What Do We Have Now?

The ‘Before’ movie trilogy, directed by Richard Linklater, tells the story of two people who fall in love but are separated for nine years before they can come back together. Jesse and Celine’s story is told in three parts: ‘Before Sunrise’, ‘Before Sunset’, and ‘Before Midnight’.
Jesse and Celine meet on a train headed to Vienna in the first part of the trilogy. While on the train, Celine sits alone with a book in her hand, intending to read. However, the sound of an arguing German couple causes her some disturbance and distracts her from her book. She decides to switch seats. This brings her to an unoccupied space across the aisle from Jesse, a solitary American. Jesse looks up for the first time in the movie and notices Celine, who he thinks is beautiful. An enthusiastic conversation ensues between them until it is time for Jesse to get off at his stop, and somehow, he convinces Celine to get off with him.
We watch this beautiful French girl make her way around the city throughout the night with a strange American in the movie ‘Before Sunrise’. In this first part of the trilogy, we see them as young, brave, and just a little bit stupid. The reckless spontaneity of spending a night with a stranger in a strange city is something I would imagine an aged man or woman to scoff at and remark, “To be young and dumb.”
Their recklessness is again evidenced in the ending scenes of ‘Before Sunrise’ when, following a strange logic, they decide to part ways without exchanging contact details, or last names, with the plan to meet again at an appointed time and place. From their points of view, the plan was a way of safeguarding the novelty of their romantic experience. As you would expect, they lose touch. However, they meet again after nine years in ‘Before Sunset’. Jesse publishes a book about their encounter, and Celine is finally able to track him down at one of his book readings.
Jesse and Celine embark on another adventure in this second part of the trilogy, but now in Paris. Jesse is married with a child, and Celine isn’t. Regardless of the circumstances, there is still apparent chemistry between them. However, with the demands of adulthood in the way – fatherhood, work, marriage – their relationship is no longer allowed to be as wild as when they were two kids who met on a train to Vienna. This doesn’t stop them, though. In the movie’s last scene, Jesse hears her sing and decides not to let go of the magic. He makes up his mind to be with her. The result of his conviction is shown in the next and final part of the trilogy.
Jesse and Celine are finally together in ‘Before Midnight’, set nine years after ‘Before Sunset.’ Here, their love is seasoned. This love has deep roots which have developed a firm grip on the soil. It is beautiful, but it is also less attractive when you juxtapose its cautiousness with the vitality of their youth’s love. In this part of the trilogy, we watch Jesse and Celine try to sort out a family dilemma as tension levels steadily increase throughout the movie. What starts as a bit of argument develops to unearth a lot of micro and macro aggressions that threaten to break them up. We watch the magic of their love get tempered by reality. Regardless, they stay together. However, from my interpretation, it wasn’t their love that kept them together. A grit birthed from their commitment to each other kept them going when the magic had cut and run. ‘Before Midnight’ shows the other side of being with a person – the difficult side. Because of this, I consider it a perfect ending to the trilogy.
The co-writer and director of the Trilogy, Richard Linklater, portrayed the euphoria of affection whilst giving voice to reality’s effect on it. Time breaks in, and everything is made subject. Richard Linklater has a preoccupation with the passage of time. With the filmography in the ‘Before’ trilogy, Linklater showcases the effect of time on love. Most of the arrogance that comes with love seems restricted to periods of youth in the trilogy. The magic appears to fade along with time invariably. Love is one thing when we are ten but something different when we are thirty.
Interestingly, the age that we live in blurs the lines distinguishing the eager love associated with youth from the caution of seasoned love. The world is different in the year 2022. Technology is moving faster than we can keep track. We live in a territory that people labelled uncharted a hundred years ago. Everything is easier, faster, and optimised—even love. Because of this, the ostracisation of caution is a side effect in this new world of ours. Just like the boldness of Jesse and Celine’s youth, vitality is being pulled into the norm. Technology is putting the world in our hands. We think we can do anything. We want to be able to. Whether or not that is a good thing.
The structure of orthodox marriage is losing its appeal to the world as more people explore various relationship types. In an article by the BBC under the Life Project, the writers established that divorce rates have risen since the pandemic. COVID-19 seems to have exacerbated factors that breed disconnect in relationships. Due to progressive technology, the lingering effects of the pandemic, and the consistent passage of time, the modern world introduces new and unprecedented elements. An article by Wandi Jama on News24.com narrates the story of a married couple who employed a unique strategy. The couple suffered strains on their relationship due to the pandemic and decided to live in separate homes, despite not being separated. That is an example of how more and more couples would instead prefer to take different paths today. In the final part of the Before trilogy, Jesse and Celine stayed together but opted for something else that worked for them, which wasn’t an orthodox marriage structure.
