. Don't you think so, Diane?
Well, yes and no... As I said, more face-to-face interactions in a real would probably do far more for us than anything virtual could ever do.
But look at Sana and Adnan, who went bad in a real world and found a soulmate in a virtual world. As far as Sana and Adnan are concerned, they are an ideal couple on the net.
Yes, that's true.
So, some people get even happier on the net. Don't you think so, Diane?
Well..., I'm not too sure.
Look at Mr. Rochester and Jane Eyre, for instance.
Half dream, half reality
"And these dreams weigh on your spirits now, Jane, when I am close to you? Little nervous subject! Forget visionary woe, and think only of real happiness! You say you love me, Janet: yes---I will not forget that; and you cannot deny it. Those words did not die inarticulate on your lips. I heard them clear and soft: a thought too solemn perhaps, but sweet as music---'I think it is a glorious thing to have the hope of living with you, Edward, because I love you.' Do you love me, Jane? repeat it."
"I do sir,---I do, with my whole heart."
"Well," he said, after some minutes' silence, "it is strange; but that sentence has penetrated my breast painfully. Why? I think because you said it with such an earnest, religious energy; and because your upward gaze at me now is the very sublime of faith, truth, and devotion: it is too much as if some spirit were near me. Look wicked, Jane; as you know well how to look: coin one of your wild, shy, provoking smiles; tell me you hate me---tease me, vex me: do anything but move me: I would rather be incensed than saddened."
"I will tease you and vex you to your heart's content, when I have finished my tale: but hear me to the end."
"I thought, Jane, you had told me all. I thought I had found the source of your melancholy in a dream!"
"I dreamt another dream, sir: that Thornfield Hall was a dreary ruin, the retreat of bats and owls. ... The shape standing before me had never crossed my eyes within the precincts of Thornfield Hall before; the height, the contour were new to me. ... It seemed, sir, a woman, tall and large, with thick and dark hair hanging long down her back. ... Oh, sir, I never saw a face like it! It was a discoloured face---it was a savage face. I wish I could forget the roll of the red eyes and the fearful blackened inflation of the lineaments!"
...
"Ah!---what did it do?"
"Sir, it removed my veil from its gaunt head, rent it in two parts, and flinging both on the floor, trampled on them."
...
"And since I cannot do it, Jane, it must have been unreal."
"But, sir, when I said so to myself on rising this morning, and when I looked round the room to gather courage and comfort from the cheerful aspect of each familiar object in full daylight, there---on the carpet---I saw what gave the distinct lie to my hypothesis,---the veil, torn from top to bottom in two halves!"
I felt Mr. Rochester start and shudder; ...
"Now, Janet, I'll explain to you all about it. It was half dream, half reality: a woman did, I doubt not, enter your room: and that woman was---must have been---Grace Poole."
SOURCE: Chapter 25 "Jane Eyre"
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You see, Diane, Mr. Rochester and Jane had face-to-face interactions in half dream and half reality, without knowing it.
half dream and half reality?
Yes, that's it. For Jane Eyre, Mr. Rochester created a virtual world where the reality was hidden on purpose. So, in the virtual world, Mr. Rochester and Jane fell in love and seemed to be such an ideal couple as Sana and Adnan were on the net.
What is the reality?
That ghost-like woman in the above episode was not Grace Poole, but Mr. Rochester's mad wife, whom he hid intentionally. And as soon as Jane Eyre came to know the mad wife, Jane broke up with Mr. Rochester and escaped from Thornfield Hall.
I see.
The funny thing is that Jane accepted the virtual world at the end and got married with Mr. Rochester, and then the couple lived happily ever after unlike Sana and Adnan.
But, Kato, "Jane Eyre" is a fiction after all.
Yes, that's right, Diane. But the fiction tells us that face-to-face interactions in a virtual world sometimes create a great deal of happiness as Mr. Rochester and Jane show at the end.
So, Kato, you belive in the net world, don't you?
Yes, I do. And you seemed to agree on this point because you admitted:
Having said that, though, I think it's great that so many people are influenced and appreciative of your blog.
It must feel good to be able to make that kind of impact.
(To be continued)