Disgusted by happy endings?

12 Comments

Does a happy ending in a book / story / film... increase or decrease your enjoyment that you get from reading or watching it?

I love reading but when the book ends in a happy ending, it always spoils my experience and it often (there may be some exceptions) ruins my appreciation of the book even if I enjoyed most of the book. As for commercial writers, I like some of the books by let´s say Stephen King but I cannot read him anymore because he often used happy endings and I am afraid that it will be the case again.
Over the time, my favourite authors are for example Franz Kafka, Thomas Bernhard, E. A. Poe, Leonid Andrejev and some other Russian authors, recently I have also liked some novels by Philip Roth and I appreciate that in spite of his commercial success he did not restore to cheap happy endings for example in his Portnoy´s Complaint, Humbling, Everyman etc...
As for movies, I used to like a lot of films, mainly alternative or horrors (from commercial movies) but now I rarely watch a movie, for various reasons (the danger of happy endings being one of them). Back then, my favourite directors were Bunuel, D. Lynch, Greenaway, Kieszlowski etc and of course Monty Python´s...

So my question is: is it normal to have such an aversion to happy endings in stories? How does the fact that something has a happy ending influence your overall opinion on the work?

I love happy endings 19
I hate happy endings, they spoil the quality of the work 18
I am indifferent to happy endings,they don´t influence my appreciation 36
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Comments ( 12 )
  • Anime7
    11 years ago

    Sad Endings make me think more than happy ones. But I like my stories to be realistic in the way that its told. If something just appears tragic and a deus ex machina happens, like in Lord of the Flies, then I'll be extremely annoyed. However, like Dappled said, some "sad endings" could also be happy, like in A Prayer for Owen Meany. It really all depends on the way the story is told. Although usually I won't be happy, I'll probably be very annoyed, with an ending that just wraps up the whole story in a nice little bow.

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  • dappled
    11 years ago

    We like a lot of the same things. I sometimes think happy endings aren't true to real life. A lot of my favourite books (The Unbearable Lightness of Being, The Trial, One Hundred Years of Solitude, Catcher in the Rye, Breakfast of Champions, The Road) don't end happily. Same with films (Requiem for a Dream, Breaking the Waves, Merci la Vie, Noce Blanche).

    Then there are books and films which play with the ending. Irreversible, for instance, which has a happy ending because it's told in reverse and that's really the beginning. The ending, which we started with, is as bad as it gets. Or A Prayer For Owen Meany which has a tragic ending which somehow manages to be uplifting in that everything happens for a reason. Or Catch-22; is that a happy ending or not? Or Chronicle of a Death Foretold where you know just from the title how it's going to end. You're also told details throughout the book until the only thing left to happen is what you always knew would happen. Tragically, unfairly, and unfortunately.

    One of my favourite books, English Passengers, has some well-regarded people (scientists and priests) being rather shitty to each other for the entirity of the book against a backdrop of people who are supposed villains (smugglers). The scientist in particular acts thoroughly immorally and while he doesn't get his happy ending, the beautiful sense of justice does make me feel happier than if he'd merely been nasty and got away with it (others in the book, however, do and that's why I like it. The happy ending for the reader is the only happy ending in a book full of endings that aren't really deserved, including a near-complete genocide).

    To finally answer your question, some films/books can't have happy endings and if they did, I would feel disgusted (as you mentioned). But there are those where, while I don't want a happy ending, I want people to get what's coming to them (like in Hitchcock's "Rope") but then there are certain actors (Jimmy Stewart, who was in Rope springs immediately to mind) who you want to see win. Bananaface has already mentioned It's A Wonderful Life (it had to end the way it did) but also, say, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, which has an interesting ending. So, no, they don't always disgust me. But I definitely prefer a more downbeat ending.

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    • prasatko
      11 years ago

      Thank you very much for your elaborated and thoughtful comment. I see your point and I agree with you. By the way, you have just given me great tips and inspiration when it comes to the books I want to read in near future. Thanks also for that:)

      As for the books you mentioned, may I just add my random thoughts?
      -The Unbearable Lightness of Being. This is something that makes me feel ashamed: I have been thinking about reading it for years and it is a shame I have not read it yet. I am twice as ashamed also because Kundera is very close to my culture. I am from Slovakia, born in Czechoslovakia... I hope that I will read it in 2013:)
      -The Trial. ...Simply perfect, right now I have Kafka´s short prose on my desk and I have to read some parts of it over and over again.
      -The Road - do you mean The Road by Cormac McCarthy? If yes, I agree, it is a great book. I have read only some of his books and I am planning to read more because I love some aspects of his style.

