"Is it -- I'm not certain -- possible to love someone if your first interest is the use you can make of him? Doesn't the gainful motive, and the guilt accruing to it, alt the progression of other emotions? It can be argued that even the most decently coupled people were initially magnetized by the mutual-exploitation principle -- sex, shelter, appeased ego; but still that is trivial, human: the difference between that and truly using another person is the difference between edible mushrooms and the kind that kill: Unspoiled Monsters."
-- Truman Capote, Answered Prayers
I've always wondered just how much of love is selfless and how much is, as Capote calls it, "The Mutual-Exploitation Principle." Maybe a lot of it is the latter, but maybe that isn't a bad thing. Maybe it's just life.
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