Written by Mr. Smiles on Tuesday June 9th, 2009 in Prattle
Rants carry us away... into darker corners of our minds and it is easy to get carried away. The point is, we don't rant about our happy times. It is an absolutely terrible subject to rant about. Seriously, we need to bear our burdens somehow and sometimes ranting on and allowing all emo-ness to come over ourselves is the best way to do this.
So let's talk about happiness. Happiness in writing and art never seems to be appreciated. The majority of the notable artists are obviously "emo," boiling away in their own loathing and writing about it, then die of violent alcoholism or depressive overdose, making them incredibly famous beyond belief (because hey, the only people making money off them now are the publishers). We love our tragic endings - the ones where the protagonist is doomed to a miserable life (or otherwise dead). The literary critics eat this shit up: "Finally a piece of work that artistically capture the agony and anguish of our human existence. It is enlighteningly empowering as it reaches deep inside into the darkest corners of our mind bringing light to those unsettling truths we have only ever dared to have known."
Happiness is not met with quite the response: "What a cliche! What a joke! Idiocy, there is nothing clever with a happy ending!"
Unfortunately, I am sorry to say that I agree. Art does not deal with happy. Words, movies, pictures, and all other forms of art really are used to deal with suffering, both on a personal and universal level. Misery is a very basic human emotion that is rather universally undealt with. We tend to bottle it up and just wait for that cathartic release during the teary ending of a movie.
That is not to say I don't like happy endings. When done well, you get the same effect. All those bottled feelings finally released in cathartic bursts like overly shaken champagne bottles.
If you want to read something happy, you may have to resort to the not-so-well written pieces of formula-fiction. But... why? If you are happy why are you wasting your time diving into these things? You have the world. You don't need these momentary escapes (unless you're just bored...). Go out and hike the world and swim the oceans and enjoy all that happiness.
And if you're just bored stuck in a desk job becoming depressed by emotional outbreaks... well write something, it kills boredom just as well.
So let's talk about happiness. Happiness in writing and art never seems to be appreciated. The majority of the notable artists are obviously "emo," boiling away in their own loathing and writing about it, then die of violent alcoholism or depressive overdose, making them incredibly famous beyond belief (because hey, the only people making money off them now are the publishers). We love our tragic endings - the ones where the protagonist is doomed to a miserable life (or otherwise dead). The literary critics eat this shit up: "Finally a piece of work that artistically capture the agony and anguish of our human existence. It is enlighteningly empowering as it reaches deep inside into the darkest corners of our mind bringing light to those unsettling truths we have only ever dared to have known."
Happiness is not met with quite the response: "What a cliche! What a joke! Idiocy, there is nothing clever with a happy ending!"
Unfortunately, I am sorry to say that I agree. Art does not deal with happy. Words, movies, pictures, and all other forms of art really are used to deal with suffering, both on a personal and universal level. Misery is a very basic human emotion that is rather universally undealt with. We tend to bottle it up and just wait for that cathartic release during the teary ending of a movie.
That is not to say I don't like happy endings. When done well, you get the same effect. All those bottled feelings finally released in cathartic bursts like overly shaken champagne bottles.
If you want to read something happy, you may have to resort to the not-so-well written pieces of formula-fiction. But... why? If you are happy why are you wasting your time diving into these things? You have the world. You don't need these momentary escapes (unless you're just bored...). Go out and hike the world and swim the oceans and enjoy all that happiness.
And if you're just bored stuck in a desk job becoming depressed by emotional outbreaks... well write something, it kills boredom just as well.