Melancholy or do you experience the joy of being sad?
We can't always be up, so what does it mean for us to be down, to be melancholic? Today we discuss the moody spell along with the sometimes joyful aspects of melancholy and ask certain questions: if we're introverted and shy by nature, do extroverts experience melancholy like us? Is melancholy just a result of feeling tired from experiencing too much of something? Too much of a social situation? Are we melancholic because it can be difficult to navigate ourselves emotionally in a life where there is constant pressure to be 'up', to smile and be joyful? Dolli shares a poem and together, we share our thoughts on this murky but intriguing subject. Join us on the moody journey!
The Girl on the Bridge, 1901 - Edvard Munch
“Toska - noun /ˈtō-skə/ - Russian word roughly translated as sadness, melancholia, lugubriousness.
”No single word in English renders all the shades of toska. At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause. At less morbid levels it is a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness, mental throes, yearning. In particular cases it may be the desire for somebody of something specific, nostalgia, love-sickness. At the lowest level it grades into ennui, boredom.”
The Demon Seated, 1890, Mikhail Vrubel - Tretyakov Museum, Moscow