"I think that this is why I relish writing for you so much. It makes it possible for me to be not like I am, but as I desire for Little Igor to see me. I can be funny, because I have time to meditate about how to be funny,and I can repair mistakes when I perform mistakes, and I can be melancholy in manners that are interesting, not only melancholy. With writing, we have second chances. You mentioned to me that first evening of the voyage that you thought you might have been born to be a writer. What a terrible thing, I think. But I must tell you, I do not think that you understood the meaning of what you said when you said that. You were making suggestions of how you like to write, and how it is an interesting thing for you to imagine worlds that are not exactly like this one, or worlds that are exactly like this one. It is true, that I am certain, that you will write very many more books than I will, but it is me, not you, who was born to be the writer."- Alex (Everything is Illuminated by Jonathan Safran Foer)
"The chat began with the stereotypical comment that all effective art had to be borne of catharsis, trauma, or at least some kind of class struggle in order to be meaningful. This led us to the immediate question of whether good art could also be borne of cheerful people."
...
"Indeed, normality- emotional or otherwise- might perhaps not even exist. Where does this conversation leave sadness within the ill-defined continuums of normality and abnormality, then? While no one ever looks for the undercurrents of why happy people are happy, the reverse is often true of sad people. Except that when demonstrated so, sadness is never allowed to exist on its own, least of all in a normative state." - Getting a high from feeling low by tan shzr ee (straits times march 25 1010)
1. functions of writing: writing as a chance to reinvent yourself, an outlet for you to escape the drudgery that is your life and be who you wish you were?
2. functions of writing: writing as a form of escape?
3. can you not have experienced something for yourself and yet be able to effectively portray it through art?
4. why is happiness considered to be the normal behaviour in society?
5. can people be naturally sad?