Why do people equate "dark" with "realistic?"

Those are interesting questions, besty. I don't have an answer, but I'm really intrigued.

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"happiness, contentment, bliss, and laughter are an unreachable dream"

I believe these are all responses based on individual choice. Maybe the reluctance of some to take reponsibility for the experience of their own lives is at the core of the problem.

The classic 'half full or half empty' conundrum.

Or perhaps the Horatio Alger, you can overcome anything, belief.

Oh...I kinda like the yin/yang thing. Lightness, happiness, bliss, anger, desperation and sadness are all a part of living life. I prefer to give expression to all of those moments. I don't always succeed...but I try...Lord, how I try.

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PJ - and that, my friend, is because you walk in the light. I've seen it.

My father was one of those "dark = real" folks. When I had a stillborn child his words of "confort" were "Well, now you know what life is really all about." So sad to that he spent 83 years living out that POV. I think he (and others like him) believe that there is a danger in focusing too much on the light and happy and by doing so one lacks balance and lives in denial. But how much light IS too much? Truly a balance in perspective is necessary, but which side do you prefer to DWELL on and do you dwell on it to the exclusion of the opposite?

The choice, I fear, may be a genetic predisposition more than it is a learned response.

Updated On: 5/23/07 at 11:40 AM

Maybe part of it is lowering our expectations so that we're not disappointed by expecting to find the good and unhappiness occurs. It's a defense mechanism.


Edited for multiple typos. I'm pessimistic about improving my typing skills.

Updated On: 5/23/07 at 11:46 AM

B12: My comment wasn't really meant to be taken out of context. People were complaining that OLIVER! is a good show, if a bit dark. My stance on the subject was that there's nothing unnecessarily dark about OLIVER! - it perfectly captures the grit, crime, and fear of the underworld of London. That's what I meant.

To the same effect, I have the same feelings about the Broadway production of MARY POPPINS. It's just not realistic ENOUGH.

Do you see what I mean?


Don't place an umbrella over what I said...it doesn't apply to everything. I was just talking about OLIVER!.

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"Don't place an umbrella over what I said...it doesn't apply to everything. I was just talking about OLIVER!."

Munk, apparently you need to reread the first sentence of my post.

This discussion thread was prompted by your post, but "had nothing to do with you" or what you said. The discussion didn't belong in the "Oliver!" thread (obviously) or on the Main Board for that matter.

Your comment "inspired" me nonetheless to post this, but it really doesn't have anything to do with you.

There is a different issue mentioned by some here too, which I agree with: Dark "plays" better than Light. And that's not really what I mean by this thread. Stories obviously need conflict, struggles, danger, etc. Because, frankly, if you sit on a stage (or in a film, or in the pages of a book) and smile for hours on end, your audience isn't going to be interested.

Just like self-pity doesn't play well (I WISH to God that many of our modern, playwrights, actors, screenwriters, directors, etc. would REMEMBER this). It's far more interesting for audiences to pity a character than it is to watch the character pity himself/herself at great length. And dark plot elements do generally play better than lighter elements.

But that's not what people say when they criticize art. They say that the story was more REALISTIC because it was darker. It's the "reality" of darkness over anything uplifting/light/happy that doesn't make sense to me. It's a strange comment, yet so many people say it and believe it.

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Updated On: 5/23/07 at 12:26 PM

I also think it has a lot to do with the increase of cynicism in this country in the past 40-50 years, of which there was a sharp incline since the early 90s.

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PalJoey- amazing book!!!

I'm not one to equate dark with realistic anymore than I am to equate light with fantasy.

Well, if you're talking about film, literature, etc, periods of Realism usually follow a conflict or war of some kind. Obviously, the experience influences art and artists, which link the tragic with what's considered "real." So I think there's a real history/art connection there too.

I think people view dark and gritty as more real, because that's what's in the news--the news is mostly sad and/or violent, so people get the impression that that's what the world is like.

I think Jaily also makes a very good and very florid case.