Re:As Meat Loves Salt

[fredericks]

Happy. Ending. Happy fuckin' ending, people. Can you give a sister one, for once?
I should have stopped at Chapter 24. Just tack on "And they lived in London 4ever happily ever after. THE END." Goddamnit.

Screw this depressing crap. I'm reading Howl next.

Comments

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

Check out my response above.

[theoban.livejournal.com]

Checked!

I just prefer a bit of a downer ending, I like open endings and unsatisfying conclusions. If it gets tied up too well I feel like I've wandered into another damn Eddings book...happy endings tend to cross the line from 'fantasy' into 'fairy tale'.

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

The one book series I felt had a nice bittersweet realistic ending was Tad Williams' Otherland. The chips fell as they would and sometimes things were just screwed up, but the catastrophic ending where you question whether the journey was even worth it annoys me most.

With this series the protagonist was more or less unredeemable, you knew that after the twist and realized he wasn't going to change while reading the goings-on, but I still hoped for my big cheery music montage ending. When I'm depressed enough to burst into tears upon reading the gradual decline of the last four chapters and the devastation of the very last chapter I know I really could have done with a happy ending. And no, not that kind. Although they're always nice.

Not sure if you've read Stephen King's Dark Tower series, but that ending...you might like it.

[theoban.livejournal.com]

I started reading the Dark Tower stuff, about 15 years ago, and of course then he hadn't finished it so I gave up.

I suppose a happy ending where it fits the story I don't mind. I especially don't mind endings like 'well it's finished, we did what we had to but there's a lot of work left to do'. I just had some bad experiences with authors like Eddings where it seemed all you had to do was a quest or something, and then all life's problems are solved. Even as a youngling I found them to be simplistic.

[frosty-pickle.livejournal.com]

I REALLY tried to like Dark Tower. I liked the first book quite a bit. The gunslinger was cool. The second book was not good. I liked the lobstrocities on the beach. They were very cool though. I quit on the third book. It was awful. His companions pissed me off. I hated the psycho cripple lady. And that stupid love thing going on. And after like 3 months of DRY FIRING a pistol they were suddenly as awesome as the gunslinger. Gay.

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

Did you read the entirety of The Drawing of the Three? It picks up quite a bit as things go on. The reason Eddie and Odetta/Detta could learn how to draw so fast was...a literary device, I suppose. They were all supposed to be special. I just sort of accepted the fact that they'd been hardened by their time with Roland and they'd naturally be gunslingers in their own way, particularly when Roland started comparing them to his compatriots Alain and Cuthbert.

[frosty-pickle.livejournal.com]

Oh, and the gunslinger losing his fingers so he could only fire with one hand made him a loser.

[alicetheowl.livejournal.com]

I liked the ending of the Dark Tower. It felt right, somehow, like everyone got exactly what they deserved, but there was still hope for the ones who hadn't learned their lesson yet.

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

You felt Roland was resident of the camp that got what they deserved? or had hope to learn their lesson still?

[alicetheowl.livejournal.com]

Yes.

Roland was a right bastard. It's why my mother never read past the first book.

[fredericks.livejournal.com]

I felt Roland was hard, but the circumstance required a Roland. The situation he's in...there is no redemption available. No Purgatory but a Circle of Hell, and it chilled me to see him end up that way. I was also left wondering - what in blue blazes was the point? The man was driven by some need to see a thing for whatever reason and then we find out...what?

I find it amusing that King gave readers the option to stop reading before the ending, though. A man after my own heart. I didn't take him up on his warning, though. Oh well.

[alicetheowl.livejournal.com]

Stephen King is an awesome person. I'm glad he's the one who's the household name writer, 'cause I'd hate it if it was some snooty jerk.

Anyway. That trumpet (horn?) thing that he had in the "reset" version hinted that there was some hope. Who knew how it would change things, but any proponent of chaos theory will tell you that changing one small detail can make a world of difference.