--a focus on depression--
How Kate Moss, Kurt Cobain and Tori Amos Make Me Sad
A focus on how depression can be delicious
We belong to an era when television is rendered god, when radios are worshipped in a subtle way. We, the members of this group were teenagers during the 90's. Most of us enjoyed a healthy teenage life in the comfort of our parents, religion, shopping malls, Nike Air Jordans, WWF wrestling idols, grunge music and suicidal tendencies. In a world where reality is a stage, we are the entertained audience- viewers of both the real world and parallel universe; and the materials around us, both tangible and abstract, are our influences. According to Jessica Zafra, we live in a world where everything is a commodity and so are you. How far can the media go? Are we just mere passive spectators? Let me use some symbols…
Kate Moss. Cool has evolved from being an adjective that describes temperature to the word that describes what is hip. You look at the latest issue of vogue to see what the media subtly tells you on what ought to be-a paper thin waif or a fat-chested porn goddess. If you are a man, media suggests you to be buff like Brad Pitt. Nowadays, the media has become the judge of what is beautiful and their parameter is the law. They may not tell us directly that we must abide them; they won't do that of course, so they appeal to our hedonistic desire of becoming attractive. In a study conducted by a Canadian group of psychiatrist in June 2001, there is a strong association of major depression and intake of diet pills. This association though was not established empirically as direct relationship between intake of these diet pills (fenfluramine and phentermine) and the occurrence of major depression, but the study focused on how insecurity can drive one to take diet pills as a result of discontentment and bodily issues. Supermodels somehow have the power to make people feel ugly and fat. This is one of the reasons why cosmetic surgery has become a top selling area of specialization. People have the right to improve themselves, but given the present scenario of young women undergoing surgical procedures just to be like somebody they saw in the magazine or television, one may think that the whole idea is merely neurotic. If you're fat and ugly, you're such an eyesore. You'll become beautiful if you're fit, even if you stick a finger in your throat, even if you're already killing yourself. There are many ways of becoming slim and healthy, but the norms make us believe that it is not enough. We must be like somebody the society is worshipping or else, we won't be loved. Bulimia nervosa is a disease, and faddism is an etiologic factor.
Kurt Cobain. Jimi Hendrix can also be a substitute, but we are at our 20's and Kurt is the latest and most influential rockstar to kill himself. Since Kurt Cobain committed suicide in April 1994, there are reports of copycat suicide incidences not only in the United States but also in our country. The latest Cobain-related suicide was during the time of Columbine Highschool killings in the late 90's. A US rock band has a song which has lyrics similar to the words Cobain used in his songs. While this particular Columbine High school student who survived the killings was listening to this song, he shot himself in the head. Trauma, movie idols, sad life may have lead this poor kid to end his life, and we can't point out a single factor. There are many suicide incidents existed during those times, all can be directly associated with the Cobain suicide. That's the most dangerous part of it. To paraphrase the statement done by Jessica Zafra (1994) on her commentary about that matter, she noted that the fans somehow thought that Kurt Cobain did the ultimate act of being cool. The connection of these suicide acts is really factual, just how David Myers (1999) described it. In a theory made by Sigmund Freud about aggression, he wrote about aggression turned inward. According to this theory, our hate is directed to ourselves when we can no longer control or manipulate something in our environment that makes us feel bad, like a presence of an obnoxious mother who always yells at us. When coping mechanisms collapse, we intend to pull the trigger directly against our cranium, and adolescents are the common victims.
Tori Amos. She is an American song writer who has an appetite for sadness. This is related to the likes of Emily Dickinson, poet whose inspiration on depression made her a great artist. According to Abbe Miller on his journal on Poet Emily Dickenson and The Ability for Greatness (2006)," Dickinson, a shut-in, who never married seemed to be highly inspired by her own depression and insecurities, throughout the majority of her pieces. Much of her work denotes feelings of sadness and despair, but even these negative stimuli have allowed her to become one of the most famous American poets". In her piece I died for Beauty - but was scarce, Dickinson describes herself situated in the afterlife. The imagery of her post earthly life is seen throughout the poem, utilizing her brilliantly crafted words to paint a vivid picture for the audience.
