but sadness was never meant to be worn forever. it isn’t meant to be profitable. it isn’t a moodboard. it is a place to pass through. and you don’t owe it to anyone to stay in that space for an audience, an algorithm, or an identity.

I remember wanting to say: isn’t despair the easier sell?

Despair has structure. It has gravitas. It has citations. Joy, by contrast, is suspect, especially in literary circles where edge is currency and earnestness reads as provincial. You can write about abuse, death, alienation, generational collapse. That’s material. That’s art. But joy? Real... See more