In response to the posts at Old Hag, some things that make me cry:
-Disney's animated films. No other genre features so many killed-off parents. Claiming to be happy family fare, Disney singlehandedly introduces children to the concepts of mourning and loss. Best example, of course: the death of Bambi's mother. My young brain quickly learned a Pavlovian response to these films, and even at 17, watching the Michael Bolton-soundtracked Hercules, I cried and cried, and not because the music was so bad.
-The end of the movie adaptation of The Unbearable Lightness of Being. It was, by most standards, an awful film, but I cried so hard that I had to write a long essay for myself explaining the film's emotional effect. I was also very high. (If someone offers me money, I'll find and post the essay.)
-The Magnetic Fields' "Papa Was A Rodeo." Slaughters my heart.
-Skipping two days of my antidepressants.
-Thinking back to my first cat, Lucky. Lucky died of cancer but I didn't know that until years later. When my mother picked me up from school and told me Lucky had died, she said the doctors said Lucky died of "a broken heart."
My mom never even let me SEE the Bambi movie, or Dumbo, because she said they were so sad. (In retrospect, this was probably all for the best. I get upset when I see people throw stuffed animals at the wall -- thus, in my mind, cartoon characters also feel pain and suffering.) Maybe a hyper-empathy disorder exists?
Posted by: oldtimey on November 13, 2003 10:37 PM