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Wednesday, February 05, 2003 Romanticism and Suffering From discussions in my theatre history class: the Romantics had the idea that the more original, the more creative, the more artistic you are, the more you will suffer in life. They also thought that in order to be a great artist, you had to suffer (and continue in that state, something of a permanent depression), accepting the use of drugs and alcohol in order to find their Muse and to escape from pain. (Interestingly, Coleridge never wrote unless he was high on opium, something I learned in high school. Impressionable young minds. Heh.) Although in terms of history we tend to say Romanticism faded in the nineteenth century, a surprising number of its tenets have permiated our society; the stereotype of the suffering artist for example. They loved Van Gogh and we--in a general sense, because I myself remain unimpressed--love James Dean, a larger-than-life character who lived as destructively as the characters he portrayed. However, I believe that great art comes less from the suffering itself than overcoming it; if you're depressed all the time you lose your creative spark--you cease to care. But without the suffering there is nothing to write about, nothing to sing about. Creating is a way of dealing with pain, a method of overcoming suffering itself. At least that's what most of us in class hope and believe; we'd rather not be self-destructive, depressed people, but we don't want to be mediocre artists either. The next couple of decades will tell who is right. ^ Top | 11:02 PM | | | 
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