Wednesday, 23 November 2005 - 11:15 AM EST

That seems quite true. How often does listening to a sad song make you feel better when you are blue? It's not escapism either. We seem to feel relief by knowing someone else feels the same way we do. Schadenfreude or community?

Sunday, 27 November 2005 - 5:02 AM EST

All this talk about sad music reminds me of a film "The saddest music in the world." The movie is set, evidently, in Winnipeg. The plot thickens.....

Sunday, 27 November 2005 - 8:09 AM EST

Come on, "incarnational" isn't even a word. Its fine if you want to sound pedantic, but when you make up words like "incarnational," I just can't take the academic atmosphere seriously.

Monday, 28 November 2005 - 8:22 AM EST

Dear Mr or Ms all these big words,

'Incarnational' is an agjective defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as 'of or relating to the theological doctrine of incarnation'. Incarnation, then, being further defined as the taking of bodily form. In this instance incarnational is being used to describe the possibility that Beauty can actually inhabit a fallen form (the 'sad' part of the song). Pedantic enough for you?

Tuesday, 29 November 2005 - 2:38 AM EST

Finally some clarity-you should write like this more often. I disagree that beauty is somehow divine and that a 'sad song' is somehow a fallen form. Does this mean that a 'happy song' is not a "fallen" form. The next thing your going to tell me is that a mad song is consubstantial because Jesus turned a few tables over in G. John. Or do I mean perichoresis? Sometimes I wonder about myself.....

Tuesday, 29 November 2005 - 8:28 AM EST

I am introducing a particular image to help explore what, for me anyway, has been an intriguing part of human experience; the beautiful and the horrific. I think that to sing in sadness is more than to mask the pain of reality. This is why I thought the notion of incarnation could be helpful. Christ certainly has not abolished the horrific and yet something carries human experience forward and allows it to emerge, often in a renewed way (though I certainly do not speak for all). If you'll notice my second post, or read my article on aesthetics, I introduced the image of an encounter with the bull as perhaps helpful in understanding our encounter of the beautiful. I maintain that this image is helpful, to an extent. However, I did not feel obligated to understand how bullshit fits into that account. Perhaps you may be of service here :)

In addition I did not say that a 'sad song' was a fallen form, but that events in our world reflect our falleness. These events, in turn, can emerge in a new way through the medium of music.