Nick Cave on Grief, Hope and Joy
Nick Cave was on the the Late Show with Stephen Colbert a couple of nights ago to talk about his latest album Wild God, and his book with Sean Hagan Faith, Hope and Carnage, and also about music and singing.
But just before the 12th minute of this interview, Colbert and Cave talk about grief, hope and joy.
I think there's a decision that we need to make…I mean this is not particular to me this is ordinary stuff on some level that everyone goes through eventually in one way or another. We all go through these sorts of things and we have a choice I think.
There is on some level a desire to turn inward and to sort of wrap ourselves around the absence of the person that we've lost…as if there's some sort of nobility in wrapping ourselves around the absence of that person, and I think this is a very dangerous situation and a mistake, and that we must be able to turn ourselves the other way and look at the world and understand that we are part of the world and that the world is essentially full of people who have lost things.
It is deeply understanding the sort of vulnerable precarious nature of each of us, and that we need to understand that is what we are, and I I've found by looking at the world in that way that I saw the world not as a as a cruel place but as an extraordinarily uh systemically beautiful place to live in and you know and and that's out there…
There is joy and there is happiness in a way you could never believe possible on the other side of grief. It's a terrible truth about grief that ultimately you feel you can feel joy in a way that you never thought you could.
I’ve been thinking a lot about collective grief lately (see this post from a few days ago).
It is mainly because of the daily news of Palestinian civilians being slaughtered which is beyond devastating. This recent news, Israeli strikes on Gaza leave children without parents and parents without children is numbing.
Whilst I don’t fully agree with Nick Cave’s stance on the call for a cultural boycott, it positions artists and musicians as more important than trying to take some sort of stance or be more vocal against an ongoing genocide - and not all who grief (especially victims of this genocide) have an equal chance to eventually find joy. Nevertheless, I do find some comfort in his words about grief.
He also reads a letter about cynicism from his website The Red Hand Files where he answers questions from his fans. You can read it below (left).
I’d also like to share another recent letter about melancholia (below right) which also moved me.
