Turn on the news to stay up on the day's events, and it's a string of bad happenings. I don't blame news for this. They are not there to report the good stuff but that for which we need to be aware and watch. They want-- need to keep us coming back for our fixes. I believe in spending time making myself aware of what is going on only when I can do something about it which means voting, working for various causes, staying informed about the world, donating when possible. To just hear bad stuff and feel helpless to deal with it is detrimental. Media flourishes on it though.
A farm or ranch is a string of not happy endings. It goes with the territory and even when things work out as well as possible, it's tough (even counting in the happy moments within). We raise these animals to be eaten which means sold at some point, or we would go bankrupt doing it. It's not a hobby, but it's also not a happy ending when we get a nice check; but when a lot of lambs, who had no idea how life was going to be, are shipped off in a big truck as happened last week.
Which is why I like movies and books with happy endings. Frankly culturally it used to almost be guaranteed that any movie had to have one. If the book they were based on did not, then they would manipulate it in the film to all work out-- or look like it might. Then we went through a phase where it was only art if it was a tragedy. Sorry, but I simply am not interested in putting my entertainment time (and books and movies are entertainment or should be) into something that makes me feel worse when it's finished than I did when I started.
Here comes a confession. One that will horrify purists in reading. I read endings first. I rarely even bother with a book that doesn't make me feel better at the end than at the beginning. If the end is good, I'll go back and read the whole thing. Otherwise, forget it. Oh once in awhile I'll give myself a literary moment and follow the rules by reading the book from start to finish; but generally I simply want books and movies that make me feel better and I do what I can to guarantee that will happen. Which is why I don't read mysteries as they are all about not knowing all the way through what is going to happen. To heck with that. If I want that, I can turn on the news.
Last week we had rented a Netflix film. I will not mention the title but a few minutes into the film I felt compelled to go to my computer (which handily is now in a corner of the living room) to check out a synopsis for this film (should have done this before I rented it). Not a happy ending. In fact a whole string of unhappy events, one right after another-- in other words two hours of them.
I told Farm Boss, not the ending, but that it was not going to end well. He said what I also felt-- turn it off. We watched Rio Grande for the umpteenth time instead.
Call me shallow for all of this. I can live with that; but I do not want unhappy endings to movies or even worse for books when I have put more hours into reading them. I feel, for my own life, it's all about building positive energy wherever possible and how I can gather that to myself. Tell me I miss a lot by not reading tragedies, by not wallowing in angst with no redeeming end to the suffering, fine; but I'll keep right on missing it.
Oh I am the same way! Almost always read the end second (after the beginning).
ReplyDeleteI saw somewhere recently that reading or viewing the ending does not ruin the experience for those who do it. For non-fiction books it is useful: an author usually states his premise in the first chapter or introduction, confirms it in the conclusion, and the inbetween stuff is just details supporting the premise or expanding on the topic. If it's a big book this technique is really good because you don't waste time reading the details if it turns out the author's topic is of little interest to you.
I imagine that for films and big novels it is useful too if the story is poorly presented or, as in your experience, not something you are interested in immersing yourself in at this time.
The world will end with a whimper not with a bang, but let's eat drink and be merry for tomorrow we die.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you!! If I want turgid and depressing, I can always read Tolstoy.
ReplyDeleteMovies are escape.
OMGosh.....I do the same thing. Especially, when reading Tolstoy, Foster or Proust.....since these addicting and annoying books take years to read! To endings, I was reminded yesterday while sitting at the side of a suffering friend in decline that it is always new and for some of us a continuous practice of staying in the moment.
ReplyDelete...What Paul said....If he's not Scots/Irish, I'll eat my potato! :)
Good for you, in my view its a necessity to edit what voluntarily goes into your mind; there's plenty we can't avoid even if we wish to do so. I have a stash of movies especially selected to make me laugh when I'm not feeling like it.
ReplyDeleteI am the same way too! I read an ending after about two chapters to see if I will like the ending. THen I either put the book down or finish it. I do like some movies that do not end happily, but not usually! I have too many things to do and places to go and people to see to spend my time watching or reading something I dont like. My Mother would MAKE me read a book. She's gone now, and if I dont like it, I put it down!
ReplyDeleteI always read the last line of a novel. Not the ending. Just the last line. There was a time when I would make myself finish a book, but my stack of books to read grows taller every day so if a book doesn't grab me early I sell it online.
ReplyDeleteI think I should clarify my comment. I read the last line first, then I read the novel.
ReplyDeleteThat was helpful, Wally, on the last line. I have thought with my own reading and editing work about the importance of the end but not that last line. They usually emphasize how important the first line is but you are right, last equally so. Now a lot of mine have Epilogues which means there really are two last lines to the story. I'll be looking back over all of them.
ReplyDeleteI usually read mysteries or adventure type stories and I don't read the end first as a part of the fun is to try to second guess the author. But I'll admit that many of the books I enjoy are new stories with characters that I know and like so I know the author will not kill them off. But maybe Wally does have a good idea about reading the last sentence.
