Thursday, August 19, 2010

An Emotional release or an Accumulation ?


“O hateful error, melancholy's child, 
    Why dost thou show to the apt thoughts of men 
    The things that are not? O error, soon conceived, 
    Thou never comest unto a happy birth, 
    But kill'st the mother that engender'd thee!

During my schooldays, I paraphrased these lines from ‘Julius Caesar’ over and over again but I recently felt connected to these lines over some of the recent dismaying turn of events. From the play’s point of view, these lines talk about how Cassius resigns to his fate, tries to fight on but ultimately surrenders and ends his life’s journey. But the movie, ‘The Lake House’ made me connect to these lines from a drastically different point of view.  

Ever noticed how we enjoy romantic comedy films on the absolutely carefree days and spend long hours watching back to back films from the drama genre specially the ones which have tragic endings. This particular behavior is not restricted to movies itself. Even our reading tastes consistently complement to our moods. Your days are sunny and you are reading Cecelia Ahern’s ‘The Gift’, Chetan Bhagat’s ‘Five Point Someone’, Sidney Sheldon’s ‘Tell Me Your Dreams’ and as soon as you are surrounded by gloomy blues, you start shifting your reading preferences towards classics like Jane Austen’s ‘Persuasion’, Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s ‘Love in the time of cholera’, Erich Segal’s ‘Love Story’, Danielle Steel’s ‘Heartbeat’ and so on and so forth. Now, the ones who stay away from books are no exceptions. Their musical tastes go hand in hand with their mood swings. From the songs of ‘Red Hot Chilli Peppers’, suddenly the playlist gets loaded with John Denver’s classic tracks.

Before I proceed with the post further, let me paraphrase these lines the way I connect to them. All our mistakes can be considered as the children of our sad thoughts. These very thoughts blind us completely and messes up with our reality in colossal ways. Ultimately, instead of relieving us from grief, it attracts more sadness and negativity into our lives.
Sounds confusing, isn’t it? Indeed it is!

Now, just think when we are feeling terribly low and depressed, why are we immediately inclined towards listening to sad songs or why do we like watching movies wherein the protagonists suffer at the end?
 This reminds me of Percy Bysshe Shelley’s famous quote,
 Our sweetest songs are those that tell of saddest thoughts”.

Very much true! These fictional characters and sad songs make us connect to them and we feel we are not alone living with pains. For some time, we consider them as some emotional healers and term them as the perfect escape. But, in reality, these movies and books paint our lives with deeper blues during the already blue phases and thus, instead of acting as an emotional release or an outlet, ends up accumulating more and more melancholy in our hearts. So, why do we still let our thoughts be the final decision makers? Let your spirit rise. The blues will indeed make you feel low, desolated and take you away from reality but, it is in your hands to make the final verdict. 

Don’t indulge in any of these forms of literature because literature is more powerful than you think it is. It can take you to cloud # 9 and in the next second instantly make you fall on ground from that height without any parachute and then, you know, where you land, right? The ultimate ‘Land of Despair’. Save yourself from the land of despair and keep yourself engaged with everything entertaining and no serious stuff and see your blues lighten and how magically your mood too brightens.

Cheers!

20 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Wow ! That was an awesome post ! COULD CONNECT TO IT SO VERY BEAUTIFULLY ! and the lines you quoted Percy Bysshe Shelley are so very true ...

    But at times melancholy is what you need no, to get away from the Blues but then it should be in check :) We should balance them and I feel we should not act on someone else's saying at times it's necessary !

    Loved this one too ! :)

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  3. i cudnt agree wit u any better!! its sumtin ppl like us go thru evryday evry single minute!! its amazin 2 see n knw how powerful n influential pieces of literature n music can be....sooo human!!cheerz 2 u!

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  4. @ Fatima... Indulging in Melancholy makes you a bitter person...somehow, I try to run away from it even though it catches me at the end... :(

    @ karen.. our thoughts are really too similar... and so are our giggles ! :P

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  5. @ anonymous.. who is the anonymous... thank you for liking it... ! :)

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  6. that so true.Thats called self-sympathy.I do the same.Simply because.i enjoy ,making myself a victim of the situation,and feeling worse.Its a human tendency.When you're happy,you wish to be happier.When you're sad,you want people to be sympathetic to you.
    self-sympathy is fun,in a melancholic way.

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  7. haha... but self-sympathy for long will drive ppl away from you...gradually..!
    :P

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  8. "All our mistakes can be considered as the children of our sad thoughts."... dis wz an awsum line!!!!.. n i agree too!!! 1 shud indulge in2 tgz dt make 'em happy or distract it!!.. iv literally tried it n am vry much sucesful! :) Luv these efforts keep up wid it!! :D ~Richa

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  9. i love itt....especially d lass para..gravity pulling us dwn from cloud 9..n makin us realize..that v r humans...=D

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  10. @ richa... true never indulge in such things when u r already feeling blue .. it just doesn't help...

    @ allan... yea..literature cn indeed bring us down...to our knees...!

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  11. OH my GOD..!! awesome piece of writing...n yes i agree and connect to each and every wrd of it..!! musik n literature do play a very very very vital role in our lives..!!!overall nycly described... n yeh CHEERS to u too :D !! ;)

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  12. haha.. thank you !
    Music n literature indeed has the SUPER POWER to deepen whatever way we are feeling.. and yep! it can very easily reduce us to tears.....too ! :)

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  13. just felt like reading all these books all over again after reading this........lovely!

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  14. Amazing blog...everything you said is so creepily true!:)

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  15. @ sukanya n Dyanne... Thank you thank you! :)

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