#bts tragedy

[andy-wm]

Aesthetic Emotions and the Catharsis of Tragedy

How I feel after watching Jimin's Production Diary - The Truth Untold.

Why do we feel so drawn to emotional outpouring of others?

Why does the suffering and pain of artists make 'meaningful' art'?

I'm going to tell you why I think Face is a Greek Tragedy and why, even though the album is a complete and perfect story, we still needed Letter.

You know how sometimes you just need a good cry? And afterwards you feel better, like a weight has lifted... that's catharsis.

Based on the philosophy of the ancient greek philosopers Aristotle and Plato, the catharsis offered by tragedy in art is good for your soul.

The tragedy I'm talking about is not like a natural disaster. Its not like an unfathomably sad real life situation such as war, or the failure of the referendum for The Voice to pass in Australia.

I'm talking about Tragedy as a literary and artistic genre.

Simply put, Tragedy as a genre is identified by pathos and passion. And the work must have a narrative structure - a beginning, a middle, and an end.

Pathos being the ability to identify with and pity a person going through hard times.

Passion referring to strong emotion (of any sort).

But how do we find the equivalent of that literary theory in work that's not a typical story? In a song, or in art?

In my opinion, we can see something similar in music if we combine literary theory and art theory. After all, what is a song but a story delivered with emotion through music, and experienced as art is?

There's a school of art theory called Aesthetic Emotionalism.

In a nutshell, this means that the VALUE of the artwork comes from the way it communicates or expresses emotion. Mood, colour, tone, language all contribute to the feelings we get when we experience that work, whether it's looking at a picture or listening to music. They help us pick up on the emotions the artist is conveying.

So what happens when you experience those emotions through art? What is catharsis?

The experience of tragic events in art, whether it's a heart-rending drama, or a beautiful sad song, or a dark and menacing painting, can give you access to emotions like fear, pity, and regret. Feeling those emotions through art lets you purge the heaviness of them from your mind and body, giving you a sense of relief. That's catharsis.

It seems counter-intuitive but ultimately the experience is uplifting. It's like having the benefits of a therapy session, but without having to face YOUR OWN demons.

Becuase of the narrative structure, and the resolution of conflict, there's always relief at the end of the story.

You feel cleansed of those strong emotions, reengergised and ready to go on. But you also feel a sense of calm understanding. The pathos part of the tragedy gives you insight into the suffering of the character in the story.

Think about the narrative structure of the album Face.

The album has a carefully planned narrative, and a sense of rising and falling energy with these songs that's strongly reminiscent of the structure of a Hero's Journey.

And think about the individual songs in terms of Aesthetic Emotionalism too ...how they convey emotions through tone, pace, language, colour etc.

I'm going to go ahead and say that the strength of the Aesthetic Emotionalism in these songs (and in BTS's music in general) is a major reason they have such impact even when you dont understand the lyrics.

Now let's combine them... look at the emotions conveyed in these songs and how the literary theory of a tragedy might apply to the album :

The first song is the slow and devastating Face Off, with its hypnotic rhythm and strange, discomforting sound effects. It reallly does transport us into a dreamlike/nightmare landscape. But the last few words of the song foreshadow that it's gonna be alright.

Then we have the surreal, melancholy Dive, drawing us further into this dystopian world. It also uses sound effects to make us feel like we are being pulled through time. Dive is reminiscent of a soundtrack from a video, but it's been separated from it's film reel, leaving the listener to guess and imagine the scenes unfolding. It feels like jimin has come untethered from his reality.

Like Crazy comes like rising action in a novel, and we get character development, a bit of plot information, and conflict. But the song itself is a viby dance track with a party atmosphere (if you don't look too closely) so we get a reprieve from the darkness of Face Off and Dive. Its hypnotic beat is enough to keep us locked in the surreal dreamlike world that's been built around us by the previous songs, and the lyrics echo that.

Alone takes us back down into the darkness of Jimin's state of mind, both lyrically and with its low tones and slow pace. We get the metronome, the marking of slow time.

Set Me Free has a totally different energy. Jimin's tone of of voice is much brighter, but hard and determined. Set Me Free isnt a request, it's a demand. The music is forceful. It's like a battle march. The story has reached its climax.

Returning to Like Crazy (English version) after Set Me Free, is like returning to a gentle refrain. Its so much softer and more plaintive than the demanding Set Me Free, echoing the earlier melody and words, but it hits sightly different in English. We are into the denouement of this story, the resolution has come.

But it's not the end.

It is not the end, because after a few minutes of silence, time to breathe, we get Letter.

Why is letter here?