ReplyDeleteWe saw a good movie last week that does have a good ending- "The Help." Pat is now reading the book which of course has a lot more to it than they were able to put into one movie. It ends pretty well.
I am with you. I like happy endings to books and movies. I don't like that 1970's movie where everybody dies at the end. What kind of crap is that? If I wanted something without a happy ending, I would watch the news. Movies and books should make us feel good. Happy to be alive or feel good about the human race.
ReplyDeleteI'm not deliberately trying to be contrary, but I get a little annoyed with movies that have obviously contrived endings so they conclude happily -- especially when they do that to books that are quite different.
ReplyDeleteI think I read Louis B. Mayer was insistent his movies have happy endings. I confess, I like a variety. In fact, I enjoy some movies that leave a question in the air as to how they end. Those that wanted a happy ending seemed to conclude their version is what happened. Others could say, "Well, I'm not so sure about that -- in real life it doesn't always work that way."
Of course, if life has a preponderance of negatives, then I'll take a positive ending, too.
Maybe the mood we're in at any given time influences what sort of story we want to see.
every stories would somehow consist of some bad endings.. its a nor in this world... without yin and yang , or bad and good, there is no flavors in life
ReplyDeleteOh, Rain...I so much feel the same way...! I do see quite a few films that do not have Happy Endings, and that's okay, sometimes, BUT, I prefer Feel-Good-Happy-Endings, given a choice....I would rather watch "ENCHANTED APRIL" for the `144th time---(Or whatever) than see some downer that makes me want to kill myself! The News Of The Day And Of Our World, Is SOOOO Depressing, I need something to make me feel good! So, I'm with you on this, 150%....!
ReplyDelete"Life is a dream" - Calderon de la Barca
ReplyDeleteYou are very correct, most people don't want sad endings to their films or books. Hollywood is notorious for rewriting scrips that do not end happily.
ReplyDeleteMysteries are something else, though. It seems like Americans want to know "who done it" right away. I think of the "Colombo" detective series with Peter Falk, but there are many others where they show the criminal committing the crime, the rest of the show is catching him. There is no surprise.
British mysteries don't do that, though, and I find them more engaging... I like to mentally work with the detective to figure out the case.
One of my favorite films is "The Usual Suspects". We watched that on DVD with friends, we would pause it at points to discuss what was going on so we could figure it out together. That was fun.
I also don't like forced or phony endings just to insure it is happy. I can think though of many times where a tragic ending is forced as much as a happy one. Think of The Painted Veil by W. Somerset Maugham. In the book the author has Walter die tragically to enhance the cost from the shallow and selfish actions of his wife, Kitty. His death was part of her growth but was that any more realistic than had he been allowed to live?
ReplyDeleteThe earliest film of the Painted Veil showed her changed character without killing off her husband. The most recent one followed the book's ending. I have seen both and frankly it's no more essential, except as a morality play, for him to die than to survive. I have read a lot of books that I felt were manipulated to try and make the reader cry. No thanks, I can do that all on my own with things I know happened. Perhaps our need for some of each is satisfied with some of us through our lives and others need the empathy they feel they get from reading or viewing such and getting it vicariously.
I should add that in my writing, viewing the books I have been prepping to be eBooks, I do watch for endings that seem to me unrealistic but I also believe my stories are all fiction-- therefore none of it really happened and I am free to let it all wind up with good news, not bad. In only one of them did I feel the characters were together in the end but the heroine accepted they might not stay together due to the very different lives they had led and likely would choose to continue leading. The freedom of the future though was what it was about in my mind and we never really know what the future will hold even if it seems happy at the moment.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Rain. A contrived happy ending is not a satisfactory ending to a movie or novel. We don't really need "happy endings" as long as the conflict is resolved at the end. As humans our lives take paths somewhere between hope and despair, love and apathy, passion and ennui,and many times never see our problems to a successful conclusion, so in our fiction and drama we long to see the hero vanquish the enemy or the lovers find themselves in each other. In the movie "Now Voyager" (I know it's a woman's movie but I still liked it) the two characters are never able to marry, but Charlotte raises Jerry's daughter. And speaking of last lines, how's this one: "don't let's ask for the moon. We have the stars!"
ReplyDeleteI would never, ever call you shallow, Rain. As for reading the endings of books first, that's your perogative--and your personality. That what makes you who you are. I prefer "feel good" films and books, but I also like to read a lot of the top books and some of them are grim. I do skip violent movies usually, however. I stream Netflix a lot as well as rent and they have me pegged--"feel good" movies.
ReplyDeleteAnd you are right. There are no permanent happy endings, but only temporary ones and you just hope they come frequently than unhappy times.
There was a prof at Loyola Law School when I worked there that would walk into his freshmen classes, say this: Life is a bitch and then you die. Then he would turn his back on them--and their responses (or none) were always so interesting to watch.