So I was having a normal (read "mundane") day today. And I suddenly realized I haven't written a single post on here for quite a long time now. Not that anybody cares, but just that I felt like I had taken away a candy from the hands of a drooling kid. I'm listening to Mozart's Lacrimosa (Requiem) as I speak.. Oh no, wait, it's "On The Beautiful Blue Danube" by Strauss now.
Yeah, you're right. I am one of those people that listen to classical music nearly all the time. I love the beauty in music in its most pristine form. I hate the noise of abused electric guitars and growling vocals shredding my eardrum apart. I feel like tearing my skin off my body, screaming for the horror to end. Most of my friends, in contrast, are metalheads. Many of them listen to that shit saying it's the best form of music ever, not having any idea what the vocals are, not knowing what the song is supposed to convey, without a clue about why they like the gruesome and pathetic banging of the drums and riffing of electric guitars aimlessly, endlessly, and relentlessly. I think I can explain why they feel what they do. I'll try to explain their feelings by drawing an analogy with smoking tobacco, and I'll break this down into a few stages:
1. Initiation: It takes one guy to tell the rest of the flock that it's cool to smoke, and that it feels really good, and that the euphoria is nothing like anything they've ever known. This sets them thinking about whether or not it's okay to try it (although in the case of heavy metal this is easily achieved). The ones who are clear about their choices in life don't bother much, but the ones who aren't end up being herded along. I'm stressing on the fact that the lot that decides to not try it at all ends up being foolish not knowing anything outside the peephole of their narrow minds.
2. The Death of The Cat: Curiosity takes its toll on the overly curious, and the ones who're carried away by common perception so much that they begin to think their initial intentions were to discover the high, and NOT mere curiosity to know more. And soon, they begin thinking they're imbeciles just because they didn't get high on the Forbidden Fruit of heavy metal, and so they begin listening to more, and more, over and over again, notwithstanding how bad the musical piece actually is. The end result is that they end up forcing their minds to adapt to this repeated blaring noise, to a point where it actually begins to feel soothing. It's a lot like smoking, actually. When you first pick up the cigarette, if you're really really curious about what you're supposed to feel and especially excited because you're under-aged, the euphoria on having broken the law itself makes you high, relaxing receptors in your brain, allowing yourself to get high on anything at all. In such a stage, if chocolate were a banned substance, you'd get trippy on it. But after the initial euphoria fades away, you don't see any evidence of a high. This is where you need to stop; but sadly, very few do. The body HATES tobacco, remember that! That awful taste of tobacco in your mouth after puffing, nobody can say they like that! It's downright disgusting and the body, in its desperation to rid itself of this malignant substance, produces more and more saliva, ASKING you to spit it away and stop the source of it. But you don't.
3. Addiction: Nicotine rushes through your veins, even as your body makes one last frantic attempt to stop you from damaging it by coughing vigorously. You pay no heed and puff on ahead. Nicotinic acid reaches your brain, and activates receptors and this new-found sensation is the "high". But the catch here is that this new elevated state is fleeting and is a very alluring state for the body and, as a result, the brain drops all its natural defences and craves for that "high" again, and again, and again.. This is how people get hooked on tobacco. That isn't even the worst part: since the body gets used to this elevated state after a while, you end up taking in progressively higher amounts of tobacco to satiate the brain's need. In the context of heavy metal, this translates to progressively higher amounts of noise until this madness reaches a point where nearly ANY noise gets you headbanging.
4. Boredom and Relapse: You only reach this phase if you are forced to, either by an incorruptible conscience or by concerns over well-being. Either way, you need to make an effort to stay away from boredom as boredom gets you thinking about the high and your brain responds by simulating one for a brief period, following which you will automatically WANT that high again. The result is that you'll loop back to stage 3.
The ones that are willing enough to try to discover things beyond the ones they're used to, or are addicted to, end up finding much greater reserves of this "high" in less dangerous things, like a tobacco addict finds music, art, gardening and in general happiness. Likewise, metalheads really need to understand that there is greater music than unnecessary howling and guitar solos to be found everywhere: it may be the faint hum of a jolly guy in love, the happy tone in a mother's lullaby, the wind whistling past your ears and rustling up the leaves, the cacophony of a toddler meddling with a xylophone, or a hopeless romantic playing a melody on a violin. If your justification is that music can be enjoyed in every form, then it must be available in its more pristine form without any voice, right?
My point is not to denounce any view that you may have about music, or anything for that matter. You are allowed to think, speak, feel anything your brain may allow you to. As Voltaire said, "I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to death your right to say it."
Oh, wait! I have an interesting story about clowns (which is what this post is named after). Clowns, no matter how funny (or not) they are, are still characters without a heart. Their purpose is just entertainment, any any cost. Also, a clown doesn't have a face. His persona is irrelevant. But the reason clowns play such a major role in a kid's life is due to the fact that children are extremely responsive to people without faces, as it is the first aspect of anybody to register in a kid's mind. When a child sees a person without a face, it's like a wildcard entry in the kid's head. And what he registers this new character as is left entirely to the things around him. His reception of such a radically mysterious character can, and will be, very volatile. The very fact that this person has no face makes them seem unknowable to kids, and the random things done by clowns to amuse kids only ends up frightening them further, and around 40% kids under 7 years of age are coulrophobic for this reason.
The fear of the unknown has been a common thing all through human evolution and history. Early humans ran for shelter on seeing lightning; teenagers freak out at the very mention of commitment; parents fall over backwards at the prospect of their kids marrying on their own; the government ducks at having to admit responsibility over any of its fiascoes..
