"Life Is Pain, Highness. Anyone Who Says Different Is Selling Something."

[jackofallgeeks]

I like to write, and when I write, it's about pain. Physical pain, emotional pain, mental pain - even the pain of being completly numb. Those who know me in passing might find this odd, while those who know me better might find it ironically fitting. Writing is perhapse the channel for dark emotion which can't find expression through the rest of my personality. In a sense, perhapse writing makes me whole.

It occurs to me, however, that I am not alone in this phenomenon of pain-writing. Poets and lyricists come readily to mind, their art being marked by strong emotion. But even beyond that, no story is of any worth without some conflict, some pain. When the characters are happy, the story is over.

I think, then, that the phenomenon occurs because pain seems more real when you put it in words. Joy feels fake when you try to write about it; two-dimentional, hollow. Pain can be felt in words, it strikes a chord and resonates within us.

Pain can be falsified.
Joy can not; if you try, it falls apart. Joy is too real to be transferred in words - it must be experienced. Words fail to capture the essence of joy because it is so powerful, so far beyond what can be expressed in such a limited medium. pain is simple enough to be recognized. Joy has to be real.

Comments

[surichan.livejournal.com]

I so envy those of you who can write. A failed trilogy of novels and a handful of others plotted which were never given the chance to take breath, many, many poems - probably all quite bad - and some fanfiction and various other mutterings...all worthless, all hopeless, all horribly written.

I wish I could express myself better with these words I so love. I think it's the curse of having a nearly wholly unoriginal mind.

Still - all the better that there are people like yourself who can make sense of yourselves well.

[naughtjennifer.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't say pain is simple or easily falsified. Just like joy, it is far too complex for words to describe. I think it is more easy to write about pain because it is something everyone can relate to. Few people would actually say they know what true joy is like. The pain seems more realistic because it is somethign that people find very real.

That said, I find that many people, especially in modern times, write about pain.

[giantewok.livejournal.com]

pain is something that strikes a chord is everybody. every angsty little goth, every stuck up punk, every emo kid... most all of them have experianced pain. the things that rank up there with pain are unrequited love and parents. i'll agree with you on the joy thing.. but pain like joy can't really be falsified.. not in reality. because you have to write about something you have had experiance with, or else it is stupid. imagine some unisex trying to write about being kicked in the nuts. it would never have happened to it, so it could only give an ultimately hollow speel onhow it 'seemed' to feel and how it looked like it "hurt". so any pain you supposedly "falsify" is in reality pain you have suffered in the past that has just been dredged up and given a new paint job; its still real, and its still yours.

[otakulk.livejournal.com]

I have to disagree with you about joy. I think that joy can be expresessed in words, or in lyrics, or in poems. I think it just so happens that people most commonly write about pain because it helps them deal with it. When people are happy, the don't think abouyt it, they don't question it, the don't want to write about it, they want to experience it.

Also, if you think about it, its only around the last twenty years that music has really shifted towards anger and pain. Everyone is in love with the idea of being unhappy. Everyone wants an excuse to be sad or angry. They believe that if they are angry, they can be excused from responsibility. They can act irrationally. Other love the sadness because it makes them feel special. It gives them a reason to be different from everyone else, not realizing their conformity to everyone else.

Think about it, music just a few decades ago was about the feeling it conveyed. Ocasionally it was a sad feeling, but there was always music that made people feel good. There was music for every emotion, love, happiness, confusion, contemplation, etc. Just think about how pop music has changed over the years. Its kinda depressing that so many people are in love with pain.

"Makes me wonder...."