MEISEL | On the Question of Artistically Motivated Suicide

Our culture and media emit a two-faced discourse about suicide. On the one hand, suicide demonstrates stupidity, weakness and mental illness; so for the sake of our dignity we should never consider it. That’s it. End of question. On the other hand, we make it out to symbolize the climax of a particular kind of lived experience in which a person has a disastrous yet beautiful temperament of both brilliant intelligence and emotional sensitivity.