Ind Aff by Fay Weldon
"Ind Aff" by Fay Weldon explores the complexities of love, power dynamics, and the consequences of infidelity through the experiences of a young graduate student and her married professor, Peter Piper. Set against the backdrop of a rainy vacation in Yugoslavia, the narrative unfolds as the couple grapples with their relationship amidst historical reminders, such as the site of Gavrilo Princip's assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which ignited World War I. The protagonist, initially seeking clarity about her future with Peter, finds herself increasingly disillusioned as their interactions reveal underlying tensions and dissatisfaction.
The term “Ind Aff,” which playfully references their inordinate affection for one another, underscores the disparity in emotional investments and the inevitable shift in the narrator's feelings. During a moment of realization, she encounters a sudden shift in perception that prompts her to end the affair decisively. The story examines themes of love's transience, the weight of unresolved issues, and the search for personal authenticity, all while reflecting on the historical and cultural context of the locations they visit. Weldon’s narrative invites readers to contemplate the nature of relationships and the personal reckoning that can accompany the dissolution of an affair.
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Ind Aff by Fay Weldon
First published: 1988
Type of plot: Realism
Time of work: The late 1980's
Locale: Sarajevo, Bosnia
Principal Characters:
The narrator , a female English college studentProfessor Peter Piper , her thesis director
The Story
A twenty-five-year-old unmarried graduate student is on vacation in Yugoslavia with Peter Piper, a married professor of classical history who is her thesis adviser and also her lover. The purpose of the trip is ostensibly to recover from the past year's "sexual and moral torments" but really to let Peter decide whether to leave his wife of many years for the narrator. They have already visited Serbia and Croatia. They are now in Sarajevo, Bosnia. They plan to go on to Montenegro to swim and lie in the sun. So far, though, they have met with nothing but rain.
The narrator finds—and Peter struggles to see—the water-filled footprints incised in the pavement near the Princip Bridge in Sarajevo where the assassin Gavrilo Princip stood as he fired the shots that killed the Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife, Sophie, in 1914 and thereby triggered World War I. The couple would have preferred to jump into their rented car, drive off somewhere in the countryside, eat a picnic lunch, and make love alfresco, but the unending downpour forces them into an undistinguished restaurant.
While they wait for their wild-boar dinners to arrive, they chat desultorily. Peter complains about the ubiquity of cucumber salad in Yugoslavian restaurants, and the narrator notices—for the first time, apparently—that she has become accustomed to his complaints. When she changes the subject to a more serious matter—whether the archduke's assassination actually triggered World War I—Peter brusquely states that the war would have occurred even without Princip and returns to extracting pepper pips from his cucumber salad. The narrator persists in trying to get Peter's attention by declaring her love with "Ind Aff" for him. "Ind Aff," short for "inordinate affection," is their private joke. (John Wesley, one of the founders of Methodism, had used the term in his diary and had made a point of stating that what he felt for a young member of his flock was not Ind Aff, but a spiritual concern.) However, Peter answers, as he has on other occasions, with a reference to their love as his wife's sorrow. The narrator recalls to herself that Peter has often started quarrels on this same subject that were never resolved but merely ended by shifting to lovemaking, so she asks him to talk about something else.
Peter's bad mood becomes progressively worse as they continue to wait for their dinners to appear. As he and the narrator bicker about the causes of World War I and about slips of the tongue, they sound more and more like an unhappily married couple. After a time, the narrator looks up to catch the eye of a handsome young waiter, to exchange brief smiles with him, and to feel unexpectedly the tug of Ind Aff. When her glance moves to an older waiter whose eyes indicate disapproval, she is brought to think of the difference in age between herself and Peter, who is forty-six years old. Peter, who has noticed these almost imperceptible interactions, asks her what she is thinking of. She responds with an automatic declaration of love, but at the same moment, she realizes that she does not love him. She makes a quick decision about their relationship. Recalling that she has her passport and traveler's checks in her purse, she kisses Peter on the top of his head, says good-bye, and leaves the restaurant immediately, thus ending their affair. She is not sorry then and is not sorry later.