Thinking thingky thoughts about happy endings

[selenay]

I've been pondering my reading preferences. Not so much the genre or style I prefer, but my preference for stories with a happy ending. Or at least, in pro-fic, books that don't leave me a sobbing wreck on the floor.

When it comes to fanfic, I'm happy endings all the way, baby.

Hell, I'm not wild about ambiguous endings in novels but sometimes the subject matter is so intense (cf. Hunger Games trilogy, Newsflesh trilogy) that an unalloyed happy ending would make no sense. In those cases, I'd still prefer not to be a sobbing wreck but I can live with a not entirely happy-happy joy-joy ending. I'll just read something light and happy after to clear out the less-than-happy feels.

The thing is, I often feel guilty for this preference. I regularly encounter the "you aren't appreciating true art if you don't like to be a sobbing wreck" argument about books and it's just as prevalent in fanfic at times. There are definitely books and fics out there that I've felt strongly about, that I've been breathless and not-quite-sobbing over in the middle, and I keep reading and rereading them because the end makes it all better. Sometimes the stories with the hardest middles are the ones that make me feel best when the ending is good because it's such a contrast and relief.

It's just that, for me, most of my reading is about escapism. It's about leaving the mundane, frequently horrible real world and spending some time elsewhere. So I'd like it if the stories I'm reading left me feeling uplifted and happy at the end instead of searching for the nearest massive chocolate cake to bury my heartache and depression in.

Am I the only person who feels that way?

And why do so many people insist that this preference somehow makes me a lesser person than having a reading diet that's heavy on the tragedy?

Comments

[lysimache.livejournal.com]

You are definitely not the only one! I never purposely seek out things that don't end happily, and generally avoid them as much as possible. And I really resent the idea that more misery = more literary. That's ridiculous.

[selenay]

And I really resent the idea that more misery = more literary. That's ridiculous.

It really is and yet that's the attitude I see so often. Ugh.

[tawg.livejournal.com]

Jumping in here (and feel free to tell me to GTFO) - but maybe it's considered more of an achievement to get someone to keep reading sad/horrible events and find pleasure in the writing despite being but through the emotional wringer, than it is to keep someone reading a story that is filled with things they enjoy - like sex and vampires and mysteries?

[selenay]

I think that may be a really good point, at least for why sad/emotionally traumatic stories are seen to have more 'literary' value in the happier stories. It's not something I'd agree with, but I can definitely see why that judgement gets made.