"We all feed on tragedy
It's like blood to a vampire.
Vicariously, I
Live while the whole world dies
Much better you than I."
Why is it that human beings have such an appetite for tragedy? An appetite that even drowns out our appetite for love? Some of the greatest "love" stories in the world are based in tragedy. Look at Romeo and Juliet. Death and destruction. And more recently, look at Twilight. How much darkness and corruption and fear and sadness is in that series as a whole?
What about Wuthering Heights? There's a new version of it on tv round about now. "Oh, that's a beautiful story", Jared's mum said. But it's not. I admit that I haven't watched or read the whole thing yet, but I don't think it's a good idea for me to. I watched the first half of it last sunday and what do we see right away at the beginning? Heathcliffe, hopelessly and frighteningly obsessed, digs up Catherine's coffin, wrenches the thing apart and, though his own deluded mind sees her merely sleeping, the truth is that he climbs into the coffin and strokes the bones of his former love. And we are supposed to look at this as a beautiful story? It carries on. We go back in time and we see the two, Catherine and Heathcliffe, helplessly and hopelessly attached to each other. And yet what does she do? She marries someone else. The two torture each other. So much agony and anger. This is not love. This is obsession. Mutual obsession, disguised and paraded as "true love".
IT IS ALL A LIE.
In one of my English courses this year, one of the subjects we studied is "love". Again, the text we studied was not about love. It was about lust, obsession, infatuation. Not love. It angered me so much to hear people advertising this travesty of emotion as love, as true love, as soulmates.
LIES.
I have been obsessed with people. I have had people obsessed with me. I have felt lust and infatuation. And now I have experienced true love. And let me tell you, obsession and love are NOTHING alike. Nothing. It makes me so ANGRY that a writer or film maker can do this, can taint and corrupt the idea of love with their horrible, obsessive characters. And yet these "works of art", these "great love stories" are bought and eaten up by the average person! What kind of corrupted, twisted view of love does the population have if these horrible, frightening, tragic stories are viewed as stories of true love?
Perhaps if they are correct, then nobody experiences true love. I know of nobody who has had stories like Romeo and Juliet and Wuthering Heights happen to them in the real world. But I know that I have true love. I know it like I know who I am. And so, from my anger at popular authors and directers, comes fear. If what I have is true love, then there is only one path for it... the Wuthering Heights path, the Romeo and Juliet path, the Twilight path... the path to destruction. The destruction of the mind. The destruction of life. The destruction of other people's lives. I am so afraid. How can such a force of good have such bad effects?
I don't know who to believe- the world, or myself.
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I think i wrote something along these lines in like an english essay or something years ago lol saying that society was kind of masochistic/sadistic because like you said, all the greatest stories are tragic ones, and all the items in the news and tabloids are 99% sad horrible stories.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes there is definitely a misconception that love and obsession are the same thing, particularly emphasised by things like Twilight, which I must admit, I stopped enjoying the book after the angsty love/hate phase was over and they got together, I was just like "That never happens" but obviously this was because I'd just read it after the craziness that was McBoy.
But I think it's because we're young, and we have this innate desire for action and drama and an exciting life.. I mean think about old couples. To me, that's true love. It's not about sex, it's not about impressing each other.. It's about being each others companions and best friends for the rest of your lives. I mean I look at my grandparents, I know that they had a very .. I can't thinkn of a word, but when they were younger they went through some very dark periods in their marriage, but now i look at them, still together after decades, and that to me is true love. Maybe we have to go through the pain and misery, maybe we have to get past the obsession and the passion because I know it's unfair, but maybe we have to earn true love. Only after the most violent storms can you find true stillness and peace.
Sorry to keep rambling, but I also believe it's this generation. Most grandparents are still together, but most of the 2nd gen are divorcing, and then that leaves us kind of screwed. But then again maybe because now we're free to make the choice of being with someone forever, maybe the grand-generation are only together out of obligation?
But anyway I'm just trying to say that destruction may or may not be on the horizon, but if it's truly true, then you'll get through it
haha sorry im really the last person to talk about true love but yea