This passage is from a novel I wrote 17 years ago. The novel is called The Couch Experiment. It has never been published. “'There will be ten thousand degrees on earth. Ten thousand suns, they will say. The asphalt will burn. Chaos will prevail. A whole city will be raised from the earth and fall back to ashes.' This violence of words and feelings is from Alain Resnais' Hiroshima Mon Amour. How many times have I watched that film? God only knows. It was one of the few movies in the world to express with near perfection the truth about the soul-destroying effects a city has on lovers, the pain it can cause them, the monsters that it turns them into. You can never love, in any healthy meaning of the word, another if you are a city lover. You must be a country lover, a couple digging earth with your bare hands, mixing penises and pussies with mud, water, and grass. God, yes, I watched that film many times that even now, with perfect clarity, I can recall the sad faces of the city lovers. I can recall the destruction of the city. I can recall how the camera roamed the revived streets of post-bomb Hiroshima. I can recall the hollow sound of steps on the empty street. The blinking neon lights. The emptiness. The absence of God and nature. 'There will be ten thousand suns...and chaos will prevail.' Yes, I remember Hiroshima Mon Amour." recommended