A while back, after thinking back about a book I once read brought a tear to my eye, I found myself searching the internet for especially "sad" stories. I felt like watching a sad movie, or reading a sad story, or maybe even playing a sad game. It occurred to me, at that moment - in the stream of consciousness, so to speak - I was actively looking to inflict upon myself an unarguably negative emotion through the medium of art.
That got me thinking. Tragedies make up some of the oldest and most well-regarded of all texts, in any artistic medium. People obviously appreciate and seek to create and experience sad stories. Most media pages worth their salt have an entire subsection dedicated to tearjerkers.
Why? In terms of conveying an emotion, or leading the reader to experience emotion, it's obvious why stories would be funny or uplifting - those are positive. It's obvious why stories would be scary - it causes a physical thrill (which, since the reader knows it's only a story, is divorced from the normally negative connotations of the sensation of fear and can thus be enjoyed).
But why do we (and now, typing this down, it sounds so absurd, yet it's apparently so obvious if we don't think about it too deeply) enjoy sad stories? Do they make us feel better about ourselves because our own circumstances aren't as bad (does that mean that enjoying a sad story is a fundamentally sadistic experience)? Do they necessarily involve Aristotelian catharsis, teaching us something important about ourselves (but then, what about the proven emotional impact of meaningless glurge?)? Is it something else?
What do you think?
"We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent."
A while back, after thinking back about a book I once read brought a tear to my eye, I found myself searching the internet for especially "sad" stories. I felt like watching a sad movie, or reading a sad story, or maybe even playing a sad game. It occurred to me, at that moment - in the stream of consciousness, so to speak - I was actively looking to inflict upon myself an unarguably negative emotion through the medium of art.
That got me thinking. Tragedies make up some of the oldest and most well-regarded of all texts, in any artistic medium. People obviously appreciate and seek to create and experience sad stories. Most media pages worth their salt have an entire subsection dedicated to tearjerkers.
Why? In terms of conveying an emotion, or leading the reader to experience emotion, it's obvious why stories would be funny or uplifting - those are positive. It's obvious why stories would be scary - it causes a physical thrill (which, since the reader knows it's only a story, is divorced from the normally negative connotations of the sensation of fear and can thus be enjoyed).
But why do we (and now, typing this down, it sounds so absurd, yet it's apparently so obvious if we don't think about it too deeply) enjoy sad stories? Do they make us feel better about ourselves because our own circumstances aren't as bad (does that mean that enjoying a sad story is a fundamentally sadistic experience)? Do they necessarily involve Aristotelian catharsis, teaching us something important about ourselves (but then, what about the proven emotional impact of meaningless glurge?)? Is it something else?
What do you think?
"We knew the world would not be the same. A few people laughed, a few people cried. Most people were silent."