21st Century Essays Echo's Fugue

Through a series of variations on the theme of love&;unrequited, polyamorous, monogomous, scandalous, adulterous&;Desirae Matherly&;s Echo&;s Fugue explores love in all its failures and delusions. Patterned on the unfinished The Art of Fugue by Johann Sebastian Bach which has been a mystery for centuries, Echo&;s Fugue undertakes Bach&;s project in prose&;the tantalizing numerical correspondences throughout, the repetition of a single theme, the unfinished final piece. Matherly&;s essays appear as letters, indexes, narrative, or sentence diagrams, each defying the rules of the blank page. Song lyrics, obsession, Greek mythology, psychology, game theory, and human sexuality form a fragmented narrative about loss and unhealthy attachments. Mimicry of Bach&;s fugues leads the author to questions about love, sex, desire, the &;Bach or Stravinsky&; paradigm in game theory, and relationships considered taboo by mainstream standards. What authority speaks clearest with regard to love, sex, and desire&;and is objectivity even possible? The final essay attempts to resolve this question while echoing the puzzle of Bach&;s final unfinished fugue.