But I believe that the grand unifying theory that explains the paradox of tragedy is (like most such theories) deceptively simple: We dont actually welcome tragedy per se. What we like are sad and beautiful thingsthe bitter together with the sweet. We dont thrill to lists of sad words, for example, or slide shows of sad faces (researchers have actually tested this). What we love is elegiac poetry, seaside cities shrouded in fog, spires reaching through the clouds. In other words: We like art forms that express our longing for union, and for a more perfect and beautiful world. When we feel strangely thrilled by the sorrow of Moonlight Sonata, its the yearning for love that were experiencingfragile, fleeting, evanescent, precious, transcendent love. The idea of longing as a sacred and generative force seems very odd in our culture of normative sunshine. But its traveled the world for centuries, under many different names, taking many different forms.

Bittersweet by Susan Cain