Opening page…
Why do you go looking for stories that make you cry?
People pay to weep for characters who never lived. Aristotle thought tragedy left its audience cleaner for it.
Your answer
A little context
You know how it ends. You've seen the trailer, read the reviews that tell you to bring tissues, maybe watched it twice already. You press play anyway, and if you're honest, the crying is part of the reason. Nobody goes looking for a stubbed toe. Something happens to sadness when it arrives inside a story.
Nearby questions
- Does knowing change it?A piece of writing moves you to tears. Then you learn a machine wrote every word. Does that change it?
- What would you still love if no one could ever see you loving it?Private pleasure, public approval, and the preferences that survive without an audience.
- Can something ugly be great art?Goya's black paintings, a scream in a symphony, a novel built to bore you. Some of the most admired work is hard to enjoy.
- The aura on your screenYou know the Sistine Chapel from images. If you went, what exactly would you be going for?
- The blade and the canvasIf you were angry enough at what it stood for, could you ever be right to put a blade through a painting?
