If you knew the ending of a book—and it wasn’t happy—would you read it? #TiWiWf
Before you say, “No way! If I know how it ends, I will never read it,” might, I remind you how BIG the movie Titanic was? Yet the ship STILL sank.
Most of the people died.
And millions of people went to the theaters to watch. Millions of people bought the DVDs AFTER they watched the movie. Millions rented it via Netflix and pay per view. And (finally), when it comes on tv for free, we watch it.
Yet … we KNOW the end.
The boat still sinks.
The people still die.
It happens the same way, every time, with no change.
Just like the real event. Which those of us who’re alive already know all about. The Titanic sank. Period. We know.
Yet we still love/watch/rewatch the movie.
Why?
Is it because we like struggle and strife? Is that it? We want to feel other people’s pain? Maybe. I don’t know. But I have an idea for a novel. Egad! Not me, right? 😉 I have this idea that is to kill off ALL the characters at the end.
Yes, that’s exactly what I said.
I want to kill off ALL the characters at the end. The favorites. The good ones. The men, women and children. At the end, I want it to be ‘the end’.
And I want you to know it.
Right now.
When I tell people that I OFTEN read the end of books before I read the beginning and middle, they tell me I’m not letting it surprise me. How can you do that? I hear, often. Often. Often. 🙂 It seems most people don’t read the end first.
Who knew? 😉
Knowing ‘the end’ seems to bother a lot of people — at least in books. Yet we flock to movies like Titanic. Where everyone dies (or a lot do) and the boat sinks.
You know the end first.
So … my question to you is this: If I (or someone else — but particularly me since I have this idea) wrote a book and all the people died (and the figurative boat sank), and you knew that going in … would you read it?
Have fun with your answers!
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I am staunchly a happily ever after gal. I hated Titanic. My thing is if I want to deal with dark and drama, there’s plenty of it to contemplate in the real world. Kids without love, shelter and fresh water in Africa. That’s reality. When I read, I want to escape from these issues.
I also never read the ending first. I don’t even try to figure out the who-dun-it in a mystery. I love the revelation and surprise. And I love my happy endings.
As an author, I can see the desire to stretch your artistic muscles and create something that doesn’t fit the mold. Undoubtedly there’s an audience out there for that. Just not me. You will find me out dancing in the rain looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow 😉
Danielle
http://knowntoread.blogspot.com/
I am with you … HEA all the way … however, I thoroughly enjoyed Titanic and rewatch is like the millions of others out there. LOL
I love Titanic, too, and cry my eyes out over and over even though I know the part with the mom reading to her children as the boat sinks is coming, or seeing the mom holding the baby in the water, or the old couple cuddling each other in bed. It’s the music, I tell you that brings on the waterworks! But the movie is about Jack and Rose as much as it is about the boat sinking. As a book, I don’t like to read the ends, because if we did, we’d see the resolution between Jack and Rose, completely giving the plot of the book away. I like the surprise.
I’m a middle kind of girl. I’ll pick up a book and read the pages in the middle. If the middle doesn’t hold me, more than likely, neither will the rest of the book. Now, I know that doesn’t always hold true, but I’ve tested my theory a couple of times, and for me, my method works. It’s easy to capture the attention in the beginning and create the tension in the end, but how well the author can hold my attention between the two is the real testament to the writer’s skills.
There can still be loads of surprises even if you ‘know’ the end. 😉
I’d read it because YOU wrote it and everything you write is fabulous!
I’m kind of torn otherwise. I think I would have to know the author’s other works, maybe.
It would be hard knowing it was THE END and no chance of another story but some storyies need to end… Better be a REALLY good blurb on the back… 😉
You’re ridiculously sweet! I love my biggest fan! 😉
Never watched Titanic. But I did watch Apollo 13. Not a sad ending, mind you, but I knew the ending. I still liked the movie even thought my buddy said, “it was predictable”. (Yes I did slap him in the back of the head.)
Some stories, the ending needs to surprise you and that’s the whole point.
The only story I am ok with knowing the ending, are historical ones. And even those have to be extremely well told, with endearing characters. It’s the journey that makes the story.
My, novels, for instance, are written with the whole purpose of making the reader say “Holy S***! I didn’t see that coming but it totally makes sense”. I want them to want to re-read the book to catch the hints they missed. Like it is a totally different story the second read through. Two books in one, kind of thing.
That said, I’m ok with an unhappy ending.
So maybe this will be a historical. LOL Not.
I’m not sure Titanic is a good example. Yeah, the ship goes down and people die, but we don’t know, going in, that the MC’s will be among them. That’s like saying you go see a horror flick and know how it ends (almost the entire cast will be dead).
Because I’m impatient, I sometimes scan ahead in the episode descriptions for TV shows on netflix. I know how each season of Supernatural ends, even though I’m only on season 3. Still, I watch because it’s interesting. I will say that knowing someone is still alive in season 5 reduces the concerns when said character gets into a tricky spot in season three. Knowing the ending is sad won’t turn me away, but knowing the ending nullifies certain devices used by the writer.
I didn’t say there wouldn’t be other parts of the story and that the death is key to the entire ‘future’. But everyone has to die. *BOOM* 🙂
While I love the happy ever after ending as much as the next girl. I enjoy the ride more. I have read many books that by the end I have gone through almost a box of Puffs LOL If there is substance to the outcome, I will be saddened, have the opportunity to clear my sinuses, and probably read it again in the future. What I do not care for is the uber cliffhangers that I have to wait for a year to be resolved before the next installment is published. This will often cause me to forget the book and hesitate when the next comes out on acquiring it. For me a good read, is a good read, and I will treasure the story regardless if the ending is happy or not 🙂
Hehehehe and see, I hate not HEAs … so somehow, even with everyone gone, I’d have to make it an HEA. 🙂 Yup. Somehow for me. 🙂
I would absolutely read it. For me, it’s the story of the characters that count. There are too many perfect happily ever afters out there, and I find a tragedy more reflective of real life now and then. If they fought tooth and nail, changed, laughed, cried along the way to their end, it’s all the more powerful for me.
You’re 1 of 7 then that would read it for the great literature that it will be! 😉 haaaaaahaha. 🙂