Similarly, our world emphasises versatility, especially in western countries. Couples would rather be in a relationship that offers them little to no restrictions, the kind that would leave room for discovery and exploration. In this millennium, we avoid boxes. Jesse abandoned marriage and a child for an unmarried family life with Celine. He did it for their love, but it also highlights the reality of the times – we prefer to colour outside the lines. This, however, comes inherently with consequences.
People our age used to get married, have children, and conduct love affairs. Now, everyone is still single at thirty and lives with housemates they never see. Traditional marriage was not fit for purpose and almost ubiquitously ended in one kind of failure or another. Still, it was an effort at something and not just a sad, sterile foreclosure on the possibility of life. I could say the old ways of being together were wrong. But when we tore down what confined us, what did we have in mind to replace it? I offer no defence of coercive heterosexual monogamy, except that it was at least a way of doing things, seeing life through. What do we have now?
Amidst her millennial romance and struggles, Eileen, a character from Sally Rooney’s most recent book, ‘Beautiful World, Where are you?’ raised one of the most important questions this generation might need to ask in the quote above. “What do we have now?”
Adopting the free rein approach to love that our society has embraced, many people have reported being happier in relationships that offer more validation. They now seek out rhythms that serve them much differently from the heterosexual monogamous structure. This, however, leaves others stuck in an in-between because conflicting voices are offering their version of the truth and what love is supposed to look like. The only apparent surety is that nobody knows for sure. It used to be that love meant searching for someone you care about and wouldn’t mind spending the rest of your life with. Now, marriage is an “old” structure. Relationships used to be about exclusivity and companionship. Today, we have inclusive relationships and even those that appear solely physical. Love now means different things to different people. The answers you get depend on who you ask.
To the LGBTQ community, love is a struggle. To the young white girl, love is a dream. To the young Nigerian woman, love is an expected end. Love is a myth to the twenty-six-year-old English major living with his roommate in New York. Love is a folder of painful memories of the widowed spouse arriving at retirement. To the young black male, love is another checkpoint right after making a name and a bit of money. To Eileen in Rooney’s novel, love is a question. To Jesse and Celine, love is the magic of their youth, giving way to the demands of adulthood and family. To the world in general, love is an unknown. With no blueprint to follow and no messiah preaching the answers, what do we have now?
The structures of the past do not work for all of us. Subject to the times, I suspect that gradually, as a people, we would reach the point that Eileen did. We would need an answer to be adapted to fit all of us, but one solution regardless. At that point, just like Jesse and Celine were disciplined by the certainty of reality breaking through, we would be faced with hard facts. In the beginning, love is free and exhilarating, much like everything else these days. However, love has storms and tornadoes that demand an overcome in the enduring. Even with all the technology in this world and the future, we will never be able to keep jumping ship once the waves cause a sway, which seems to be today’s norm. It might have to be a struggle if it’s going to work. Alas, there is still no clear truth dictating what works. What we have now is a blank slate with some scribbles on either side. Love in this millennium is the first building block laid on foundations two thousand years in the making. Love in this millennium is in limbo. I also wonder what it would eventually become.

We watch this beautiful French girl make her way around the city throughout the night with a strange American in the movie ‘Before Sunrise’. In this first part of the trilogy, we see them as young, brave, and just a little bit stupid. The reckless spontaneity of spending a night with a stranger in a strange city is something I would imagine an aged man or woman to scoff at and remark, “To be young and dumb.”
Their recklessness is again evidenced in the ending scenes of ‘Before Sunrise’ when, following a strange logic, they decide to part ways without exchanging contact details, or last names, with the plan to meet again at an appointed time and place. From their points of view, the plan was a way of safeguarding the novelty of their romantic experience. As you would expect, they lose touch. However, they meet again after nine years in ‘Before Sunset’. Jesse publishes a book about their encounter, and Celine is finally able to track him down at one of his book readings.
Jesse and Celine embark on another adventure in this second part of the trilogy, but now in Paris. Jesse is married with a child, and Celine isn’t. Regardless of the circumstances, there is still apparent chemistry between them. However, with the demands of adulthood in the way – fatherhood, work, marriage – their relationship is no longer allowed to be as wild as when they were two kids who met on a train to Vienna. This doesn’t stop them, though. In the movie’s last scene, Jesse hears her sing and decides not to let go of the magic. He makes up his mind to be with her. The result of his conviction is shown in the next and final part of the trilogy.
