The latest 15 Minute Insight, first of a series of undetermined length: here, looking at the nature of literature as the principal storytelling medium in civilization and examining (briefly) its mimetic function as instructive.
Jealousy, in particular among the emotions central to The End of the Affair, seems to me most easily misunderstood. For one, it is often confused with envy; which is specifically the desire for what another person possesses because of how that possession evidently elevates the person. We envy our neighbor’s good looks, nice car, better house, more attractive spouse, and so on. Envy is impersonal. It doesn’t matter who the neighbor is, if we like or hate the neighbor; we want their attributes for ourselves because we believe those attributes grant that neighbor a higher standing than ourselves.
Jealousy, on the other hand, is always personal, and always directed at interpersonal relations: either their presence or their absence, and quite frequently, both. Think of any man jealous that a woman
Continuum Philosophical Insight 