Who am I to myself? Just one of my sensations.
My hearts drains out hopelessly, like a broken bucket. Think? Feel? How everything wearies when it's defined!
Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet, ch. 154
Over the years I've had so many music discussions - many of them embedded, even now, on this blog - and one of the points I often make, doubtless swiped from someone smarter (which is not a select fraternity), that point that as soon as something has a label it begins to lose its vitality. When something is labelled then it is conscripted into the machine. For example, if there is an official Alternative Music Top 40 then Alternative has been commodified and commercialized and it no longer has any meaning, it has become the antithesis of itself. Is this also true in regards to emotions? Once someone is our "girlfriend" and we are "in love with them" are they and the emotion itself commodified? Is the relationship dying simply because we have grown tired of each other, or because it has been labelled? It's not a new concept, obviously, and helps explain why so many people live together happily for years while consciously avoiding getting "married" (the ultimate commodified concept). Now, do we also do this to ourselves? While we should always be involved in a process of self-examination and self-exploration, do we destroy our own vitality and legitimacy when we label our own thoughts and feelings?
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