Love Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry

Restored Post from February 17, 2012

Love Story:

"Love Means Never Having to Say You're Sorry"

Dear Readers,

Oh, boy—with all this sleeping-to-little/sleeping-too-much, blah-blah-blah… it’s another day in La La Land, in what-feels-like isolation, but keeping in good spirits as I caught up on sleep (yesterday at noon through this morning at 6 AM… whew—) I encountered the most vivid dreams of—I don’t know if it was my own death—or the astral plane itself, but got me thinking of both death (in general, just the idea/the concept/the ‘feeling’ perhaps—I’m not sure, but the beauty of death, not that I’m suicidal or anything of the sort.)

These dreams continue to pleasantly ‘haunt’ me hours after awakening, as I wrote in my personal hand-written journal.

Since the idea of Love (again, in the general sense) kept ‘coming in,’ along with this astral plane/’other side’ experience I had, for hours—seemed like an eternity, which I know is common, if it was, in fact a near death experience that I had…

The outstanding classic film, which has gotten its share of reviews as being “cheesy” etc., it did save Paramount Studios as it came out at “the right time” when people needed that ‘love story’ in late 1970, slightly before my time—a $2,000,000 budget to grossing over $100,000,000, I always had a sort of ‘respect’ for, and an understanding of the Paramount logo only appearing at the end of the film, I think because it was basically in dire straights to get a winner out there right when this film was released. (Yes, we studied this film at NYU so I often watch films not just as an audience member but also coming from the business context that Hollywood is—)

Based on the book by Erich Segal (his follow-up “Oliver’s Story,” I didn’t care for that much) but I could relate with Ryan O’Neal’s (character’s) relationship with his father and just the loss, and the feelings, Oliver’s “world,” if you will.

Given my dream experience, and here just upon awakening, I thought to look into more detail about the famous tag line: “Love means never having to say you're sorry.”

In The Simpsons episode "Catch 'Em If You Can," where the Simpson family watches Love Story, when the line is spoken, Lisa objects, "No it doesn't!"

In an episode of Rugrats, and spoken by Angela Pickles: "Being bad means never having to say you're sorry."

In Warren Ellis's comic Doktor Sleepless, the Doktor says, "Hate means never having to say you're sorry."

In issue #55 of Marvel Comics Micronauts series, when the liberated Prisonworld inmates ask what it is to be free, one of the answers given by the Micronaut Bug is "Freedom is never having to say you're sorry."

John Lennon said, "Love means having to say you're sorry every five minutes."

In the fifth scene of the play Fat Pig, by Neil LaBute, the lead male character Tom jokes with the character Helen, saying "...Love isn't simple. It's...never having to say you're sorry."

In the episode "The Hurt Locket" from season 3 of Gossip Girl, Blair Waldorf says "Leaving town means never having to say you're sorry."

In the song Thirsty Dog, Nick Cave says, "Love's always having to say you're sorry."

Anyway, look it up on Wikipedia and see for yourself, if you’d like. Just wanted to write something quickly on this as it just got me thinking a bit. Plus I own the DVD, so maybe on this “day off,” I’ll take another look at “Love Story.”

Jonathan Harnisch