Happy Endings Are Overrated
That's right. I'm one of those people who don't like endings with all the loose ends neatly tied up with a pink bow and the good guys happy forever more. Ugh!
Wait, what did you think I was talking about? Perv!
Anyway, to be honest, I used to live for stories like that in my teens. They made me cheer for the good guys and root for their plans to succeed. In fact, this very attribute made me a bookworm. But in my twenties, I had read too many books with happily ever afters that it became boring. Plus, I was beginning to see more and more of a disconnect between the written world and the real world. While the good characters in books always got what they wanted, the real-life good people hardly got what they deserved. And so I began to wonder if fiction novels and fairy tales were one and the same with different names for different age range. I understand how important this is for someone who reads as a form of escapism but it doesn't work for me.
Not since I discovered how much more involving and satisfying a book with a sad ending can be. Where the good guy dies. Or the bad guy wins. Or lovers don't end up together. And I'm not talking about the John Green type of books either. I'm talking about something even more complex, where good and bad sometimes blurs and become less obvious than black and white. When you don't know why you're drawn to someone you're not supposed to be drawn to. Isn't that how life is usually? Isn't it easier to relate to this, when it's tied back to the conflicts we ourselves go through in our lives?
Coming up with characters like this is an art, though. One that's perfectly mastered by Scott Turow in his book called Personal Injuries. I cried like a baby at the end of this book and the main character (who is a jerk by anyone's standard) is still close to my heart after more than a decade of reading it. You'll have to read the book to know why. But it's the type of book that moves me.
These days, any kind of book with death or sad ending works for me. In my own book, I try to infuse these elements to keep it real. It may not be all bad in the end but you're bound to see a lot of bad with a little bit of real good. Just like life :)
Rose
Wait, what did you think I was talking about? Perv!
Anyway, to be honest, I used to live for stories like that in my teens. They made me cheer for the good guys and root for their plans to succeed. In fact, this very attribute made me a bookworm. But in my twenties, I had read too many books with happily ever afters that it became boring. Plus, I was beginning to see more and more of a disconnect between the written world and the real world. While the good characters in books always got what they wanted, the real-life good people hardly got what they deserved. And so I began to wonder if fiction novels and fairy tales were one and the same with different names for different age range. I understand how important this is for someone who reads as a form of escapism but it doesn't work for me.
Not since I discovered how much more involving and satisfying a book with a sad ending can be. Where the good guy dies. Or the bad guy wins. Or lovers don't end up together. And I'm not talking about the John Green type of books either. I'm talking about something even more complex, where good and bad sometimes blurs and become less obvious than black and white. When you don't know why you're drawn to someone you're not supposed to be drawn to. Isn't that how life is usually? Isn't it easier to relate to this, when it's tied back to the conflicts we ourselves go through in our lives?
Coming up with characters like this is an art, though. One that's perfectly mastered by Scott Turow in his book called Personal Injuries. I cried like a baby at the end of this book and the main character (who is a jerk by anyone's standard) is still close to my heart after more than a decade of reading it. You'll have to read the book to know why. But it's the type of book that moves me.
These days, any kind of book with death or sad ending works for me. In my own book, I try to infuse these elements to keep it real. It may not be all bad in the end but you're bound to see a lot of bad with a little bit of real good. Just like life :)
Rose
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