this was not an unusual phenomenon , of course , but he found it interesting that these fearful , yet sorrowful recollections recurred as infrequently as memories of former loves he had known : loves which themselves had been special to him in their own time , but which were nowhowever blissful or tragic or lustfulconfined to frozen areas of his soul , where they might be preserved eternally and only thawed with the heat of focused introspection .