Melancholia

[MMandM]

I especially enjoy reading French and Russian literature and a common theme I've noticed is that of melancholia in everyday life.

 

In French and Russian culture, I believe gloom and sadness is accepted much more as an important part of life. Something to be embraced instead of avoided.

 

In our American culture, it seems as if we avoid any form of sadness at all costs and strive to be happy as often as we can.

 

What do you think? Is melancholia a good thing? Should we not be afraid to be sad? Should we welcome it instead of avoiding it?

[Ieshwar]

What do you think? Is melancholia a good thing? Should we not be afraid to be sad? Should we welcome it instead of avoiding it?

 

 

I don't know about Russian but I did read a bit on French Literature. Speaking of melancholia reminds me of 'Madame Bovary' by Flaubert. Yeah, there's the aspect of melancholy in the book.

 

There's a BIG differemce between sadness and melancholy. Sadness is good; it allows you to mourn and after that, you can start afresh. It makes us human. Nice. But melancholy drags you into depression which isn't so nice. Melancholy makes you fel like every door is closed and there's no solution at all.

 

Melancholy isn't a really good thing. Avoid it. But being a little bit masochist, I often lose myself in melancholy. Not recommended.

 

Ieshwar

[Graeme]

What do you think? Is melancholia a good thing? Should we not be afraid to be sad? Should we welcome it instead of avoiding it?

Melancholia is a mental health condition linked to depression, and as such, no, it isn't a good thing.

 

Feeling sad, however, is a normal mental state and yes, it is healthy. It is, for example, part of the normal grieving process. If you try to avoid it, then this doens't help you to work yourself through the issues that have caused the grief. I wouldn't want to go out looking for it, and I think "welcome" is too strong a term, but we should accept it as a very human condition and one that everyone experiences from time to time.

 

Dewey (the author of For The Love of Pete, and the follow-up stories) wrote an essay on emotions. We are too quick to suppress emotions and this is bad thing. Sadness is just another emotion and we should accept it as such.

[Razor]

Hehe, I like writing about sad stuff, dark things, bad situations... sweetness and light is just too easy. The proper thing is to have the full range of emotions yourself, but people do tend to focus on one extreme or the other. I know it makes me angry when people make me sad while I'm on a happy kick, and nobody can cheer me up after I decide to be all mopey.

 

Melancholy to me carries connotations of serious problems and mental issues, and considering the histories of the countries you've mentioned, I'm certain that for long periods of time the people had no good reason to be happy and every good reason to be sad. Thus, it shows up in their literary history as well. Makes sense to me, anyway. If I were russian, I'd be a pissed off mopey mofo, too.

[Caipirinha]

I don't think that sadness and melancholy are a good thing or something that should be openly welcomed into your life. I do however think that they are very real parts of life that shouldn't be ignored.

 

Being afraid to be sad is a concept that makes no sense to me. I grew up in a very emotionally expulsive Italian family. We fight more fiercely, laugh louder, and cry harder than most people I have ever met, and there iss never any shame in your emotions regardless of what emotion you are feeling at the time.

 

I realize that people deal with different emotions in different ways and in different time frames, but I've always been the type to face whatever I was feeling head on right away and let it all out. I mourn harder than anyone I have ever met, to the point of being a non-functioning emotional wreck for days. But I also get over tragedy much faster than most people I know. I yell and scream and rant and rave more than all of my friends combined when I am angry. But I also forgive more quickly than any of them.

 

My point is your emotions, what ever they are, need to be accepted for what they are and dealt with accordingly. Sadness is what it is. It's a normal human emotion and there's no shame in dealing with it in a normal human fashion.

[Krista]

What do you think? Is melancholia a good thing? Should we not be afraid to be sad? Should we welcome it instead of avoiding it?

 

I think I cry probably once a day.. lol. I cry easily, I'm an emotional wreck really. Like today I cried watching a movie. Not exactly out of sadness, but some people are ashamed, not of the feelings of being sad as everyone gets those, but as the act of crying and letting people see that part of them. It is a very vulnerable possition to be in so naturally people tend to be defensive when they're in the act of crying.

 

But really, bring on the tears... holding in sadness and pushing that away leads to being depressed or melancholy. Depressed people don't have a way to express their worries, thoughts, saddness and are scared or ashamed to get that feeling out of their system. Repressed feelings always lead to larger problems later and people need to deal with what makes them sad or anything else. So no one should be afraid to be sad welcome it just like all the rest of the emotions that we embrace sadnessed should be one as well.

 

Now with writing, I tend to stay away from a lasting sadness or depression with my characters or within my stories. Some may end tragic, but so far none of them deal with those emotions or circumstances. I'm not an emotional thrill-ride writer really or I don't think I am... I just shove my characters into realistic surroundings.. lol.

 

Krista

[JamesSavik]

>>melancholia

 

If melancholia were good for you, there wouldn't be a multi-billion dollar market for anti-depressants.