Welcome,
For anyone who missed my previous posts explaining the purpose of this blog, you may want to start here:
http://fromyourinfluence.wordpress.com/2014/07/06/the-taste-of-iron-2/
But otherwise…
I’m Nate, and I experience trauma.
Irreversible:
Chastised:
Lyrics: for you to discover and interpret.
I’m a big fan of a good old swear. Yet sometimes I have been guilty of offending people. Under closer inspection, are these words really that bad? The ‘worst’ of them (for most) are named after sexual reproductive organs and the act of sex itself… and let’s face it… we all enjoy those things from time to time. Yet how was the traffic today? Murderous… oh deary me. How was your shopping trip at the weekend? A nightmare?… what a shame. Your insurance company are raping you?! Oh well.
My point I hear you ask? We as a society tend to trivalise certain matters, and get offended about the ones that really, don’t fucking matter. (Cheers Fry).
I’m not going to discuss the events that lead to my trauma, that’s where the line is drawn for me on this path of honesty. However, I don’t mind sharing with you the effects of it. These two songs (or pieces of music in the case of the first) are trying to express just that, as well as my interest in the darker side of art. Trauma is described as followed:
“Trauma, which means “wound” in Greek, [1] is often the result of an overwhelming amount of stress that exceeds one’s ability to cope or integrate the emotions involved with that experience. [2] A traumatic event involves one experience, or repeating events with the sense of being overwhelmed that can be delayed by weeks, years, or even decades as the person struggles to cope with the immediate circumstances, eventually leading to serious, long-term negative consequences, often overlooked even by mental health professionals: “If clinicians fail to look through a trauma lens and to conceptualize client problems as related possibly to current or past trauma, they may fail to see that trauma victims, young and old, organize much of their lives around repetitive patterns of reliving and warding off traumatic memories, reminders, and affects.” [3]”
Essentially: something shit happens, and you can’t get over it.
Throw this in with my previously discussed habits… have lead to some very dark times. Subsequently I’m a big fan of ‘dark’ media. Films that show traumatic events and the effects of them on people, books that tell stories of people going through psychological difficulties, and art that shows suffering. Sadistic? No. Masochistic? Possibly. Empathetic? Most definitely.
When I went to see the fantastic, ’27 Years a Slave’, about 30 minutes into the film, at a quite violent scene of torture, a middle aged couple in the row in front of me stood up and walked out of the cinema. That offended me more than any film I have ever seen. First of all; what did you think was going to happen? If you really can’t bring yourself to watch brutality, don’t go to see a film about slavery. Secondly, don’t walk out because it’s too much for you and then blame the film makers for making it too violent. That kind of thing happens every single day, and if it’s happening to you… you can’t just stand up and walk away.
People in the past have questioned why I would want to watch disturbing and sometimes violent films, and I always maintain that, from time to time, it’s important viewing. Not particularly enjoyable, but important. I’m not talking about ‘Saw 5’, or ‘The Human Centipede’ or any other form of torture porn. But I mean such films as:
Irreversible (in my opinion the best of these):
Shame:
Martyrs:
A Serbian Film (to a certain extent):
These films show not only how brutal life can be, but how selfishly people can act, and how cruel and sadistic we all have the capability to be. Some people claim media such as this will actually lead to people replicating awful crimes… But non of the films I’m talking about glorify such actions. Let’s not forget how these atrocious acts are still committed day to day, and yet we ignore and make jokes of them. When that all stops, maybe we won’t need to use artistic nature to create such ‘disgusting’ things. Until then: sit down, open your eyes to the bigger picture, gain some empathy and respect for people who have been through a tunnel of shit and came out cleaner the other side (Cheers Freeman/King).
I really do believe that the best thing you can do when going through dark times, is to take it and use it. Use it to make you stronger, try to deal with it in any adaptive way you can. I also believe a lot of these films, books, pictures and in this case, pieces of music come from a triumph over something traumatic. That is why I indulge in it.
Join me next time when i’ll be discussing how there’s always hope.
As always,
From your influence.
xxx
fromyourinfluence 