“Amor deliria nervosa. The deadliest of all deadly things.”
Recently, I've been engrossed with some young adult Dystopian novels and my latest find was the Delirium trilogy. Compared to Hunger Games and Divergent series, this one started a little slow for me but what kept me going was the curiosity regarding its premise. A novel talking about a future where love is considered as the deadliest disease and curing it for a better Portland community if not the world, totally got me hooked. And yes, you read it right, in this series, love is considered as the deadliest disease, termed as Amor Deliria Nervosa. Upon reaching the age of 18, citizens are required to undergo an invasive procedure that will cure them of this. Also they have to be evaluated to determine who would become their partner in life. Outside the borders of Portland though, are the Invalids, the rebels who chose love over the cure.
The third book of the series is not yet out but the story mainly revolves around Lena Haloway, a girl who, just a few days away from getting the cure fell in love with Alex, an Invalid pretending to be one of them. The action started when she opted to explore the option of loving someone freely and decided to run away with Alex. Things did not turn out well though, and Lena ended up crossing the border alone. Outside the border she started a new life as part of the resistance and then later on fell in love with Julian, the son of an influential man leading the movement advocating the cure. The series ended up with a hint of a love triangle. (Ok, enough spoilers for me, hahah...)
Back in my neurology class during my college days, I actually wondered what it would be like if our amygdala will be removed since this is primarily responsible for emotions such as rage, fear, affection and love. Reading this trilogy raised this thought for me once again and made me ponder deeper on this aspect. What would society be like if everybody, (including the society leaders) would be bereft of their emotions, not just love? Would people still succumb to depression? Would people still fight and kill each other? Would this eradicate greed? What I have in mind seems like a zombie world, but I'm really trying to picture a society with people equipped with their intellectual properties but stripped of their emotions or maybe just partially stripped of them. Would the world be any better?
Then there's of course, the matter of love, which was the central issue of this novel. Some people say that it is the most beautiful thing in this world and I know it's an amazing feeling. I also know that love can touch lives and create miracles for some people. Though, sometimes I wonder, if we don't know this feeling would that make any difference? I know a lot of people would say right away that they would never give up that feeling, but if the procedure would be possible, I honestly think that I might consider it. No more riding an emotional roller coaster, no more butterflies fluttering in my stomach and no more irrational thoughts. Maybe, like Lena I would be torn apart - the girl who doesn't want to bother anymore with those incapacitating emotions and forget about the past albeit apathetic and at the same time, the girl who just wants to laugh and cry with the people she cares about, suffering but happy.
If that would be our reality now, would life be any less remarkable without love? Is a dystopian society devoid of emotions be any worse than our current society with all of it's present issues and woes? And if the possibility is here, right now, would you want to get the cure?
Then there's of course, the matter of love, which was the central issue of this novel. Some people say that it is the most beautiful thing in this world and I know it's an amazing feeling. I also know that love can touch lives and create miracles for some people. Though, sometimes I wonder, if we don't know this feeling would that make any difference? I know a lot of people would say right away that they would never give up that feeling, but if the procedure would be possible, I honestly think that I might consider it. No more riding an emotional roller coaster, no more butterflies fluttering in my stomach and no more irrational thoughts. Maybe, like Lena I would be torn apart - the girl who doesn't want to bother anymore with those incapacitating emotions and forget about the past albeit apathetic and at the same time, the girl who just wants to laugh and cry with the people she cares about, suffering but happy.
If that would be our reality now, would life be any less remarkable without love? Is a dystopian society devoid of emotions be any worse than our current society with all of it's present issues and woes? And if the possibility is here, right now, would you want to get the cure?
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