Theory: The Haunting Dread -- The Zeitgeist of Modern America.

[sboydtaylor]

wendigomountain (Clint Harris) has a post up here describing this nameless DREAD, this underlying tension that haunts him from time to time. It brought back some of the old debates on Broken Circles

Comments

[pea_faerie]

Really interesting post! I think you're right that we're all looking for something, and some are more empty than others. I know the dread about which you're speaking, but I admit, it doesn't come often for me. I think this is what makes people turn to religion (of any type, I mean religion in the broadest way possible). Some connection with an infinite than can offer some sort of antidote to the dread.

I also think another American problem is the idea that this can void can be filled entirely, that there is something "wrong" when we feel it. This is a myth. Full completion and contentment is a myth. We see other people *looking* happy, and assume we should be too, and that makes the "dread" worse to take.

I hope that those dreadful feelings are what drive us to make connections with people, to create great stories, to find ways to touch other people (metaphorically, of course...at least some of the time).

I don't know. I loved your story, and I like your idea that the hunger of the world is something real and tangible and terrifying. I'm rambling. I just wonder if we can all get together--all those feeling dread--and celebrate it as some sort of evidence that we're still human, still striving for something amazing and the dread is a reminder that there are things to reach for. (Of course when we reach for flat screens, hamburgers, and other things, I think we only serve to make the dread worse...) But that's just me.

[sboydtaylor]

Thanks! And I think I understand what you're saying. Although I find it hard to grok the idea of celebrating dread, I think I understand where you're coming from.