      When it comes to Czech books: did you have the chance to read Too Loud a Solitude by Bohumil Hrabal? Another perfect example of something that I like:)

      And my last question - have you read Kafka´s novel America or sometimes translated as The Man Who Disappeared? If yes, do you consider its ending a happy ending or not? I know it is his unfinished work but I mean the ending of the book as it is published. I enjoyed this book and now it really does not matter to me whether its ending should be interpreted as happy or not:), I am just curious how people interpret its ending. Anyway, it was probably not an ending at all, Kafka would probably change something or add more chapters.

      Thanks again for your previous comment.

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      • dappled
        11 years ago

        I meant to mention it (and forgot) but I kind of took your post as a recommended reading list too. I haven't read any Philip Roth but our tastes are so similar, you made me think about seeing whether he's available for Kindle.

        The Unbearable Lightness of Being is a fantastic book. I won't ruin it for you by mentioning anything much about it but it had a big impact on me. Kundera is a very good writer.

        The Trial had such an impact on me, it changed my mental state (sadly for the worse but I got over it). No book has ever had that power over me before. Kafka is an astonishing writer. Oh, and yes, I did mean Cormac McCarthy's book (haven't seen the film, although I may do).

        I haven't read any Hrabal despite yours being the third recommendation (someone told me to read Letters to Dubenka, and I'd need to go and search to remember the other recommendation). I'm looking for new books at the moment so I think I'll finally get to read Hrabal.

        Sadly haven't read America (I veered away from Kafka after he affected me so much). I've only read The Trial, Metamorphosis and the short stories which are usually in the same volume as Metamorphosis.

        Thanks for the recommendations, though. I have a feeling I'll like them. I think you'll enjoy The Unbearable Lightness of Being too. Until I started thinking about it just now, I hadn't realised that this book comes out in some of my answers on IIN. It helped formed my opinions.

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  • bananaface
    11 years ago

    Depends on the film, sometimes it ruins it, sometimes it's the best thing ever. It's not really something I would have thought about myself, but I seem to have a thing for tragedies. I don't know why, it's just too many of my favourites are tragic for me to deny it:P. But it definitely depends on the story. I really hate it when something which I felt should have ended happily is all doom and gloom, and it doesn't feel right. I can't really describe it properly. Just sometimes it feels like they're doing it for the sake of it and it just feels wrong. Like the story shouldn't have went that way. I don't know! Like, I wouldn't love It's A Wonderful Life as much as I do if it had ended badly (probably).

    Ah well, I love depressing things too, although I'm definitely not disgusted by happy endings. I love those as well! I'm mixed. Maybe it's just your taste.

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  • Justsomejerk
    11 years ago

    I love happy endings! What's all this about books?

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  • squeallikeasacofpigs
    11 years ago

    Tell me more about how much you read. Yes please, name some more famous authors, I don't think you've quite proved to everyone exactly how well read you are yet, please continue.

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    • prasatko
      11 years ago

      Tell me more about how you are unable to answer the question. Yes please, give more reasons why you have the urge to put down the topics which you are not capable of discussing. I don´t think you´ve quite proved to everyone exactly how illiterate you are yet, please continue.

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      • squeallikeasacofpigs
        11 years ago

        Cool story bro.

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  • Maya05
    11 years ago

    Depends on the story. As long as the ending makes sense with the story. I hate when a story shows now way for a happy ending and then suddenly everything just gets better. That is unrealistic and annoying to me. I also hate cliche happy endings like "The guy got the girl and lived happily ever after" Booooring.

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  • Corleone
    11 years ago

    Depends on the story. Both good and bad endings can be well written. However, I do hate how sometimes the good endings are just pasted on. This is actually way more common in movies. Take the movie Matchstick Men for example. In the book by Eric Garcia, the story ends terribly for Roy.

    When I saw the movie a few years later, there was a happy end, horribly pasted on.

    (SPOILER!)

    Just like in the book, Roy loses his money and is forsaken by everyone he loves. When I thought the movie was over, a new scene started, where you saw a one minute clip of Roy getting a wife and a happy family.

    (END SPOILER)

    I mean, come on! Was it really too hard to let it end as the writer intended it? Do they really think that Hollywood can't deal with a little negativity? Sheesh.

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  • q25t
    11 years ago

    It really depends on whether the plot deserved a happy ending or not. The only time I dislike happy endings is when deus ex machina is the only way it came about. That pisses me off.

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