What makes stories satisfying to me
A few weeks ago, iriththedreamer and I had a conversation about a fantasy trilogy she'd read all the way through, that I'd put down after book two because I feared only bad things would happen. Even now, thinking about those books makes me feel a bit empty--like I invested a lot of myself in the characters, and a lot of time in the reading, and none of it was returned or rewarded. When I asked what iriththedreamer thought of the ending, and if she'd recommend I finish the trilogy, she said the ending wasn't satisfying to her because it made the actions of the characters meaningless--all they'd been fighting against triumphed anyway.
Hearing that, I decided officially that I would never finish that trilogy.
I know there are many books with pessimistic endings, and that they have a readership, and that a lot of them are beautifully written and chock full of great characters, plot, and tension. I also know that I don't want to read them.
For me, it's disappointing to put down a book feeling like the sacrifices and striving of its characters were meaningless. I don't need a novel to preach hopelessness to me--I get enough of that from the world I live in. For me, part of the attraction of novels is precisely that the qualities I value in humanity--goodness, love, justice, etc.--are somehow rewarded or shown to have meaning for the characters who display them. In fantasy, the usual main characters are heroes/anti-heroes. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we're learning what makes someone heroic and good--what makes someone's life carry the weight of meaning, what allows their actions to ripple outward and positively affect the lives of others--through the characters we read about. If even they, who are somewhat larger than life, cannot achieve justice or have their struggles rewarded in ways that satisfy, what hope do we have in a world so much more complex and broken?
This is why when someone recommends a movie or a book to me, I find out if the story ends on a depressing note. I am definitely not the viewer the Academy Awards has in mind when it gives out awards for Best Picture, for example, and I tend to steer clear of the movies it nominates. Are the movies bad? Of course not! There is nothing inherently wrong with pessimistic stories.
It's just that I like comic books with archetypal qualities--the good guys and the bad guys are larger than life, and show us on a heroic scale what it means to sacrifice to do good in this world, and how much is lost when one chooses to selfishly do harm.
I like sci-fi and fantasy novels that show us the world we live in as it could be, and show people as we could be--that hold up a distorted mirror for readers to recognize (or not) their own faces.
I like slash stories where the gay couple enjoys a decently well-adjusted romance and a happily ever after (whether or not frolicking unicorns or club-swinging giants are involved), instead of a ridiculously angst-filled melodrama ending in a horrible death for one or both just so readers will know Gays Are People Too...at the expense of gay people themselves.
Given the stories that fit in those categories, it's clear that what satisfies me usually ends happily or optimistically. I want to finish a story glad I invested emotional energy in it--energy that the story returned in positive form. In my case, that means that at the end of the story, the characters' actions--the things they've fought and sacrificed for--must be shown to matter.
And if they don't matter...why should I read or care?
Hearing that, I decided officially that I would never finish that trilogy.
I know there are many books with pessimistic endings, and that they have a readership, and that a lot of them are beautifully written and chock full of great characters, plot, and tension. I also know that I don't want to read them.
For me, it's disappointing to put down a book feeling like the sacrifices and striving of its characters were meaningless. I don't need a novel to preach hopelessness to me--I get enough of that from the world I live in. For me, part of the attraction of novels is precisely that the qualities I value in humanity--goodness, love, justice, etc.--are somehow rewarded or shown to have meaning for the characters who display them. In fantasy, the usual main characters are heroes/anti-heroes. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we're learning what makes someone heroic and good--what makes someone's life carry the weight of meaning, what allows their actions to ripple outward and positively affect the lives of others--through the characters we read about. If even they, who are somewhat larger than life, cannot achieve justice or have their struggles rewarded in ways that satisfy, what hope do we have in a world so much more complex and broken?
This is why when someone recommends a movie or a book to me, I find out if the story ends on a depressing note. I am definitely not the viewer the Academy Awards has in mind when it gives out awards for Best Picture, for example, and I tend to steer clear of the movies it nominates. Are the movies bad? Of course not! There is nothing inherently wrong with pessimistic stories.
It's just that I like comic books with archetypal qualities--the good guys and the bad guys are larger than life, and show us on a heroic scale what it means to sacrifice to do good in this world, and how much is lost when one chooses to selfishly do harm.
I like sci-fi and fantasy novels that show us the world we live in as it could be, and show people as we could be--that hold up a distorted mirror for readers to recognize (or not) their own faces.
I like slash stories where the gay couple enjoys a decently well-adjusted romance and a happily ever after (whether or not frolicking unicorns or club-swinging giants are involved), instead of a ridiculously angst-filled melodrama ending in a horrible death for one or both just so readers will know Gays Are People Too...at the expense of gay people themselves.
Given the stories that fit in those categories, it's clear that what satisfies me usually ends happily or optimistically. I want to finish a story glad I invested emotional energy in it--energy that the story returned in positive form. In my case, that means that at the end of the story, the characters' actions--the things they've fought and sacrificed for--must be shown to matter.
And if they don't matter...why should I read or care?