[tmbchr]™

Feelings Are Over-Rated



When and why did it become important for everybody to constantly “express themselves?” Why is that the end-all be-all of everything nowadays? What is it, exactly, that people get from expressing themselves that is so damned important?

What if you don’t have anything to express - does that mean you have no self? What if your self-expression is exactly the same as everyone else’s self-expression? Does that negate everyone’s expression?

And what the hell are feelings? Why is it so important that we label and define every single impression that crosses our perceptual field? The naming of feelings seems like a futile effort at trying to control and confine them; in actuality, it often distorts them.







4 Reader Responses

  1. Svenson Says:
    November 26th, 2007 at 4:49 pm

    Good points, stuff I’ve been thinking about lately. What I’ve been working on lately is just accepting that the expression of the feeling is not the feeling, and can’t really encapsulate what the feeling truly is. What I feel is just what I feel, and expression is just expression. This allows me to free up my expression, when I see that its really its own thing, like a living thing I create. I think this is a really important point for writers and artists, getting to that point where you realize that their words/creations have lives of their own and are going to do what they do regardless of what the artist wants them to express or convey.

  2. Cfraser Says:
    November 27th, 2007 at 7:47 am

    I think this is a really important point for writers and artists, getting to that point where you realize that their words/creations have lives of their own and are going to do what they do regardless of what the artist wants them to express or convey.

    One thing that really annoys me is when people (critics) have to associate what an author writes with the emotion or belief of the author, especially in fiction. Art is about expression, sure, but the best artists are able to control that expression and mold it into something beautiful, even when it appears ugly.

  3. Svenson Says:
    November 28th, 2007 at 4:15 am

    Right, good point Cfraser. I agree totally, I hate that as well. The artist draws on personal expierience to some extent, but at some point the story becomes, well, a story.

  4. carlos Says:
    November 28th, 2007 at 6:30 am

    NWA warned of the dangers of self-expression as far back as 1988:

    I’m expressin’ with my full capabilities
    Now I’m livin’ in correctional facilities
    ‘Cause some don’t agree with how I do this
    I get straight and masturbate with my two fists…



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