[M4A] A Study Into Depression In Media [Out-Loud Notes] [Audio Essay?] [SFW]

It is interesting and how many different ways depression can manifest and affect a person- one thing that I find pretty notable is how it can bring out or amplify a lot of other illnesses or conditions. There's a lot of people who develop depression and then they also develop insomnia or eating disorders, or different anxiety disorders, etc. and it's all really unfortunate and tied in with each other, and I imagine that variety of things can make it difficult to address not only from an outside standpoint, but also a, like, individual addressing oneself standpoint. I looked up A Little Life and read a little bit about it! Hopefully there's a good audiobook for it because it is 800 pages. Looking at how the book is described, it kind of reminds me of another novel that I'm currently getting into, which is No Longer Human by Osamu Dazai, which I found out about due to Junji Ito's adaptation of the work. This novel, similar to a little life, is also about a real person’s life (in this case the author’s, I’m *pretty* sure), and it really is absolutely terrifying to experience through their telling of it. It's horrifying and unfortunate, so much so that I had to take a break from reading it for a bit, but despite this, I’m anticipating coming back to it. I know that the story will not end well, and I don't really know how to fully explain why I like (or maybe, “want to view” is a better way to put it) that media so much despite the fact that there is no good to be felt through it. I've seen it compared to how we, as people, ironically really love things that cause us fear and adrenaline, like horror or rollercoasters. It's a safe avenue to explore those more intense emotions. Or maybe the realness of it appeals to us on some level? I'm not sure. I think there's a lot of ways to interpret it with no correct one, but I really do feel tragic media existing is very much important. Hope the psych classes are going well! One of my friends is a psych major as well, and I know they have a lot of years ahead of them ‘cause they're trying to get their masters. Ouch. Thank you so much for mentioning A Little Life, as well! I do wonder how we’d feel about it after reading/listening to the book, especially given the split opinions and reviews on it. Hope you take care as well! :D <3

This was so interesting and thought-provoking, and I really enjoyed it! As a psychology student and someone who has depression, I definitely agree that depression manifests in many different ways, although the lack of motivation is a common characteristic. For me, it’s not something that keeps me in bed all day, but before I was treated I did the bare minimum to get through each day. I was in survival mode and numb. And you’re so right that it can be quite subtle and difficult to depict realistically in media, and it also might not be something that keeps an audience’s interest if you try too hard for realism. I also agree that the “magically cured” angle is a bad representation of depression, and it definitely shouldn’t be romanticized. There has to be a balance in showing the character’s struggles in an honest and empathetic way but also keeping the plot interesting and engaging. This analysis reminded me of a highly controversial yet well known book- A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara. I haven’t read it myself, but I know that the author said the book is essentially about a man who has mental health struggles and never gets better. Some people say it’s one of their favorite books, and others say it’s just misery porn and the author is a sadist. I’m curious what your take is on media that goes so far in the other direction, where not only is there no magical cure but the character Is essentially trapped by their mental illness. Thank you for this analysis! It was really interesting to listen to, and I would love more media analyses from you :) or analyses/rambles on any topic that interests you really. Take care 💞

cosmic

I hadn’t really thought about the topic that much in the past either, so it was really surprising to see just *how common* melancholic characters/themes were in different films/literature/etc., to the point where depressiveness has been depicted in different arts since the beginning (with the earliest examples I could find being artists in the 1400’s, but I’m sure it goes way farther back than that) On the point of accurate portrayals of depression- “Melancholia”, a movie from 2011 was a REALLY true depiction of it, which had a “the world is ending and there’s nothing we can do about it” plot. I forgot to mention it here (bah! Oh well) but it’s an example of depressiveness being extremely accurately portrayed in a film that I thought was really good- and even then, it has to use fantastical elements (a planet colliding with earth) to really bring that out. And wouldn’t you know… it’s also really popularly described as being very slow and even pretty boring even by people who loved it, and I’d agree, because it’s supposed to be like that. I found that really interesting. The movie is *really incredible*, and also a really good example of why depression *isn’t* typically accurate to real life in other works- because it typically doesn’t fit into most stories. It took blowing up the earth for this film to do it with high accuracy, after all. That’s really cool to see that author avoiding the miracle cure trope! It feels a lot less common nowadays, and is even subverted a lot, which I think is nice. Hope you’ve been doing sweet as well, Mary :D

I love your audio essays so much 🥰! I was so happy to see the notification when I woke up and then I was hyped to see that it was a longer audio. I don’t struggle with depression in my life (I have had some dark periods and I definitely have other mental struggles lol), so I didn’t particularly think about media representation of depression before. You gave me a lot of ponder on, especially on the idea that portraying depression / mental illness accurately would be boring, not interesting. This also reminded me that one of my all-time favourite characters has depression and ptsd and thankfully the author avoided the “miracle cure” option for his story, even though the world he lives in is a fantasy one where you can do amazing things. He is a hero, always saving others and everyone loves him and looks up to him and during the course of the books, his life improved immensely, but he still struggles a lot with his mental health, but as you said, he does keep trying everyday. And now that you’ve mentioned the 4 temperament ensemble, I realized that he is often paired with a well-adjusted, extroverted, easygoing, lively character a lot. And their interactions are some of the best in the whole book series. Hope you’re having a nice day, Moral ❤️