Comments on: Endings http://clnorman.com/2009/08/07/endings/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=endings Of Rogues and Writing Mon, 30 Jan 2012 19:18:10 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Shairyl http://clnorman.com/2009/08/07/endings/comment-page-1/#comment-12 Shairyl Sun, 09 Aug 2009 22:58:08 +0000 http://clnorman.com/?p=34#comment-12 Ok, so part of my love of horror movies is that they don't have those nice tidy endings that make my nose wrinkle. Life is never nice and tidy, and I think that books need to have some of the angst that life really has, and that the ending should reflect that as well. One of my favorite endings is when the bad guy ends up winning. I love the ending in "The Secret Window" - I love how Mort finally becomes the evil guy that has been haunting his thoughts, and through living out his books ending through his dark desires (i.e killing his ex-wife and her husband), he is finally is able to find the inspiration to finish his story. You take a perfectly normal, reasonable goal and find the solution through a really twisted means. It's beautiful. I think that part of what made the story feel so complete was the goal - it was tight and well defined - none of that save the word crap. On the other side, I hate endings where there is a "happily ever after" and the characters get their hearts desires (unless they are pretending to be fairy tales, so Stardust was ok, but Breaking Dawn was dreadful). I also hate stories that reset (e.g. Narnia). I could probably go on for a long time listing dreadful endings but I won't flatter myself thinking that people would actually want to read my gripe list. Ok, so part of my love of horror movies is that they don’t have those nice tidy endings that make my nose wrinkle. Life is never nice and tidy, and I think that books need to have some of the angst that life really has, and that the ending should reflect that as well. One of my favorite endings is when the bad guy ends up winning. I love the ending in “The Secret Window” – I love how Mort finally becomes the evil guy that has been haunting his thoughts, and through living out his books ending through his dark desires (i.e killing his ex-wife and her husband), he is finally is able to find the inspiration to finish his story. You take a perfectly normal, reasonable goal and find the solution through a really twisted means. It’s beautiful. I think that part of what made the story feel so complete was the goal – it was tight and well defined – none of that save the word crap.
On the other side, I hate endings where there is a “happily ever after” and the characters get their hearts desires (unless they are pretending to be fairy tales, so Stardust was ok, but Breaking Dawn was dreadful). I also hate stories that reset (e.g. Narnia). I could probably go on for a long time listing dreadful endings but I won’t flatter myself thinking that people would actually want to read my gripe list.

]]> By: Jared Lisonbee http://clnorman.com/2009/08/07/endings/comment-page-1/#comment-10 Jared Lisonbee Fri, 07 Aug 2009 16:03:50 +0000 http://clnorman.com/?p=34#comment-10 For "Lord of the Rings," I think Tolkien (and then Peter Jackson) wanted to put some "closure" on the work that had consumed so much of their lives while they were working on it--they wanted to spell out what happened to everyone (I think this is the same thing that happened, to some extent, with J.K. Rowling's Epilogue in "Deathly Hallows"). Personally, I think that sometimes it is best for the author (movie maker, etc.) to leave more of the "happily ever after" (or not) up to the reader/viewer. I agree that the ending to "Titanic" was annoying, too. It suffered from the "Charly" (that really cheesy Mormon romance novel from the 80's) syndrome: Basically, "romances" can only be successful if at least one of the members in the romance is dead! With the character development that they did in the movie, you KNOW, that as soon as they got to New York, Jack would be sneaking off with some floozy and Rose would be missing her aristocratic life too much, so as soon as the first (okay, maybe second) relationship challenge arose, they would go their separate ways. But no, since Jack died, Rose held on to the romantic ideal of the "happily ever after." I suppose that's not an ending issue, though. I have only read and seen a few of Stephen King's works, but several of the ones I have seen/read leave off with a very unsatisfying ending (e.g., the book/movie has been dragging on for a long time now, will just have the Langoliers eat the world!). Good luck finding satisfying endings! For “Lord of the Rings,” I think Tolkien (and then Peter Jackson) wanted to put some “closure” on the work that had consumed so much of their lives while they were working on it–they wanted to spell out what happened to everyone (I think this is the same thing that happened, to some extent, with J.K. Rowling’s Epilogue in “Deathly Hallows”).

Personally, I think that sometimes it is best for the author (movie maker, etc.) to leave more of the “happily ever after” (or not) up to the reader/viewer. I agree that the ending to “Titanic” was annoying, too. It suffered from the “Charly” (that really cheesy Mormon romance novel from the 80′s) syndrome: Basically, “romances” can only be successful if at least one of the members in the romance is dead! With the character development that they did in the movie, you KNOW, that as soon as they got to New York, Jack would be sneaking off with some floozy and Rose would be missing her aristocratic life too much, so as soon as the first (okay, maybe second) relationship challenge arose, they would go their separate ways. But no, since Jack died, Rose held on to the romantic ideal of the “happily ever after.” I suppose that’s not an ending issue, though.
I have only read and seen a few of Stephen King’s works, but several of the ones I have seen/read leave off with a very unsatisfying ending (e.g., the book/movie has been dragging on for a long time now, will just have the Langoliers eat the world!).
Good luck finding satisfying endings!

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