Doom and Gloom Sells Well These Days
Go ahead, try the dark side
I’m noticing a definite trend in the reception of my writing and the writing of those I follow on various platforms (there are not many- I can barely keep up with reading these days though it is part of my job). People are responding to dark scenarios.
This is not surprising given the state of the world right now.
I live in a midsized northeastern city of about one million. It has become a more prosperous place in recent years and my urban neighborhood is lovely and lush right now with late blooming flowering trees after a cool spring. The air smells heavenly when the viburnum around the corners drifts this way.
But in Ukraine, cities like mine are blown to bits and blanketed with unnecessary death and violence undeserved by anyone.
I can help but look at those images and see my city in ruins.
That is certainly not a cheery thought. If you read the news as comprehensively (compulsively might be more accurate) as I do, you can’t help but have a mental list of things that don’t look good. New Mexico is burning, for example, with an intensity that is unprecedented. No water, high winds, dead dry foliage. A familiar story.
Too familiar.