Jesse and Celine are finally together in ‘Before Midnight’, set nine years after ‘Before Sunset.’ Here, their love is seasoned. This love has deep roots which have developed a firm grip on the soil. It is beautiful, but it is also less attractive when you juxtapose its cautiousness with the vitality of their youth’s love. In this part of the trilogy, we watch Jesse and Celine try to sort out a family dilemma as tension levels steadily increase throughout the movie. What starts as a bit of argument develops to unearth a lot of micro and macro aggressions that threaten to break them up. We watch the magic of their love get tempered by reality. Regardless, they stay together. However, from my interpretation, it wasn’t their love that kept them together. A grit birthed from their commitment to each other kept them going when the magic had cut and run. ‘Before Midnight’ shows the other side of being with a person – the difficult side. Because of this, I consider it a perfect ending to the trilogy.
The co-writer and director of the Trilogy, Richard Linklater, portrayed the euphoria of affection whilst giving voice to reality’s effect on it. Time breaks in, and everything is made subject. Richard Linklater has a preoccupation with the passage of time. With the filmography in the ‘Before’ trilogy, Linklater showcases the effect of time on love. Most of the arrogance that comes with love seems restricted to periods of youth in the trilogy. The magic appears to fade along with time invariably. Love is one thing when we are ten but something different when we are thirty.
Interestingly, the age that we live in blurs the lines distinguishing the eager love associated with youth from the caution of seasoned love. The world is different in the year 2022. Technology is moving faster than we can keep track. We live in a territory that people labelled uncharted a hundred years ago. Everything is easier, faster, and optimised—even love. Because of this, the ostracisation of caution is a side effect in this new world of ours. Just like the boldness of Jesse and Celine’s youth, vitality is being pulled into the norm. Technology is putting the world in our hands. We think we can do anything. We want to be able to. Whether or not that is a good thing.
The structure of orthodox marriage is losing its appeal to the world as more people explore various relationship types. In an article by the BBC under the Life Project, the writers established that divorce rates have risen since the pandemic. COVID-19 seems to have exacerbated factors that breed disconnect in relationships. Due to progressive technology, the lingering effects of the pandemic, and the consistent passage of time, the modern world introduces new and unprecedented elements. An article by Wandi Jama on News24.com narrates the story of a married couple who employed a unique strategy. The couple suffered strains on their relationship due to the pandemic and decided to live in separate homes, despite not being separated. That is an example of how more and more couples would instead prefer to take different paths today. In the final part of the Before trilogy, Jesse and Celine stayed together but opted for something else that worked for them, which wasn’t an orthodox marriage structure.
Similarly, our world emphasises versatility, especially in western countries. Couples would rather be in a relationship that offers them little to no restrictions, the kind that would leave room for discovery and exploration. In this millennium, we avoid boxes. Jesse abandoned marriage and a child for an unmarried family life with Celine. He did it for their love, but it also highlights the reality of the times – we prefer to colour outside the lines. This, however, comes inherently with consequences.
People our age used to get married, have children, and conduct love affairs. Now, everyone is still single at thirty and lives with housemates they never see. Traditional marriage was not fit for purpose and almost ubiquitously ended in one kind of failure or another. Still, it was an effort at something and not just a sad, sterile foreclosure on the possibility of life. I could say the old ways of being together were wrong. But when we tore down what confined us, what did we have in mind to replace it? I offer no defence of coercive heterosexual monogamy, except that it was at least a way of doing things, seeing life through. What do we have now?
Amidst her millennial romance and struggles, Eileen, a character from Sally Rooney’s most recent book, ‘Beautiful World, Where are you?’ raised one of the most important questions this generation might need to ask in the quote above. “What do we have now?”
Adopting the free rein approach to love that our society has embraced, many people have reported being happier in relationships that offer more validation. They now seek out rhythms that serve them much differently from the heterosexual monogamous structure. This, however, leaves others stuck in an in-between because conflicting voices are offering their version of the truth and what love is supposed to look like. The only apparent surety is that nobody knows for sure. It used to be that love meant searching for someone you care about and wouldn’t mind spending the rest of your life with. Now, marriage is an “old” structure. Relationships used to be about exclusivity and companionship. Today, we have inclusive relationships and even those that appear solely physical. Love now means different things to different people. The answers you get depend on who you ask.
