A little, somewhat cold hand tentatively slides out from a fluffy coat sleeve and gently but unshakingly rests on your shoulder, pressing lightly, turning you around. That’s us – asking you to join us on our autumnal/wintery journey. We will fold into layers of rich indigo, cobalt, bleu royal, ultramarine and envelop you in the quiet weight of melancholy and introspection. In anticipation of the crunchy silence of snow, we’ll enter the world of susurration and murmuration, mastering the ruminative mode.
Melancholia isn’t static, it’s transient; it evolves, echoing the human experience in a rapidly changing world. We will embrace melancholy like the good old friends she is, sit with her, have tea. Let her carry us like a golden boat over slow, calm, shimmering deep waters. On other days, we will take a contemplative trek across the emotional landscapes of a self-aware human being sorting through inner turmoil and overthinking, seeking clarity and inner peace.
It’s time to softly hum your favourite sad song over and over. The time of long pensive showers. To experience the Emo-Romantic Turn in art as described by Michal Novotný. There will be space even for sentimentality and melodrama – BLUE can hold, withstand and encompass even all that. We also have all the classics, from sadness and longing to quiet contemplation.
Looking from the inward to the outward, once again, nature and her processes and creatures (us too) are also slowing down and dozing off. Although she might swear she’s not nodding off, that she’s only pondering very hard – like all of us these days – we know better. There’s no shame in taking the rest you need nor should it be.
Also, did you know that “professional garden hermit” was a paid job? Let’s embark on our hermitage internships at least and find beauty in a bit of (healthy, self-aware and regulated) isolation. Together, we shall found the great nation of HyberNation.
Let BLUE wash all over you.
Moodily yours,
SWARM Mag
FOR YOUR READING, VIEWING AND LISTENING PLEASURE
Reading
Instagram account Softcore Trauma @softcore_trauma
Hua Hsu – Stay True
Layla Martínez – Woodworm
Michal Novotný – The Emo-Romantic Turn
Music
Our playlist on Spotify – Songs to Play at 3 After You Snuck Out of the Party to Nurse Your Seasonal AD
The Moody Blues – Nights in White Satin
Aldous Harding – any album
Agnes Obel – any album
Portishead – any album
Massive Attack – any album
Susanne Sundfør – Ten Love Songs (album)
Mustafa the Poet – Dunya (album)
Placebo – Meds (album)
Björk – Vulnicura (album)
Einstürzende Neubauten – Die Befindlichkeit des Landes
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds – 15 Feet of Pure White Snow
Nick Cave – Into My Arms
Rezső Seress – Szomorú vasárnap
Hjaltalín – Ethereal
Gotye – Heart’s a Mess
When Saints Go Machine – Add Ends
David Lang – Just (After Song of Songs)
UKLE – Lonely Soul
ANOHNI – Hopelessness (album)
Films
Lars Trier – Melancholia
Lee Isaac Chung – Minari
Charlie Kaufman – Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Sofia Coppola – Lost in Translation