Jimin could have released Letter on Weverse or Soundcloud or directly onto Spotify. But he chose to include it at the end of the album.

I feel this is so important, because the specific set of circumstances of this album means this Tragedy we've just experienced isn't entirely consistent with the literary genre.

FACE ticks all the boxes for a Tragedy in the literary sense, it has pathos and passion and narrative structure. If you were a casual listener and you got to the end of the album you would have a sense of catharsis, as intended. But there's a complication.

ARMY aren't casual listeners.

This is personal.

We know Park Jimin, the real person.

We know this isn't fiction. This shit is real. It was real for him when he wrote it and it's real for us now.

Achieving catharsis isn't that easy when it's personal. Not when the hurt is real.

That's why he gave us letter.

That's why he gave it ONLY TO US.

Letter is a soft sweet gift, a sentimental dedication full of reminiscences that only ARMY will understand. The melody is gentle, like a lullaby, and Jungkook's backup vocals are enough to make you weep, if you aren't weeping already.

(**I have a theory that jk either didn't know about letter or didn't know Jimin was going to ask him to sing. See this post for why)

Letter does exactly what it's meant to - it fills us with warmth. It makes us overflow with love. It's a soothing balm to heal our hearts.

And its everything we need in order to let go of those heavy feelings of fear and pity, of worry and sadness for Jimin that the album brought to the fore.

Jimin knew we would need more. That's why he he sent us letter, right at the very end.

"I'm sorry. Thank you," It says.

"Don't cry. It's gonna be alright."

#park jimin #jeon jungguk #jikook #jimin face #park jimin face #park jimin letter #letter for army #pathos #plato #tragedy #aesthetic emotion #art theory #literary theory #bts #bts Jimin

[its-short-for-jackalope]

today I learned that Jon played the entirety of "The Poison Within" while looking into MK's eyes and I'm pretty sure that knowledge has irreversibly changed me as a person

#cant think of that scene the same way again. it was already epic but now.... ough <3 #diedrich the whimsical bard who is mostly there for a laugh staring straight at (or through) kat as he sings about her tragedy #and then she stabs him! she already said something about not wanting witnesses but maybe it was more than that. #maybe he knew too much (how could he know? what else does he know?) and that scared her #ill be going insane about this for a while #anyway on hour of headless bts on youtube! very cool very fun! #jack jabbers #shipwrecked comedy #headless #headless series #headless: a sleepy hollow story #jon cozart #mk wiles #mary kate wiles

[fitia]

I want to do one of those dashboard simulator posts but I feel like they'll just be very targeted

#fitiaposting #Mutual 1: I need to see the downfall of the American empire in my lifetime #Mutual 2: [Reblogged post] ''There's a certain tragedy to the breaking of the tension of an egg yolk and seeing it run'' [tagged: Izuna] #Mutual 3: Griffith's pussy would snap shut onto Guts' dick like a bear trap #Mutual 4: [anime mangacaps] #Mutual 5: [beautiful art] #Mutual 6: When do the BTS boys return from war #or something

[teller-of-tragedies]

ooo this mv is FUN

btw no one asked but i also have

- an instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teller.of.tragedies/

- a twitter: https://twitter.com/totragedies

- a shop: https://society6.com/telleroftragedies?curator=telleroftragedies

btw2 tnx have a lovely day bye

btw3 COMMISSIONS ARE STILL OPEN, IF YOURE INTERESTED PLEASE DM ME!!!!!!!!!!! ! !

#art #digital art #artists on tumblr #art on tumblr #pixel artist #pixel art #pixel aesthetic #jungkook #aesthetic #jeon jungkook #bangtan fan art #bangtan #bangtan sonyeondan #my artwork #my art #seven #jungkook seven #bts #teller of tragedies

[aipaintchaos]

Lovers

#tragic lovers #gay as fuck #moon and sun as lovers trope is not overated right? #moon #sun #tragedy #i drew this based on jikook #that fic in jikook ao3 made me CRY #ifykyk #jikook #ok some art tags #artists on tumblr #illustration #bts #kookmin

[supermusicallee]

the new glee documentary "the price of glee" is disgusting and exploitative. a trailer that only focuses on "the three deaths" with an ominous music behind? equating mark's suicide to cory and naya's deaths? how dare you?

#the price of glee #glee docuseries #as a glee fan who would love to see more bts footage n interviews with the cast‚ this is such a huge disappointed. hope it fails miserably #''endless scandals tabloid gossip and fatal tragedies'' ???? YOU are the that causes scandals amd tabloid gossips!! #i hate this #*nr

[artistaes]

genre of my life story: hurt/comfort without the comfort

#im back #kinda sorta #hurt/comfort #angst #tragedy #romance #but where is it #nct scenarios #bts scenarios #cpop scenarios #kpop scenarios #shitpost

[94erz]

The fact that this is the mural Namjoon was talking about during that photoshoot wondering why it hadn't been removed yet

Like why would they remove this? This is iconic.

