You End Up Dead In The End
Nov. 24th, 2009 12:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
intertribalI've been reading the Dear Author "F Reviews" - many are quite hilarious - and kind of got mesmerized by the review for a book I won't name to prevent spoilers (even though the book is two years old). DA is a romance site, but they review a variety of genres, and this book is more thriller than romance, although there is a romantic relationship at its core. It's also part of a series. And anyway, the very unhappy review by Jane says in part:
The response to this - on DA - was much like Jane's:
I can't really talk about my own writing in relation to this subject, because I epically suck in this regard - it's one of those things I have to work on. But I can tell you exactly why I have to work on it - because my first reaction to this thread was:
WELCOME TO MY FUCKING WORLD.
Those that are close to me know that I have major, major issues with this type of ending. And I ran into this ending over and over and over during my oh-so-impressionable early teens. DBZ, which started all this, emotionally destroyed me and turned me into what I can only describe as a crazy person while I was in middle/high school. The Song of Roland was the nail in the coffin (the image of Roland blowing the horn so hard that he spits up blood is burned into my brain at this point). And this surely did fuck with my head. I hated The Iliad something awful after Hector died. Although I don't hate it so much anymore, there are chapters I won't read again. It still makes my throat clog.
As I got older, this became less of a problem - I just didn't get attached to heroes. They started looking more like jackasses anyway. I started really psycho-analyzing the heroism cult, and war, and that's how I became interested in militarism and fascism. [A crash course in all this: songs by the band Hole, esp. "Reasons to Be Beautiful" and "Jennifer's Body"] It was good for me, I think; I needed that. And at this rate, I'd say there's little chance of me picking up, say, Sword of Shannara and becoming attached to Richard Rahl. Besides which, "grit" is so "in" these days that mourning the death of a character makes you look like either a wuss or an idiot for liking such an unlikable, clearly-asking-for-an-axe-to-be-thrown-through-his-head character in the first place. If the story has made it clear that anyone can die and someone will die every fifth page, it's hard for the "but X can't die!" mentality to creep in.
But I will tell you this: if Aragorn had died at the end (and I don't mean the end end, although yes, "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen" has made me cry, thank you very much), I might have had to burn my copy of The Lord of the Rings.
At this point I can pretty much map out how I got this particular complex. It's predictable and obvious. And I can guess how other readers came to similar complexes, especially in romance sagas. Here's a hint: many of them suggested one of the secondary female characters they found annoying instead. But I haven't come across these feelings for a while now, so seeing these readers' little crystallized wake is a trip for me.
Okay, I will say a bit about what this means for my writing: Stephen King had a good point with Misery, but I wonder if Stephen King ever had a Misery Chastain - the character he kills off - in his reading life. I suspect the answer is no. It's harder when you've had to mourn.
It seems to me that you [the author] are afraid to allow your characters to experience happiness. That prolonged happiness would somehow negatively impact on your writing... I won’t ruin the ending, but I will say that I am sorry that I ever read you. That I spent over $100 in your career along with years of waiting and hours of reading. I am sorry that you have chosen your path. If this makes me a child who can’t handle the realities of life, so be it.Of course, I want to know immediately what this horrible ending was. People were guessing throughout the comments, and were starting to admonish violence done toward female characters. Then people started linking to a "letter" the author had written. The author made potential readers jump through a hell of a lot of computer-loops to get to this letter, but I jumped through them and read it. The letter revealed that the person who died was not one of the female characters, but the main male character - the hero/husband/all-around-good-guy. The letter also revealed that the author felt this was a necessary move on her part, for the sake of the story and the process and the other characters and all. I don't think she did it to shock readers, and I think she felt very bad about it - partly because of her own link to the character, and partly because she knew her fans loved the relationship and loved the hero.
The response to this - on DA - was much like Jane's:
Oh. My. Effing. God. I just read her letter and I’m bawling like a freaking baby. Why would she do that? And Jane, I’m with Casee, your letter was nowhere near harsh enough. Goddammit!
OH.HELL.NO. I cannot believe she did that. Hell, I haven’t even read these books and I’m still pissed off at her.
I’ve never read these books but I can see why you feel like you were kicked in the stomach.
Frankly what made the books a must read for me was the relationship and where it was going! I really hate it when authors do this — I still remember when Sandra Brown did it — I’ve never purchased another book by her either!
Jane A., I had forgotten about Another Dawn! OMGawd, I was soooo mad when I finished that book. I would have been happy never reading it and assuming that the h/h of Sunset Embrace had their HEA.[Happily Ever After]
I was so upset after reading the letter that I had to get the book out of the house.
Have cried all day and night and can’t get this horrible, cruel ending out of my mind. If I wanted this kind of ending I would read Nicholas Sparks.It goes on for 300+ comments. The thread essentially becomes a wake - a place for readers who've just finished to come and cry/vent. Months later some of the "mourners" come back and say that they will continue with the series after all - can't turn their back on the other characters. The thread started in July 2007 - the latest post is October 2009! There are a few other types of comments - some that reaffirmed the author's right to do what she wanted with her characters, others that appreciated the "gritty" quality of this ending, and one so far that was upbeat because the hero "got what he deserved."
I can't really talk about my own writing in relation to this subject, because I epically suck in this regard - it's one of those things I have to work on. But I can tell you exactly why I have to work on it - because my first reaction to this thread was:
WELCOME TO MY FUCKING WORLD.
Those that are close to me know that I have major, major issues with this type of ending. And I ran into this ending over and over and over during my oh-so-impressionable early teens. DBZ, which started all this, emotionally destroyed me and turned me into what I can only describe as a crazy person while I was in middle/high school. The Song of Roland was the nail in the coffin (the image of Roland blowing the horn so hard that he spits up blood is burned into my brain at this point). And this surely did fuck with my head. I hated The Iliad something awful after Hector died. Although I don't hate it so much anymore, there are chapters I won't read again. It still makes my throat clog.
As I got older, this became less of a problem - I just didn't get attached to heroes. They started looking more like jackasses anyway. I started really psycho-analyzing the heroism cult, and war, and that's how I became interested in militarism and fascism. [A crash course in all this: songs by the band Hole, esp. "Reasons to Be Beautiful" and "Jennifer's Body"] It was good for me, I think; I needed that. And at this rate, I'd say there's little chance of me picking up, say, Sword of Shannara and becoming attached to Richard Rahl. Besides which, "grit" is so "in" these days that mourning the death of a character makes you look like either a wuss or an idiot for liking such an unlikable, clearly-asking-for-an-axe-to-be-thrown-through-his-head character in the first place. If the story has made it clear that anyone can die and someone will die every fifth page, it's hard for the "but X can't die!" mentality to creep in.
But I will tell you this: if Aragorn had died at the end (and I don't mean the end end, although yes, "The Tale of Aragorn and Arwen" has made me cry, thank you very much), I might have had to burn my copy of The Lord of the Rings.
At this point I can pretty much map out how I got this particular complex. It's predictable and obvious. And I can guess how other readers came to similar complexes, especially in romance sagas. Here's a hint: many of them suggested one of the secondary female characters they found annoying instead. But I haven't come across these feelings for a while now, so seeing these readers' little crystallized wake is a trip for me.
Okay, I will say a bit about what this means for my writing: Stephen King had a good point with Misery, but I wonder if Stephen King ever had a Misery Chastain - the character he kills off - in his reading life. I suspect the answer is no. It's harder when you've had to mourn.
