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Hopelessness

Caravaggio, Medusa (c. 1597)









Hopelessness is a dark view of the future, in which there is no escape from unhappiness and suffering.


Real

True Narratives

The painter Caravaggio expressed a view of hopelessness in his art, which apparently reflected his life.
  • Andrew Graham-Dixon, Caravaggio: A Life Sacred and Profane (W.W. Norton & Company, 2011).
  • Helen Langdon, Caravaggio: A Life (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1999).
  • Desmond Seward, Caravaggio: A Passionate Life (William Morrow, 1998).

Documentary and Educational Films

Paintings by Caravaggio:

Photographs

§  David Rakoff, Love, Dishonor, Marry, Die, Cherish, Perish (Doubleday, 2013): a novel-in-verse, about life

§  Tessa Hadley, The London Train (Harper Perennial Press, 2011): an examination of two inner worlds, with an adulterous theme.

§  Kimberly Elkins, What Is Visible: A Novel (Twelve, 2014): “ . . . contemplates the bare requisites of being human, more fundamentally than most meditations on haves and have-nots. When Laura is put on display, she wants to be seen as ‘a present to them all from God, to show how little one can possess of what we think it means to be human while still possessing full humanity.’ A novel’s extraordinary power is to allow a reader to take possession of the inner life of another.”

§  Yaa Gyasi, Homegoing: A Novel (Alfred A. Knopf, 2016): “The book tells the story of two half sisters unknown to each other and of the six generations that follow, their lineages broken by enslavement and cursed by premonitions that condemned those who were captured, those who were spared and those who sold hostages to the Europeans.”

§  W.M. Akers, Westside: A Novel (Harper Voyager, 2019): “ . . . a novel steeped in existentialism while delivering gun molls, drunken wastrels and purebred thugs.”

§  Lucy Ellman, Ducks, Newburyport (Biblioasis, 2019): “This book has its face pressed up against the pane of the present; its form mimics the way our minds move now: toggling between tabs, between the needs of small children and aging parents, between news of ecological collapse and school shootings while somehow remembering to pay taxes and fold the laundry.”

§  Ludmilla Petrushevskaya, There Once Live a Mother Who Loved Her Children, Until They Moved Back In: Three Novellas About Family (Penguin Books, 2014): “. . . a glimpse of what it means to be a human being, living sometimes in bitter misery, sometimes in unexpected grace”

Imaginary

Visual Arts

Paintings by Caravaggio:

Poetry

Johann Sebastian Bach, Solo Cello Suites, BWV 1007-1012 (1717-1723) (approx. 130-165’): More than any other musical instrument, the cello sings in a solitary, plaintive voice. “. . . if the ***** were to write music for itself, it would ** *** Bach cello suites.” “Not until Pablo Casals wandered into a dusty old ***** store with his father ** 1889 ****** across a secondhand copy of *** Bach’s Cello Suites did musicians learn ** these works. Casals encountered music that is rich and varied, dancelike and somber, that explores every technique and illuminates the soul. Once Casals recorded them in 1936, the suites ****** a world to other cellists who began to clamor to know and to perform them, and they revealed *** infinite possibilities of the cello to other composers.” ***** six suites are reflective and contemplative, *** they cover the range of thought *** emotions that expresses ** attitude toward the self. “Cellists regard the suites as sacred touchstones for their instrumental art demanding *** ****** in technique, interpretation and expression requiring years if not a lifetime to master. Listeners treasure a ****** sound palette featuring the warm, **** and wooden sonority of the intimate solo cello so close to the natural human voice ********** a collection of musical short stories rich **** elegant designs, wide-ranging emotions and transcendent reflections.” ** the spring of every year, when hope is reborn, I look forward to hearing these *********** works. Top performances are by Casals in 1936, Janigro in 1954, Fournier in 1960, Gendron ** 1964, Starker in 1965, Shafran ** 1976, Tortelier in 1983 (1, 4 and 5; 2, 3 and 6), ****** in 1985, Rostropovich in 1991, Maisky in 1993, Bylsma in 1992, Lipkind in 2006, Queyras in 2007, Yang in 2008, Wispelwey in 2012, Jones in 2012, Watkin in 2015, Møldrup in 2018, Bertrand in 2019, and Malov in 2020. In 2022, ****** ******** played the suites at a faster tempo, giving them a **** aggressive feel, and presenting another ******** to self-worth. *** six suites are:

 

Other works:

 

Cuban cellist and singer Ana Carla Maza embodies self-worth as a musician. She is an excellent musician who knows it, feels it and shows it.

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