So which is worse, a stabbed heart or a broken one?

[ps238principal]

Comments

[lurkerwithout]

For Really Damn Dark my high water mark right now is Joe Abercrombie's Last Arguement of Kings, the third book in his First Law trilogy. So damn depressing. Richard Morgan and Scott Lynch both manage some serious Daaaaamn moments. For Too Damn Dark I actually gave up part way thru Robin Hobb's Soldier's Son trilogy. I just couldn't take the way she beats on her characters until they get a mild happy ending by the third book. Especially not for a fourth trilogy...

The recent finale for the comic Ex Machina left me frustrated and annoyed by its cynical beat down of an ending. Not the first time for Vaughn. Stupid, stupid Pride of Baghdad. Brubaker's Sleeper also has a pretty depressing ending, but a more satisfying one I think. And I can't read Laika without tearing up. Poor wee little doggie...

For movies I've seen a lot of dark movies, but thats because I'm a noir fan. So even a really nihilistic ending, like A Simple Plan doesn't bother me...

[homonculus]

I put my wife onto Abercrombie's First Law, emphasising how good it was and not mentioning at all any darkness.

It was fun listening to her changing but ever-optimistic assumptions about how the plot was going to turn out. And then she got to the third book...

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[ps238principal]

There are so many series (TV and books) that my wife no longer trusts my opinion on because I've recommended one too many where things go south in a hurry and never seem to stop. :)

I think her current litmus test is if anyone you care about for more than 2 chapters or episodes dies, she's not interested. Not that she's a bad one for fiction, it's just that she likes her entertainment to end happily as a contrast to what goes on "in real life." She hasn't read the final Harry Potter book yet because of what happened to Dumbledore in the previous book.

[hannahrorlove]

I think it was Pauline Kael who talked about that quality of empathy - how children at a certain age won't care about a movie like Carnal Knowledge because they don't have any context for what's going on, but something like Bambi hits hard because that's got something they can understand. I agree with you that it extends into adulthood media as well, although I can't think of a pair of movies to contrast the idea quite as neatly.

[wiredwizard]

What would be cool would be to be pressed into an album w/ the Evil Dead soundtrack on it... =)

[kevinbunny]

Double-sided single: Stairway to Heaven on one side, Highway to Hell on the other.

[tremor3258]

Okay, that's just a great idea.

[ps238principal]

I was thinking it would make a great SCP: A record that, when played, had the voice of the deceased on it and you could hold a conversation with it for as long as there was still "time" on the record as it plays. :)

[kevinbunny]

The Telltale game appears to be something card-based. May simply be a poker game with the folks depicted, as they've GOT a cartoon-based hold'em game. This would still be awesome.

The roman graffiti is interesting. Fairly crude bunch, those romans. Mind, they had the wontons to actually *sign* their work. A lot of it sounds a bit like text messaging today, and others wouldn't be out of place on the Passive Agressive Notes website.

[ps238principal]

It makes me wonder what bits of the internet will be unearthed by future "historiological technicians" and presented as "typical communication" of the time.

Actually, it makes me worry that they'll think most of us were nuts.

[cjthomas]

The graffiti is a fascinating window into a long-vanished culture. Except for the acceptability of prostitution and the mentions of abusing servant-girls, it wouldn't look out of place in a high school or college around here.

[kevinbunny]

Apparently, a quickie goes for four sesterii.