The fact is, we are all afraid of the clowns in our lives, and we have lived life to the fullest only if we can laugh at them; not out of indifference but out of triumph.
All hail Rachitha! :)
So much for now
Ciao.
CS
Yeah, you're right. I am one of those people that listen to classical music nearly all the time. I love the beauty in music in its most pristine form. I hate the noise of abused electric guitars and growling vocals shredding my eardrum apart. I feel like tearing my skin off my body, screaming for the horror to end. Most of my friends, in contrast, are metalheads. Many of them listen to that shit saying it's the best form of music ever, not having any idea what the vocals are, not knowing what the song is supposed to convey, without a clue about why they like the gruesome and pathetic banging of the drums and riffing of electric guitars aimlessly, endlessly, and relentlessly. I think I can explain why they feel what they do. I'll try to explain their feelings by drawing an analogy with smoking tobacco, and I'll break this down into a few stages:
1. Initiation: It takes one guy to tell the rest of the flock that it's cool to smoke, and that it feels really good, and that the euphoria is nothing like anything they've ever known. This sets them thinking about whether or not it's okay to try it (although in the case of heavy metal this is easily achieved). The ones who are clear about their choices in life don't bother much, but the ones who aren't end up being herded along. I'm stressing on the fact that the lot that decides to not try it at all ends up being foolish not knowing anything outside the peephole of their narrow minds.
2. The Death of The Cat: Curiosity takes its toll on the overly curious, and the ones who're carried away by common perception so much that they begin to think their initial intentions were to discover the high, and NOT mere curiosity to know more. And soon, they begin thinking they're imbeciles just because they didn't get high on the Forbidden Fruit of heavy metal, and so they begin listening to more, and more, over and over again, notwithstanding how bad the musical piece actually is. The end result is that they end up forcing their minds to adapt to this repeated blaring noise, to a point where it actually begins to feel soothing. It's a lot like smoking, actually. When you first pick up the cigarette, if you're really really curious about what you're supposed to feel and especially excited because you're under-aged, the euphoria on having broken the law itself makes you high, relaxing receptors in your brain, allowing yourself to get high on anything at all. In such a stage, if chocolate were a banned substance, you'd get trippy on it. But after the initial euphoria fades away, you don't see any evidence of a high. This is where you need to stop; but sadly, very few do. The body HATES tobacco, remember that! That awful taste of tobacco in your mouth after puffing, nobody can say they like that! It's downright disgusting and the body, in its desperation to rid itself of this malignant substance, produces more and more saliva, ASKING you to spit it away and stop the source of it. But you don't.
3. Addiction: Nicotine rushes through your veins, even as your body makes one last frantic attempt to stop you from damaging it by coughing vigorously. You pay no heed and puff on ahead. Nicotinic acid reaches your brain, and activates receptors and this new-found sensation is the "high". But the catch here is that this new elevated state is fleeting and is a very alluring state for the body and, as a result, the brain drops all its natural defences and craves for that "high" again, and again, and again.. This is how people get hooked on tobacco. That isn't even the worst part: since the body gets used to this elevated state after a while, you end up taking in progressively higher amounts of tobacco to satiate the brain's need. In the context of heavy metal, this translates to progressively higher amounts of noise until this madness reaches a point where nearly ANY noise gets you headbanging.
4. Boredom and Relapse: You only reach this phase if you are forced to, either by an incorruptible conscience or by concerns over well-being. Either way, you need to make an effort to stay away from boredom as boredom gets you thinking about the high and your brain responds by simulating one for a brief period, following which you will automatically WANT that high again. The result is that you'll loop back to stage 3.
The ones that are willing enough to try to discover things beyond the ones they're used to, or are addicted to, end up finding much greater reserves of this "high" in less dangerous things, like a tobacco addict finds music, art, gardening and in general happiness. Likewise, metalheads really need to understand that there is greater music than unnecessary howling and guitar solos to be found everywhere: it may be the faint hum of a jolly guy in love, the happy tone in a mother's lullaby, the wind whistling past your ears and rustling up the leaves, the cacophony of a toddler meddling with a xylophone, or a hopeless romantic playing a melody on a violin. If your justification is that music can be enjoyed in every form, then it must be available in its more pristine form without any voice, right?
My point is not to denounce any view that you may have about music, or anything for that matter. You are allowed to think, speak, feel anything your brain may allow you to. As Voltaire said, "I may not agree with what you have to say, but I will defend to death your right to say it."
Oh, wait! I have an interesting story about clowns (which is what this post is named after). Clowns, no matter how funny (or not) they are, are still characters without a heart. Their purpose is just entertainment, any any cost. Also, a clown doesn't have a face. His persona is irrelevant. But the reason clowns play such a major role in a kid's life is due to the fact that children are extremely responsive to people without faces, as it is the first aspect of anybody to register in a kid's mind. When a child sees a person without a face, it's like a wildcard entry in the kid's head. And what he registers this new character as is left entirely to the things around him. His reception of such a radically mysterious character can, and will be, very volatile. The very fact that this person has no face makes them seem unknowable to kids, and the random things done by clowns to amuse kids only ends up frightening them further, and around 40% kids under 7 years of age are coulrophobic for this reason.
The fear of the unknown has been a common thing all through human evolution and history. Early humans ran for shelter on seeing lightning; teenagers freak out at the very mention of commitment; parents fall over backwards at the prospect of their kids marrying on their own; the government ducks at having to admit responsibility over any of its fiascoes..
The fact is, we are all afraid of the clowns in our lives, and we have lived life to the fullest only if we can laugh at them; not out of indifference but out of triumph.
All hail Rachitha! :)
So much for now
Ciao.
CS
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