storytelling

We live a half mile to the west of what is generally considered to be the most beautiful coastal drive in the Pacific Northwest. It's a winding road, just two lanes, with stunning views of the San Juan Islands around every curve. I drive this road pretty much every day, and I don't think I'll ever get tired of it.

In this part of the world, there's a definitive sign of spring, and today -- the last day of February in this leap year -- I saw it. Coming around a corner I had my first sighting of a middle aged man in a two-seat convertible with the top down. On beautiful summer days I have had up to twenty-seven sightings of this particular species during one fifteen minute drive, but the first one is always special. This one was bald, and wore sunglasses. Thus I mark the calendar.

Posted by at 4:50 PM | Permalink

following from a couple posts and the discussions that followed, I have tried to sort things out with a table. I haven't included definitions of what constitutes a satisfying tragic or optimistic ending to a novel or a film, because, well, that would be too much work just now. And also, you can take yourself down to the rest of the discussion to see what was said there, if you're really wondering. One other proviso: to say that an ending was somehow successful doesn't mean that the whole novel or film was without flaw. The converse is also true: a flawed ending can sometimes be forgiven if the rest of the work is strong enough. And of course this is all a matter of opinion and interpretation.

Because I'm working with little space, I didn't include author or screenwriter, and I've color coded novels and films. Many novels and films won't fit into any of these categories, of course.

ENDINGS	genuine/earned satisfying	forced/manipulative dissatisfactory
tragic/sad	The Hours Lost in Translation A Soldier of the Great War	Saving Private Ryan Cold Mountain In the Cut
optimistic/happy	Mansfield Park Possession	Mansfield Park The Pursuit of Alice Thrift
neither/nor/other	Fight Club	?

Posted by at 10:44 AM | Permalink | Comments (2)