This piece of art relays the feelings that Dickinson had regarding the nature of her death as well as the preservation of her memory on earth. Additionally, the poem can be curiously juxtaposed with the actual accomplishments that she experienced in her life as well as the greatness she achieved after it. Tori Amos has this similar manner of influencing a listener of her song to feel that kind of emptiness and just how Sarah Mclachlan describes it as "glorious sadness." These evidences suggest that the cathartic effect of depression enables one to be great and famous. It has become a way for artists to divulge their own issues of ennui to their spectators. The spectators then will absorb the message and will feel the sudden feeling of tedium that these artists are conveying. Then, it will be magical. Knowing that someone can actually feel the sadness that we are enduring is actually comforting. It makes us feel that we are not alone in this world.
Hate, fear, love and sadness are the powerful emotions that can be really infectious. We inhale it then breathe it out for our fellows to endure. Sometimes when we are longing for some comfort, we tend to use sadness as an indulgence. We wallow on sadness to numb ourselves of the lingering pain that we are enduring. It becomes our haven, our pilgrimage, until that phoenix life emerges and saves us from the ache.
Going back to the influence of the media and our environment, the authors just want to emphasize to the readers the power of freewill. We may be entertained onlookers of a big television we call reality, but we may not be passive absorbers of anything it expresses. We can act against, make sensible opinions, or just do nothing whenever a suggestion in on the floor. Even though depression can come from a second hand stimulus, and no matter how powerful it can affect us, we can still discriminate useful ideas from just nuisance ones. Whatever we do, choose life.
"Psychiatrists say that 1 of 4 people is mentally ill. Check three friends. If they're OK, you're it!"
--- Cno kea kina Ryan, Melai at Bryan ang mentally ill?
"The New England Journal of Medicine reports that
9 out of 10 doctors agree that 1 out of 10 doctors is an idiot. "
Girls, just remember....
Girls are like apples on trees. The best ones are at the top of the tree.
The boys don't want to reach for the good ones
because they're afraid of falling and getting hurt.
Instead, they just get the rotten apples that are on the ground,
that aren't as good, but easy.
So the apples at the top think that there is something
wrong with them, when in reality, they are amazing.
That is why we just have to be a little patient...
the right boy, the one who takes a chance to find the good,
the right apple, will come someday...
A focus on how depression can be delicious
We belong to an era when television is rendered god, when radios are worshipped in a subtle way. We, the members of this group were teenagers during the 90's. Most of us enjoyed a healthy teenage life in the comfort of our parents, religion, shopping malls, Nike Air Jordans, WWF wrestling idols, grunge music and suicidal tendencies. In a world where reality is a stage, we are the entertained audience- viewers of both the real world and parallel universe; and the materials around us, both tangible and abstract, are our influences. According to Jessica Zafra, we live in a world where everything is a commodity and so are you. How far can the media go? Are we just mere passive spectators? Let me use some symbols…
Kate Moss. Cool has evolved from being an adjective that describes temperature to the word that describes what is hip. You look at the latest issue of vogue to see what the media subtly tells you on what ought to be-a paper thin waif or a fat-chested porn goddess. If you are a man, media suggests you to be buff like Brad Pitt. Nowadays, the media has become the judge of what is beautiful and their parameter is the law. They may not tell us directly that we must abide them; they won't do that of course, so they appeal to our hedonistic desire of becoming attractive. In a study conducted by a Canadian group of psychiatrist in June 2001, there is a strong association of major depression and intake of diet pills. This association though was not established empirically as direct relationship between intake of these diet pills (fenfluramine and phentermine) and the occurrence of major depression, but the study focused on how insecurity can drive one to take diet pills as a result of discontentment and bodily issues. Supermodels somehow have the power to make people feel ugly and fat. This is one of the reasons why cosmetic surgery has become a top selling area of specialization. People have the right to improve themselves, but given the present scenario of young women undergoing surgical procedures just to be like somebody they saw in the magazine or television, one may think that the whole idea is merely neurotic. If you're fat and ugly, you're such an eyesore. You'll become beautiful if you're fit, even if you stick a finger in your throat, even if you're already killing yourself. There are many ways of becoming slim and healthy, but the norms make us believe that it is not enough. We must be like somebody the society is worshipping or else, we won't be loved. Bulimia nervosa is a disease, and faddism is an etiologic factor.
