Ever since man was able to hold a paintbrush, or better yet, even get a bit of color on his fingers, he's been entangled in an eternal quest to find something worth depicting. Have you ever wondered what the first painter – I mean really, the very first one – wanted to paint? Or how the first person to write down a story decided what it would be about?
I have, often, because it's a subject that fascinates me – the need to share something and even more, the selection of what to share. Looking today at what we consider to modern art, be it paintings, films, books, sculptures, what have you, I notice that they all have one thing in common. Regardless how different the subject matter or the way you convey it, they all basically just play on your emotions.
If you think about it, every good movie you've seen, every book you've enjoyed, you can probably locate, deep inside your own heart, what emotion it evoked to make you like it so much.
You're tempted to say 'happiness', 'joy', 'love', but is that really it? Are those the feelings that resonate strongest inside you? Perhaps. The debate about what drives us – love, fear, greed – is long and frankly, unnecessary at this point. So instead of going into that, I decided I'd take a look at some of the feelings that inspire something in us, at why we resonate with some stories more than with others.
1. Fear
Arguably the strongest emotion we're capable of, fear is present in nearly everything we do. Even in love, you can't love someone without feeling fear – of losing them, of something bad happening to them etc. Most of us are emphatic creatures by nature, we feel for the other and so a scary situation impacts us because immediately, we imagine ourselves in the protagonist's place.
That's why the horror genre is so strong and wide-spread. We might not like it, but our fears define a big chunk of who we are, so when someone touches upon that fear and uses it wisely, they get down to some very deep roots in our system.
The horror genre thrives on the possibility of 'what if', on planting tin your head the idea that what happens in the movie/book can also happen to you. Clowns can come up the drain (my personal fear, thank you very much, Stephen King), vampires can invade your town, your mom can become possessed by an evil spirit (can? Who are we kidding?).
As long as that 'can' exists in your brain – and it always will because a large part of fear is irrational – the story has a hold over you. It doesn't matter that you know vampires don't exist. After all, you don't have any solid proof to show they don't exist, do you?
2. Love
Again, I don't want to get into an argument over which is bigger – fear or love – so there's no particular reason behind this numbering, other than perhaps personal preference.
The need for love is a huge part of our life. We thrive on the love we're shown and from a very young age, we're raised to believe that one day, we will find love. Human beings are not meant to be alone, many argue, and so it's natural that we'll take a huge liking to anything that gives off the promise of love.
It's very similar to the fear argument, because this one also depends on us believing that what we see or read can happen to us as well. That's why the love genre is hugely popular. There are thousands of books, following similar plot lines of boy meets girl, or just human finds the perfect match.
Take, for example, the movie 'Me Before You'. Although I'm not a lovey-dovey type of person, even I cried at that one. It's the classical story of cheery young girl meets cynical young man – both quite attractive, naturally – and they fall hopelessly in love, despite all the many problems that they face. I think the perfect example is the scene where Will gives Lou a pair of bee-like stockings like the ones she had in childhood.
We all just want those stockings, don't we? Or at least what they represent – that special someone who listens to you and cares about making you happy.
3. Hate
Another hugely powerful emotion is of course, hate. They're both just two sides of the same coin, aren't they – love and hate? They're about empathy, about finding yourself in the protagonist and his many troubles. Perhaps you see your greatest foe in the bully of the story or the evil boss or the crazy war general. In that situation, you're not relating to the character based on an alignment between the two of you, but rather a common enemy.
Once more, you put yourself in the protagonist's shoes and identify with the struggle he's going through at the moment, although you're identifying more with the enemy than the character himself.
But the point is, for these three, as well as any other human emotion, that stories feed on feeling. As much on the readers' feelings as the creator's.
As a writer, I'll write a story because it appeals to me, because it helps me deal with some emotions that would otherwise remain pent up inside and slowly destroy me, I would imagine. But as a reader, the story must provide a similar service for you, otherwise it's of no help. You need to find yourself in the story, to recognize in the characters the same emotions that are inside yourself.
And this is true for any and every form of art. You'll never connect to a picture, film or book that doesn't evoke any feeling in you.
Photography
This is an art form I didn't address earlier and I felt I should, as it's very powerful and full of beauty in itself. And it's on a different plane than the horror story or the love flick.
On every social media platform you go to, be it Facebook, Instagram or Steemit, you will find yourself surrounded by pictures. Some stunning, some not so much, but you'll notice that the beautiful ones will always attract more attention. Why?
Because they speak of something, they tell a story to the person who's seeing it, they remind them of a moment in time, and thus of a feeling. Perhaps it's that lazy afternoon you spent in a cottage in the mountains with your wife, and seeing a picture of a similar-looking mountain will remind you of the calm and happiness you felt at that moment.
Or maybe you see the portrait of a beautiful young girl who reminds you of the one that got away. It's just something in the eyes, you can't quite place it, but it speaks to you. It tells you you don't have to go it alone.
And that's amazing to me, this secret language that we are able to speak to one another, and yet no two people understand exactly the same thing. Because each of us perceives emotion differently, each of us is connected to a memory or feeling that is entirely our own. Human being are capable of relating on a spectacular emotional level, but we take that in small doses, because who knows what might happen if we allowed waves of emotion to run over us?
How about you? When's the last time art broke into your heart?
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