Not even just for Namjoon, but the cat? Hello? Whoever's idea it was to draw a highly detailed Namjoon, a beautiful color background with flowers, and that hilarious cartoon cat peeking over his shoulder is a genius.

Plus that highly out-of-place moon with a party hat, the two different fonts for the words, and the little houses in front, like please, this is art.

#Sab talks BTS stuff #this is hilarious and incredible in all the right ways #if this is ever removed it'll be a tragedy actually

[sholeh675]

Flashback scenes this, TOG sequel that, what about those deleted scenes from the first movie, huh? 🥲 never forget

#the old guard #lol flashback scenes would be cool but i get that budgets limit the filmmakers freedom #i trust them to give us a good sequel #the biggest tragedy is still the lack of deleted scenes and BTS from the original #we were robbed

[kommunisti]

maybe this is tongue in cheek maybe not, anyway every time there is a disaster happening that is being discussed online (like now) and i see a bunch of kpop tags trending every day i just feel like we should radicalize kpoppies so they would direct this energy to actual causes and not like. cheering up a guy from some idol group bc he got less lines than others

#i'm joking except maybe not #like bts stans in finland persuaded some random cafe to put up a jimin wall with a huge jimin decal and everything #they've chased people off social media for breathing in the direction of their meow meows #can't they direct this energy towards helping people #and i know there has been discussions of this when there's an active tragedy going on and kpop stans are like uhmm we still must promo our #idols even if this tag is overshadowing the ones abt this tragedy it's not our problem why should we care #how are u putting all ur energy into promoting some idol group when people are being slaughtered and a direct way to help is talking abt it #txt

[kdramaxoxo]

Why didn’t Yoongi’s hair make my Spotify top 100?

#a tragedy #spotify wrapped #lol #someone put me to bed #bts #suga #bias #i will mourn the day he gets that hair cut

[lokisasylum]

#the only positive outcome of this greek tragedy #my boi getting that money #jimin #park jimin #bts jimin #bts #pjm #face by jimin #jimin face

[min-yumniverse]

Stroke My Whiskers One Last Time (Trailer) 9.3.22

Y/N was the neighbourhood sunshine. She was sweet and lively. She waited every table in the bakery with a hop in her step. Even without her parents to guide her onwards through her life, she still moves forward with a smile on her face, just like her mother wanted.

Her life becomes repetitive; A black cat greets her as she comes home every day, and leaves early, before she can awaken. Every morning she wonders where her “Little Prince” goes off to so early.

The Crowned Prince, Yoongi, hates his life in he Castle. He wants to be able to roam throughout the kingdom and find someone to wed. But his father wants him to marry a suitable wife, another noble or royal. But he wants to follow his heart, not his status.

#suga x reader #fantasy au #yoongi #royalty au #tragedy #romance #yoongi cat #little meow meow #yoongi x reader #bts x reader

[svt-yexi]

NOTICE:

Due to the Itaewon tragedy, and the fact that what is written about in this blog relates to not only kpop but Korea in general, during Korea's mourning period (until Nov 5), all currently scheduled posts will be rescheduled to start on Nov 6.

#itaewon #itaewon tragedy #Itaewon accident #Korea #Seoul #Kpop #Seventeen #Bts #Nct #Exo #Ateez #tomorrow x together #Twice #Itzy #Blackpink

[teller-of-tragedies]

this mv is the cutest, probably one of my favorites of all time

btw no one asked but i also have

- an instagram: https://www.instagram.com/teller.of.tragedies/

- a twitter: https://twitter.com/totragedies

- a shop: https://society6.com/telleroftragedies?curator=telleroftragedies

btw2 tnx have a lovely day bye

btw3 COMMISSIONS ARE STILL OPEN, IF YOURE INTERESTED PLEASE DM ME!!!!!!!!!!! ! !

#bts #bts art #bangtan #the astronaut #bangtan sonyeondan #jin #seokjin #kim seokjin #pixel art #pixel artist #pixel aesthetic #artwork #artists on tumblr #art on tumblr #digital art #digital artist #art #fan art #bts fan art #teller of tragedies

[ivyines]

I just went from watching Funny BTS moments to silently sobbing and researching the Sewol Ferry Tragedy in less than a day. I will never listen to Spring Day the same way after this.

#BTS #bangtan #sewol ferry tragedy #spring day