To the LGBTQ community, love is a struggle. To the young white girl, love is a dream. To the young Nigerian woman, love is an expected end. Love is a myth to the twenty-six-year-old English major living with his roommate in New York. Love is a folder of painful memories of the widowed spouse arriving at retirement. To the young black male, love is another checkpoint right after making a name and a bit of money. To Eileen in Rooney’s novel, love is a question. To Jesse and Celine, love is the magic of their youth, giving way to the demands of adulthood and family. To the world in general, love is an unknown. With no blueprint to follow and no messiah preaching the answers, what do we have now?
The structures of the past do not work for all of us. Subject to the times, I suspect that gradually, as a people, we would reach the point that Eileen did. We would need an answer to be adapted to fit all of us, but one solution regardless. At that point, just like Jesse and Celine were disciplined by the certainty of reality breaking through, we would be faced with hard facts. In the beginning, love is free and exhilarating, much like everything else these days. However, love has storms and tornadoes that demand an overcome in the enduring. Even with all the technology in this world and the future, we will never be able to keep jumping ship once the waves cause a sway, which seems to be today’s norm. It might have to be a struggle if it’s going to work. Alas, there is still no clear truth dictating what works. What we have now is a blank slate with some scribbles on either side. Love in this millennium is the first building block laid on foundations two thousand years in the making. Love in this millennium is in limbo. I also wonder what it would eventually become.

Jesse and Celine meet on a train headed to Vienna in the first part of the trilogy. While on the train, Celine sits alone with a book in her hand, intending to read. However, the sound of an arguing German couple causes her some disturbance and distracts her from her book. She decides to switch seats. This brings her to an unoccupied space across the aisle from Jesse, a solitary American. Jesse looks up for the first time in the movie and notices Celine, who he thinks is beautiful. An enthusiastic conversation ensues between them until it is time for Jesse to get off at his stop, and somehow, he convinces Celine to get off with him.
We watch this beautiful French girl make her way around the city throughout the night with a strange American in the movie ‘Before Sunrise’. In this first part of the trilogy, we see them as young, brave, and just a little bit stupid. The reckless spontaneity of spending a night with a stranger in a strange city is something I would imagine an aged man or woman to scoff at and remark, “To be young and dumb.”
Their recklessness is again evidenced in the ending scenes of ‘Before Sunrise’ when, following a strange logic, they decide to part ways without exchanging contact details, or last names, with the plan to meet again at an appointed time and place. From their points of view, the plan was a way of safeguarding the novelty of their romantic experience. As you would expect, they lose touch. However, they meet again after nine years in ‘Before Sunset’. Jesse publishes a book about their encounter, and Celine is finally able to track him down at one of his book readings.
Jesse and Celine embark on another adventure in this second part of the trilogy, but now in Paris. Jesse is married with a child, and Celine isn’t. Regardless of the circumstances, there is still apparent chemistry between them. However, with the demands of adulthood in the way – fatherhood, work, marriage – their relationship is no longer allowed to be as wild as when they were two kids who met on a train to Vienna. This doesn’t stop them, though. In the movie’s last scene, Jesse hears her sing and decides not to let go of the magic. He makes up his mind to be with her. The result of his conviction is shown in the next and final part of the trilogy.
Jesse and Celine are finally together in ‘Before Midnight’, set nine years after ‘Before Sunset.’ Here, their love is seasoned. This love has deep roots which have developed a firm grip on the soil. It is beautiful, but it is also less attractive when you juxtapose its cautiousness with the vitality of their youth’s love. In this part of the trilogy, we watch Jesse and Celine try to sort out a family dilemma as tension levels steadily increase throughout the movie. What starts as a bit of argument develops to unearth a lot of micro and macro aggressions that threaten to break them up. We watch the magic of their love get tempered by reality. Regardless, they stay together. However, from my interpretation, it wasn’t their love that kept them together. A grit birthed from their commitment to each other kept them going when the magic had cut and run. ‘Before Midnight’ shows the other side of being with a person – the difficult side. Because of this, I consider it a perfect ending to the trilogy.
The co-writer and director of the Trilogy, Richard Linklater, portrayed the euphoria of affection whilst giving voice to reality’s effect on it. Time breaks in, and everything is made subject. Richard Linklater has a preoccupation with the passage of time. With the filmography in the ‘Before’ trilogy, Linklater showcases the effect of time on love. Most of the arrogance that comes with love seems restricted to periods of youth in the trilogy. The magic appears to fade along with time invariably. Love is one thing when we are ten but something different when we are thirty.
