final paragraph

"Maybe no one can be against love, but it's still possible to flirt with the idea. Or, as Adam Phillips asks in his own essay on the virtues of flirtation, "What does commitment leave out of this picture that we might want?" Note that "against" is one of a few words--like "cleave," another---that can mean both itself and its opposite. It flirts with paradox. (As, perhaps, does anyone who loves.) To cleave is to split or sever; but to cleave is also to cling to, or remain faithful. As with "against." To be against means to be opposed: resistant or defiant. It also means next to: beside or near. Which leaves the problem of a phrase like "up against" which is indeterminate, bivalent--it can play both sides of the street. "Up against love": you would need to know the context to figure out what it means. Or alter the context--here's an idea to flirt with---which could make it mean something else entirely."

-Laura Kipnis, Against Love