Friday, September 08, 2006
Saturday, August 26, 2006
Endings
Due to overwhelming popular demand (three people casually mentioning they'd seen my blog in the last month) I've decided to update my blog once more. I haven't felt particularly ranty in a long while, but today I was feeling inspired (read: bored)
I must say, that title seems a lot more emo than I would have hoped. But we are not talking about life endings or even endings of anything real. What I want to talk about is imaginary endings. Specifically the endings to stories that I come up with. I seem to be incapable of writing happy endings. I thought perhaps this was because I am a bitter and angry person, but upon further consideration, I decided I am neither. I have no problem with people being happy, in fact I rather enjoy being happy myself, and if I'm not otherwise occupied being depressed, I am generally a happy person. So, what then is my problem with happy endings?
My problem, I've come to believe, is not so much that I dislike happy endings, as I dislike endings in general. A story, in a general sense, I think, should reflect life. And life does not have endings, with one rather major exception. Death is an ending of life, but if you are dead, then it doesn't matter anyhow. If the atheists are right, then you won't be caring much, seeing as you are no more. If the theists are right, then you've continued your life in another form. So, ignoring death your own, since it doesn't matter, life really has no endings. If someone else around you dies, that's not an ending. The grief you feel lives on, as does your memories of that person. Same thing goes for a breakup, or any other form of loss. It's not an ending.
Neither is something like marriage. Simply marrying the person of your dreams is not a guarantee of happiness. Life goes on after marriage. There is no such thing as "lived happily ever after." That's not to say you can't live out the rest of your life in happiness, but it's hardly a trivial little detail. This particular misconception led to some rather unpleasant business. I admit that from the time I was rather young, I had this notion that once I had a girlfriend, everything would be easy peasy. I would know what to do, and everything would be happy. Those of you who know me very well at all (and if you don't, just what are you doing reading my blog?) know that it didn't quite work out that way, and thus died my childhood notion that all I had to do was set up my happily ever after, and everything else was a cakewalk.
I really am coming on rather emo here, aren't I? I think that's simply unavoidable when writing a blog about anything personal. Or perhaps it's just the emo kid I keep locked in the closet clamouring to get out. But I intended this to be a happy sort of post, so here it comes. I've just finished listing off a bunch of rather depressing things: break-ups and happiness ending, and so on, but the key here is to realize that just as happiness can, and often does come to an end, so too does sadness. In fact, it is my opinion that there are far more in the way of happy moments than sad ones. Most people, if not all, are trying to be happy. And, with so many people trying to be happy, some of them are bound to succeed. And chances are if someone around you is happy, you will be too. So the trick is to have as many happy moments as you can, enjoy them while you're in them, and when stuff sucks, think back to the past, and forward to the future.
Man, suddenly I've turned into Mr. Motivational Speaker. Maybe they'll hire me to go on tour and motivate people. But think of all the effort that would take.
Getting back to my original point about endings of stories, the reason I don't have happy endings is because the purpose of a story (in addition to reflecting life) is to make a point. I've gotten into deep trouble over statements like that in the past, but I don't believe in Art for Art's sake. I think that even Art for Art's sake has a point, even if the point is only to be asthetically pleasing. So, I make my point with my story, and then leave my characters where ever they were when I finished making said point. And the unfortunate things about points is that they are best made by horrific circumstances. You learn a million times better not to touch a hot stove when it burns you than when someone tells you not to. So, I stick my characters in horrific circumstances, so as to make my point and then let them be. Suddenly making everything happy after that seems false, because after something so horrific, happiness would be a bit out of place.
And with that I end my rambly rant. Maybe sometime I'll post one of these stories I've rambled about, but for that to happen I'd have to find an ending I like, and since I hate endings, it might be a bit hard. But we'll see.
I must say, that title seems a lot more emo than I would have hoped. But we are not talking about life endings or even endings of anything real. What I want to talk about is imaginary endings. Specifically the endings to stories that I come up with. I seem to be incapable of writing happy endings. I thought perhaps this was because I am a bitter and angry person, but upon further consideration, I decided I am neither. I have no problem with people being happy, in fact I rather enjoy being happy myself, and if I'm not otherwise occupied being depressed, I am generally a happy person. So, what then is my problem with happy endings?
My problem, I've come to believe, is not so much that I dislike happy endings, as I dislike endings in general. A story, in a general sense, I think, should reflect life. And life does not have endings, with one rather major exception. Death is an ending of life, but if you are dead, then it doesn't matter anyhow. If the atheists are right, then you won't be caring much, seeing as you are no more. If the theists are right, then you've continued your life in another form. So, ignoring death your own, since it doesn't matter, life really has no endings. If someone else around you dies, that's not an ending. The grief you feel lives on, as does your memories of that person. Same thing goes for a breakup, or any other form of loss. It's not an ending.
Neither is something like marriage. Simply marrying the person of your dreams is not a guarantee of happiness. Life goes on after marriage. There is no such thing as "lived happily ever after." That's not to say you can't live out the rest of your life in happiness, but it's hardly a trivial little detail. This particular misconception led to some rather unpleasant business. I admit that from the time I was rather young, I had this notion that once I had a girlfriend, everything would be easy peasy. I would know what to do, and everything would be happy. Those of you who know me very well at all (and if you don't, just what are you doing reading my blog?) know that it didn't quite work out that way, and thus died my childhood notion that all I had to do was set up my happily ever after, and everything else was a cakewalk.
I really am coming on rather emo here, aren't I? I think that's simply unavoidable when writing a blog about anything personal. Or perhaps it's just the emo kid I keep locked in the closet clamouring to get out. But I intended this to be a happy sort of post, so here it comes. I've just finished listing off a bunch of rather depressing things: break-ups and happiness ending, and so on, but the key here is to realize that just as happiness can, and often does come to an end, so too does sadness. In fact, it is my opinion that there are far more in the way of happy moments than sad ones. Most people, if not all, are trying to be happy. And, with so many people trying to be happy, some of them are bound to succeed. And chances are if someone around you is happy, you will be too. So the trick is to have as many happy moments as you can, enjoy them while you're in them, and when stuff sucks, think back to the past, and forward to the future.
Man, suddenly I've turned into Mr. Motivational Speaker. Maybe they'll hire me to go on tour and motivate people. But think of all the effort that would take.
Getting back to my original point about endings of stories, the reason I don't have happy endings is because the purpose of a story (in addition to reflecting life) is to make a point. I've gotten into deep trouble over statements like that in the past, but I don't believe in Art for Art's sake. I think that even Art for Art's sake has a point, even if the point is only to be asthetically pleasing. So, I make my point with my story, and then leave my characters where ever they were when I finished making said point. And the unfortunate things about points is that they are best made by horrific circumstances. You learn a million times better not to touch a hot stove when it burns you than when someone tells you not to. So, I stick my characters in horrific circumstances, so as to make my point and then let them be. Suddenly making everything happy after that seems false, because after something so horrific, happiness would be a bit out of place.
And with that I end my rambly rant. Maybe sometime I'll post one of these stories I've rambled about, but for that to happen I'd have to find an ending I like, and since I hate endings, it might be a bit hard. But we'll see.
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)