Interestingly, the age that we live in blurs the lines distinguishing the eager love associated with youth from the caution of seasoned love. The world is different in the year 2022. Technology is moving faster than we can keep track. We live in a territory that people labelled uncharted a hundred years ago. Everything is easier, faster, and optimised—even love. Because of this, the ostracisation of caution is a side effect in this new world of ours. Just like the boldness of Jesse and Celine’s youth, vitality is being pulled into the norm. Technology is putting the world in our hands. We think we can do anything. We want to be able to. Whether or not that is a good thing.
The structure of orthodox marriage is losing its appeal to the world as more people explore various relationship types. In an article by the BBC under the Life Project, the writers established that divorce rates have risen since the pandemic. COVID-19 seems to have exacerbated factors that breed disconnect in relationships. Due to progressive technology, the lingering effects of the pandemic, and the consistent passage of time, the modern world introduces new and unprecedented elements. An article by Wandi Jama on News24.com narrates the story of a married couple who employed a unique strategy. The couple suffered strains on their relationship due to the pandemic and decided to live in separate homes, despite not being separated. That is an example of how more and more couples would instead prefer to take different paths today. In the final part of the Before trilogy, Jesse and Celine stayed together but opted for something else that worked for them, which wasn’t an orthodox marriage structure.
Similarly, our world emphasises versatility, especially in western countries. Couples would rather be in a relationship that offers them little to no restrictions, the kind that would leave room for discovery and exploration. In this millennium, we avoid boxes. Jesse abandoned marriage and a child for an unmarried family life with Celine. He did it for their love, but it also highlights the reality of the times – we prefer to colour outside the lines. This, however, comes inherently with consequences.
People our age used to get married, have children, and conduct love affairs. Now, everyone is still single at thirty and lives with housemates they never see. Traditional marriage was not fit for purpose and almost ubiquitously ended in one kind of failure or another. Still, it was an effort at something and not just a sad, sterile foreclosure on the possibility of life. I could say the old ways of being together were wrong. But when we tore down what confined us, what did we have in mind to replace it? I offer no defence of coercive heterosexual monogamy, except that it was at least a way of doing things, seeing life through. What do we have now?
Amidst her millennial romance and struggles, Eileen, a character from Sally Rooney’s most recent book, ‘Beautiful World, Where are you?’ raised one of the most important questions this generation might need to ask in the quote above. “What do we have now?”
Adopting the free rein approach to love that our society has embraced, many people have reported being happier in relationships that offer more validation. They now seek out rhythms that serve them much differently from the heterosexual monogamous structure. This, however, leaves others stuck in an in-between because conflicting voices are offering their version of the truth and what love is supposed to look like. The only apparent surety is that nobody knows for sure. It used to be that love meant searching for someone you care about and wouldn’t mind spending the rest of your life with. Now, marriage is an “old” structure. Relationships used to be about exclusivity and companionship. Today, we have inclusive relationships and even those that appear solely physical. Love now means different things to different people. The answers you get depend on who you ask.
To the LGBTQ community, love is a struggle. To the young white girl, love is a dream. To the young Nigerian woman, love is an expected end. Love is a myth to the twenty-six-year-old English major living with his roommate in New York. Love is a folder of painful memories of the widowed spouse arriving at retirement. To the young black male, love is another checkpoint right after making a name and a bit of money. To Eileen in Rooney’s novel, love is a question. To Jesse and Celine, love is the magic of their youth, giving way to the demands of adulthood and family. To the world in general, love is an unknown. With no blueprint to follow and no messiah preaching the answers, what do we have now?
The structures of the past do not work for all of us. Subject to the times, I suspect that gradually, as a people, we would reach the point that Eileen did. We would need an answer to be adapted to fit all of us, but one solution regardless. At that point, just like Jesse and Celine were disciplined by the certainty of reality breaking through, we would be faced with hard facts. In the beginning, love is free and exhilarating, much like everything else these days. However, love has storms and tornadoes that demand an overcome in the enduring. Even with all the technology in this world and the future, we will never be able to keep jumping ship once the waves cause a sway, which seems to be today’s norm. It might have to be a struggle if it’s going to work. Alas, there is still no clear truth dictating what works. What we have now is a blank slate with some scribbles on either side. Love in this millennium is the first building block laid on foundations two thousand years in the making. Love in this millennium is in limbo. I also wonder what it would eventually become.