Experimental Literature
I found the discussion on Experimental Literature very interesting. I hadn’t heard of the genre before and am intrigued by the idea that not all stories need to have the traditional beginning, middle, and end that I’m used to seeing. “Happy Endings” did not seem that strange or experimental to me. It makes sense. It’s not that hard to understand that even though most beginnings and endings can be very much the same, it is the middle parts and the “plots” of life that are different from person to person, and story to story. Every person who is alive starts out the same way and in the end, we all die. Life would be extremely dull if everyone had the same story to tell. It would be just as boring if life were like example A in “Happy Endings.” Experiences and situations need to have some novelty or we’d all be bored, in my opinion. Sometimes, the unexpected outcome leads to a much better or more fulfilling experience even if it was something we might have been afraid of. You just never know what works until you experiment with different ideas along the way. A lot of the time, it’s not until time has passed that you can look back and see that something which seemed very negative or scary turned out to be the right thing after all. That is why I think the story works for me. Example A sounds like my parents’ life, (not that there’s anything wrong with that) and while none of the other examples are ideal, they all sound more exiting in one way or another. If life were as predictable as the first example, I’d go crazy!