Category: book Nook
Hi all,
I was just remembering when I had high school, I had to read 2 kinds of stories, the romanticism type, where no matter how bad things are in the beginning, things turn out wonderfully at the last minute, and the realistic stories, where things would start out good and full of promise, but end sadly, just like some things in real life do sometimes. After we had studied both kinds of writing, my teacher asked me which type I liked the best, the romantic view of life where things always ended happily, or the realistic stories where things didn't end happily. Naturally, I told her I liked the romanticism stories where things ended happy. She said, well, life isn't always like that. and I said, I know, we live realism every day, why do we have to read about it? she couldn't think of an answer for that one, lol. Anyway, I was just thinking about this and wondering which type you all liked to read the best? thanks for reading,
wonderwoman
Depends on the genre and my mood a bit. Most of the writers who I love tend to a realist, sometimes very bleak style, but I love a good ending. Often though, a hopeful or a powerful ending is better than just a happy one. Don't you find that the most memorable book endings seem to be the tragic kind, or those that leave things up in the air and unresolved. A truly happy ending, even to a great book, rarely sticks in the head. I'm not making much sense, so I'll cease with the rambling now. Erin
I read mostly horror and sci-fi books anymore, and depending on the author and subject matter, I get some of both. I really have no preference, and you can't necessarily choose what kind of ending you want I suppose. Both genres of book are pretty broad, so variety, as they say, is the spice of life.
Well, labyrinth, I guess so, we can't necessarily choose the ending, but when I studied those stories in high school, I knew basically what kind of ending they would have, happy or sad, because we read the romanticism stories, then the realistic stories. Yes resonant, I guess the sad realistic endings stick with you more than the happy endings, wonder why? But at least a hopeful ending is somewhere in between, not all happy but not all sad and bleak with nohope at all.
wonderwoman
Hm, in general, I vastly prefer realism, especially the gritty, minimalistic type. However, lately I've discovered that I also love magic realism. My two favorite writers of all time are Hemingway and Garcia Marquez, and there could hardly be two writers more different. But I suppose that for each one, the style they use just suits the stories they tell.
well that story by hemmingway, to build a fire certainly had a bleak ending with the man freezing to death in temperatures well below zero. of course we're talking about books but I guess movies would apply here too. I heard somewhere, or read it I can't remember which, where Danielle Steele said she gave her characters happy endings because she didn't want peoplewalking out of a theater feeling like life wasn't worth a darn.
wonderwoman
Hmmm. One of the most touching endings I've ever read in a book was Watership Down, which is one of those kids books I think we should never outgrow, and it's perfect in it's sad, sweet simplicity. By contrast, (and I'm picking books everyone knows here so as not to spoil endings) To Kill a Mockingbird, which is quite gritty in it's content and doesn't take the easy way out on any of it's issues, has a very hopeful, positive sort of ending, but the ending isn't what anyone remembers. Just about everything by Evalyn Wore and Nancy Mitford has a bleak, unsettling sort of ending, even though by and large they are frivolous, humorous books. And then there's just about everything from that particular branch of post-modernism, where the novel's conclusion was more or less required to be a devastating twist to make your brain hurt and make you see the entire novel in a completely different light.
I've never read watership down, but I've heard of it. I think I even ordered the book, but I never got it. I'm not sure bambi would count, since it ended ok, but it was sad when his mother was shot and killed by tthe hunters. I think I read a book years ago about a woman whose boyfriend got killed, and she married this other man, but she was so grief stricken over the boy friend that got killed, she made him feel left out. That book had a hopeful ending, not happy, but not bleak either. I still think its better for a book to have a hopeful ending rather than a sad ending.
wonderwoman
Realism definitely! go reality! I love great expectations, although Dickens did give it a slightly Happy ending.
Resonant, yeah, to Kill A Mockingbird's ending is still in my head from a couple months before. I feel like giving every man on that jury a black eye! Seriously, there was no way Tom Robinson could have done it!!!!!! Oh, well, damn racists!
I like a mix of both, but I prefer realism. For some reason, I feel reassured by it, and feel more prepared to face my own reality, by reading it.
Too many happy endings depress me, perhaps because I don't see that kind of outcome in my own life; reality isn't tidy and cheery.
I relish a good Anita Brookner every six months or so, because her characters are rarely happy, although they sometimes find contentment in small pleasures--a walk, a cup of tea. Depending on
my mood when I'm reading them, I either feel a resonance with those characters, or I find their bleakness very amusing.
I enjoy reading both, but I like realism more because you can relate to those books whether you didn't like the ending or it made you want to read it more. I like to read realism because when you read those books, it allows you to see the author's perspectives, beliefs, and reason about the world and everything that connects to it. Some books, you may find it hard to grasp the theme or believe that that was the suitable ending for that, but Almost always the author has his reasons for making those the theme or the ending. I enjoy both. Romanticism is a good way of viewing the outcome of your reading, but I like realism more because it can really happen and not be like some fantasy that will never lead to anything but a happy ending.
Although I don't read fiction much, I think I like realism more because I feel like romanticism is too predictable. If you know who the good guys are or that maybe a bad guy might have a change of heart, you pretty much know what's going to happen at the end. But to me realism makes you think more about why the story ended like that or other ways it could've ended and just about the whole story in general. That's just me though. But if it is an audiobook with an animated reader, I'd probably not mind either type of story.
By animated, I mean like one that is good with expressing the tones/emotions when reading. Just to clarify on the last post. *smile*
Well, I wouldn’t say all realistic stories are tragic or only open ended. I know a few that are happy. I mean you would never call Ayn Rand’s work Romanticism and I think Atlas Shrugged had a very happy ending.