Beauty of Angst

Author: Chauni

Website: www.oocities.org/asukalangley2nd/

Warnings: None

Notes: Hiya there! This was inspired by a yahoo club I belong to, where someone was upset about the angst in my fic “Touched” which I had posted. (I had warnings on it and still they read). Anyway, I personally love angst and seeing how important it is in the fanfic community, I wrote this essay during my class today ^_^ Anyway, I’m sorry if I offend anyone!!! ^_^ Here ya go…

The Beauty Of Angst

Angst invokes within us, as readers, strong emotions that other genres mostly fail in. This occurs for several different reasons: the content of the story and our adoration of the characters. We all love the GW boys, and as such, share in both their triumphs and failures. However nothing hits more home with us than their failures.

Those feelings that we receive are bittersweet, as can be expected. If you are fortunate enough to read a well-written story, you may feel rather depressed afterward, but you realize the story has left an impression on you. It may have upset you, but you realize that it was beautiful because it made you feel, which is a very difficult feat. It’s hard to make a story believable enough to evoke emotion within.

A wonderful example of angst (and laugh as you will) is the movie “Bambi”. Although, during most of it, it is the usual happy Disney movie, there is that infamous point where Bambi’s mother gets shot (sorry for the spoiler, people, :P ) Everyone knows of this, and even the phrase, “I bet you laughed when Bambi’s mother died,” is something well-known to depict someone’s twisted emotions or lack of humanity. This death scene made the movie legendary; the angst touched all of our souls.

Sap and fluff can lay those same spectral fingers of emotion upon our hearts, but it’s rare that they evoke the same intensity. Generally, you experience a simple, “Aww!” and that familiar warmth in the center of your chest. However, as quickly as those feelings rise, they fade, easily forgotten. Sure, that is not true about everything, but overall, those happy stories do not impact our lives.

Angst is a rather popular genre, perhaps more so than the others. With most fanfics contests, you will find more entries in angst/ drama/ deathfic than romantic/ sap (fluff/ parody actually has a large following, however). This has swept the fanfic community, and with good reason. Generally, one of the greatest aspects of a good angst fic is that within all that drama and hardships, there is that love underneath. Romance is the beating heart inside it, whether it is losing it, discovering it, or attempting to live with it. This makes it more than just troubled lives; this adds humanity to the characters and sometimes, justifies their actions.

Some of the best fanfics writers (which include Madam Hydra, Uru-chan, and Rose Argent) have achieved their famous status by being able to invoke such sentiment in their works, while still writing some of the most fluid, descriptive, and absolutely stunning and beautiful fics I have ever had the supreme pleasure of reading. One of the fics that stands out in my mind, actually, was written by Katsu no Miko called “Butterflies of Light”. This is a fic that strongly moved me and actually reminded me quite a bit of Evangelion. The power within the words and the strong emotion within the characters made me stop several times just to catch my breath. I cried.

Anyway, I suppose I’ve ranted on long enough. I just wanted to say my piece on the beauty of angst, that double-edged sword that can make us bleed as surely as it does in our stories. Thank you for your time! ^_^