The Sarajevans have a very particular world view - a mordant wit coupled with this unbearable sadness and... truckloads of guts, you know.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
Proud people breed sad sorrows for themselves.
Behind every crime is a story of sadness.
When I first read the story 'Guts' in workshop - my fellow writers that I've been meeting with for almost 20 years - they laughed; they didn't have any kind of shock reaction.
Those who weep for the happy periods which they encounter in history acknowledge what they want; not the alleviation but the silencing of misery.
I'm not sure. But that bless-his/her-heart kind of melancholic humor is among my favorite things in the world. I guess it exposes a kind of humanity - or that's the hope, at least - a kind of grudging respect for human frailty. Unless it's actually kicking human frailty while it's down - I'm not sure.
Our culture has become increasingly intolerant of that acute sorrow, that intense mental anguish and deep remorse which may be defined as grief. We want to medicate such sorrow away.
If you have ever been in a real tragic or sad situation, the words that come out are hopelessly inadequate and kind of cliched.
There is the melancholy of Europe. There is the romantic malaise. Feeling sad is almost a form of deepness.
I've never thought of my characters as being sad. On the contrary, they are full of life. They didn't choose tragedy. Tragedy chose them.
Greek tragedy was pre-Freudian, so every emotion has to be so raw; there are no psychological undertones.