Strangely, but we need darkness. We need drama and unhappiness. And by “need” , I don’t mean that we strive for it naturally and consciously. But through the hardships, you shape as a person who you are right now.
In overall, exploring the dark corners of human’s mind sounds intriguing.
I remember playing the horror indie game called “The Cat lady”.
It was about woman, Susan Ashworth, who had been struggling with depression for a long time and decided to commit suicide. She swallowed an enormous amount of pills and after that, found herself in the house, talking with an old lady. This old lady sended her for a quest, telling her to find and kill five “maggots”. Until that, she cannot find piece and was given the worst ability ever. Immortality.
This game had this anxious, but strangelly beautiful dark atmosphere. It left a certain impression on me.
Susan’s adventures were almost suffocating at times.
In fact, in all of the stories we do need to have a conflict.
It is always interesting to see, how the main character will struggle and overcome them. And I doubt somebody will read a book, containing only the stories about happy people dancing in the meadow full of flowers. It would be nice for about, two pages.
“All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” was said by Leo Tolstoy. Not only literature, but art, videogames, cinematograpf, music - all of it is based on human suffering.
One author, Paul Watziawaik, in his “Pursuit of Unhappines” also observed how creative was Dante in the “Inferno” part. He ingeniously portrayed all of the nine circles, pain of the sinners and horror they experienced. But “Paradiso”…I don’t even remember what it was about. We haven’t even analyzed it at school.
Some people can't become happy, because…they don’t want to.
It can be either that they simply don’t know what happiness is. Or they simply can not admit, that they have this masochistic desire just to bathe in suffering. They find that darkness is complex, mysterious and even romantic. Poets and writers themselves are good example for this, for them it is a huge drive for inspiration.
Of course, it is unhealthy to spend all of your time contemplating about such things. If we speak particularly about depression, then it is never something that should be romanticised, only treated as soon as possible.
But just being in the dark, you begin to value the light more. It is simply in the human’s nature, to wish for something, which is scarce and hard to achieve.
This way, I imagine myself simply walking in the night, watching the city fall asleep. It gives me this calming, bittersweet sensation.
And then, feeble lights become stronger as the night progresses. They are brave, like the line of soldiers, but still soft and intangible. They are not fighting the darkness, they dance in it in complete harmony.
I know, that even if the darkness surrounds me, it makes my other senses stronger and lights are helping me in the distance. When I reach them, I will be at home. Ready for another journey.