Before going to the Rose Cafe Series on Wednesday, I had given little thought to what it means to be melancholy. I thought I understood its meaning however the talk by Sara Schlemm, helped me see the nuances of melancholy. Although I would not say I completely understand its meaning, I could say that I have a better understanding of the situations where it could be present. There are times when exploring the meaning of words may seem pedantic but Sara made a good presentation by integrating a movie into the conversation. It was nice to turn the abstract art of understanding melancholy into something concrete by applying it to an example. Although I had never seen Vertigo before, I thought it was a good example of melancholy. It showed how melancholy is not simply a synonym of sadness, rather it takes up a whole different mood.

The discussion on melancholy was interesting. It was good to have a concrete example of all nuances of melancholy. Before the examples from Vertigo were shown, I had started to think that maybe my understanding of melancholy was incorrect. However it was great to learn that my understanding was correct and still understand how it plays a role in history.