Kurt Cobain. Jimi Hendrix can also be a substitute, but we are at our 20's and Kurt is the latest and most influential rockstar to kill himself. Since Kurt Cobain committed suicide in April 1994, there are reports of copycat suicide incidences not only in the United States but also in our country. The latest Cobain-related suicide was during the time of Columbine Highschool killings in the late 90's. A US rock band has a song which has lyrics similar to the words Cobain used in his songs. While this particular Columbine High school student who survived the killings was listening to this song, he shot himself in the head. Trauma, movie idols, sad life may have lead this poor kid to end his life, and we can't point out a single factor. There are many suicide incidents existed during those times, all can be directly associated with the Cobain suicide. That's the most dangerous part of it. To paraphrase the statement done by Jessica Zafra (1994) on her commentary about that matter, she noted that the fans somehow thought that Kurt Cobain did the ultimate act of being cool. The connection of these suicide acts is really factual, just how David Myers (1999) described it. In a theory made by Sigmund Freud about aggression, he wrote about aggression turned inward. According to this theory, our hate is directed to ourselves when we can no longer control or manipulate something in our environment that makes us feel bad, like a presence of an obnoxious mother who always yells at us. When coping mechanisms collapse, we intend to pull the trigger directly against our cranium, and adolescents are the common victims.
Tori Amos. She is an American song writer who has an appetite for sadness. This is related to the likes of Emily Dickinson, poet whose inspiration on depression made her a great artist. According to Abbe Miller on his journal on Poet Emily Dickenson and The Ability for Greatness (2006)," Dickinson, a shut-in, who never married seemed to be highly inspired by her own depression and insecurities, throughout the majority of her pieces. Much of her work denotes feelings of sadness and despair, but even these negative stimuli have allowed her to become one of the most famous American poets". In her piece I died for Beauty - but was scarce, Dickinson describes herself situated in the afterlife. The imagery of her post earthly life is seen throughout the poem, utilizing her brilliantly crafted words to paint a vivid picture for the audience.
This piece of art relays the feelings that Dickinson had regarding the nature of her death as well as the preservation of her memory on earth. Additionally, the poem can be curiously juxtaposed with the actual accomplishments that she experienced in her life as well as the greatness she achieved after it. Tori Amos has this similar manner of influencing a listener of her song to feel that kind of emptiness and just how Sarah Mclachlan describes it as "glorious sadness." These evidences suggest that the cathartic effect of depression enables one to be great and famous. It has become a way for artists to divulge their own issues of ennui to their spectators. The spectators then will absorb the message and will feel the sudden feeling of tedium that these artists are conveying. Then, it will be magical. Knowing that someone can actually feel the sadness that we are enduring is actually comforting. It makes us feel that we are not alone in this world.
Hate, fear, love and sadness are the powerful emotions that can be really infectious. We inhale it then breathe it out for our fellows to endure. Sometimes when we are longing for some comfort, we tend to use sadness as an indulgence. We wallow on sadness to numb ourselves of the lingering pain that we are enduring. It becomes our haven, our pilgrimage, until that phoenix life emerges and saves us from the ache.
Going back to the influence of the media and our environment, the authors just want to emphasize to the readers the power of freewill. We may be entertained onlookers of a big television we call reality, but we may not be passive absorbers of anything it expresses. We can act against, make sensible opinions, or just do nothing whenever a suggestion in on the floor. Even though depression can come from a second hand stimulus, and no matter how powerful it can affect us, we can still discriminate useful ideas from just nuisance ones. Whatever we do, choose life.
"Psychiatrists say that 1 of 4 people is mentally ill. Check three friends. If they're OK, you're it!"
--- Cno kea kina Ryan, Melai at Bryan ang mentally ill?
"The New England Journal of Medicine reports that
9 out of 10 doctors agree that 1 out of 10 doctors is an idiot. "
Girls, just remember....
Girls are like apples on trees. The best ones are at the top of the tree.
The boys don't want to reach for the good ones
because they're afraid of falling and getting hurt.
Instead, they just get the rotten apples that are on the ground,
that aren't as good, but easy.
So the apples at the top think that there is something
wrong with them, when in reality, they are amazing.
That is why we just have to be a little patient...
the right boy, the one who takes a chance to find the good,
the right apple, will come someday...
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