Another woman Quote by Will Self
““As my voice died away I became conscious of the voice of another woman two tables away. I couldn't hear what she was saying to her set-faced male companion, but the tone was the same as my own, the exact same plangent composite of need and recrimination. I stared at them. Their faces said it all: his awful detachment, her hideous yearning. And as I looked around the cafe at couple after couple, eaching confronting one another over the marble table tops, I had the beginnings of an intimation. Perhaps all this awful mismatching, this emotional grating, these Mexican stand-offs of trust and commitment, were somehow in the air. It wasn't down to individuals: me and him, Grace and John, those two over there... It was a contagion that was getting to all of us; a germ of insecurity that had lodged in all our breasts and was now fissioning frantically, creating a domino effect as relationship after relationship collapsed in a rubble of mistrust and acrimony.””
About This Quote
The narrator perceives a collective emotional contagion in a café, where individual insecurities about trust and commitment spread like a virus, causing relational breakdowns.
In simple terms: Emotional contagion fuels relational collapse.
Insecurity spreads socially.
Themes
Mood
Type
When to use this quote
- observing couples in a public space
- feeling personal vulnerability
- witnessing relational conflict
Key Concepts
Practical Applications
- analyzing group psychology
- illustrating relational dynamics in literature
Questions to Reflect On
- How does observing others' conflicts affect our own sense of security?
- Can awareness of emotional contagion help prevent relational collapse?