“Being human is difficult. Some people make it more difficult than others. I was one of those people.” (Lana Del Rey, 2012).
With countless hours of doom scrolling and added hours from other social media, watching movies, streaming shows and even interacting with posts on several platforms, we have accepted entertainment effortlessly. Despite this modern acceptance, do you ever consider how much of your screen time is spent on sad media? It might be lots, or it might be none. It might even be that late at night when you know you should be sleeping, it suddenly summons itself before you, and you are encapsulated beneath a dark cloud that absorbs your mood. Our world, if you have lived in it without some sort of protection over you that causes your eyes to see nothing but constellations and rainbows or waves of the ocean and joy, has proven to be full of sadness, sadness which does not have to be negative to us.
So many of us long in this life to someday be happy, an eternal goal that motivates so much because those who are not philosophers are misguided on what happiness might mean or how to get to it. However, in this search for living life with a smile across our faces, are we forgetting what it means to be sad or, even simpler, feel? I, for one, see the range of emotions capable of us as another beautiful part that we are so lucky to have the opportunity to experience. So, then, I argue that the occasional moment of a sad song or piece of media is not so bad for us. In fact, we can get so much out of melancholy that they are hard to express.
In an interview with Iheoma Nwachukwu, a professor in the English department here at Eastern, was asked various questions regarding sorrow within literature. When asked how consuming this type of content can be an important part of our lives, Nwachukwu gave a wise response with his own experience. “The world is an inherently sad place. It can be beautiful, don’t get me wrong. But misfortune sticks with us the longest. Sad stories remind us of the brevity of beauty on this planet. They are very hard to write. A story is, after all, a vision, set on paper. Technique makes it stick. Sad stories evoke our sympathy and empathy. They allow us to feel. To feel emotions. Sometimes, very deep emotions. You have not lived at all on this planet if you have not felt deeply,” he said.
Along with a truthful response of how stories of gloom can remind us we exist, Nwachukwu also shared with me recommendations of his personal favorites, such as Elizabeth McCracken’s “Something Amazing” and Chimamanda Adichie’s “The Headstrong Historian.” Nwachukwu also shared his own opinion on what exactly makes a sad story good: “The pacing is very important. The avoidance of generalization. Describe the emotion in terms of its sensual heatprint. Do not force the reader to feel sorry for your character. Sad stories can help emphasize a character’s yearning in a way that other merely difficult stories can’t,” he said. Naturally, I was curious about whether or not the professor himself participated in writing this sort of literature; the answer was yes. When asked whether or not he wrote anything sad, Nwachukwu shared a wholesome sentiment. “I do. I write about things that I care about. The things that move me. Sad stories provide a complicated opportunity to explore the deepest desires of my characters,” he said.
Yet of course, as much as melancholy should take a small part in our hearts so that we might feel whole and understood, it is important to recognize that limiting our consumption of it is also necessary. I inquired with Nwachukwu regarding whether or not consuming it could be dangerous, and his response was not disappointing: “Do not read only sad stories. Consume all types of fiction. Obviously people can tell the difference because the fictional people do not leave the safety of a book’s pages. The danger might be in looking upon the world with the sad lenses borrowed from fiction. As long as you don’t do it all the time,” he said.
At this point, you might be wondering to yourself: “Who are you? A Lana Del Rey enthusiast telling me I should go after being sad?” I am not asking you to come out of this longing to be depressed; I just want to spread unto you the knowledge that being sad can open your eyes to remembering what makes life meaningful to you. No matter what, your life is worth living, and whether you listen to the lyrics of a life you have or haven’t lived, read the words of a character you might or might not relate to, or watch movies that has made you cry a river of tears, your feelings are real and you should enjoy every moment that you can revel in them. After all, being sad is to be human, and being human is difficult.
