The Irony is in the Flaubert

So, last night, I ended up going to Borders instead of going for a bike ride. The funny thing is that I walked out with a book entirely dissimilar to Programming Web Services with Perl, which was my only reason to go to Borders in the first place. I left with Flaubert's Parrot by Julian Barnes, instead.

Why?

Because it was Flaubert, and it fit; and my mind has the weird preoccupation with forcing actions to mimic art. But, I am odd; and I am digressing. Let me bring the two together whilst discussing the nuances of Flaubert's philosophies.

Madame Bovary is a book that cannot be reduced to fundamentals. There is no V=IR or F=ma for it. And, trying to do so would drive you mad. It is one of those things that must be accepted as is and not broken down into its constituents for the meaning is lost in doing so. But, that is not to say that one cannot pull out prevalent themes.

One of the recurring plots was Emma Bovary's desire to have extramarital affairs because she felt that her life was needlessly boring, and she deserved better. She would build up these fantasies of amazing men who travelled the world, and went on adventures, and were rich and powerful; and they would sweep in like knights in shining armor filling her life with riches and pleasures and excitement. These were her dreams; the fantasies she played out in her head as she snuck opium and other make-me-happy substances from her pharmacist husband. And, she did have affairs with men exactly like this throughout the book. But, in the end, they would use her and leave her, galavanting off on more adventures and leaving her none the wiser as to why her heart ached because she would repeat the mistake over and over again with different men. The end result was always the same. In the end, she was depressed, broken, and had romanticized suicide to the point of committing it.

Fulfillment of our desires will never achieve the euphoria of what our anticipation has concluded it to be.

Flaubert nearly rammed it down our throat throughout the whole book. This was one of his prime messages. And, it was repeated time and time again through Emma Bovary's wanton actions, the many lovers she had soliloquizing the same when talking about their many travels, and Charles Bovary's desires to be good-natured and well liked. The notions they had in their heads never played out as well in real life. Nothing is ever as good as it is in a person's head.

So, I did not get the Perl book.