August 10, 2010

Malifluous

Hey, guess what time it is!!!  It's 2:51AM!!

Thinking about those pesky words again.  I wonder if folks have a hard time understanding things I try to relate through various means like stories or posts...or even conversations.  I know that some folks like to be mysterious and off the wall when they say things so they keep everyone guessing.  And sometimes we like to be vague to keep from giving out too much information.  So, yeah...I'm not very mysterious and would like to think that I say exactly what I mean but I'm not a very good judge of whether that's the way things really happen.  
When I read something, it's nice to be able to interpret what they're writing instead of being left guessing.  You know me and my "Whys"...I need to know.  And it's not like you can ask the author, at least not all the time.  So why do movies end the way they do?  Like "Ghost Writer", I'm left pondering and hungering for more.  Ever seen that movie?  Was he a part of the plot?  A double agent?  Since the ending was only sound from a scene we were set up for but couldn't see, we're left wondering...,"What!?"
Maybe it's all about needing closure.  When I read a book or see a movie I like to come away with a feeling of satisfaction.  Completeness.  Yes, I'm a lover of happy endings but even if it's not happy, it's disconcerting to come away from either a finished novel or a movie with bothersome questions.  A feeling like you've been drawn into the person's world but then a wall has been put up so you can only see a little portion of the logic behind the plot.  In my mind, that's an incomplete story...no closure.  I mean it might not end the way I would have liked but if I can understand why things happened the way they did, at least I'm not haunted by questions that I'll never know the answers to.
Maybe that comes down to the responsible use of words that I think folks ought to use.  Every story influences other people in some way.  At least I think they do.  Maybe other folks walk away from a story or movie and think, "Well, that was mind blowing!" and promptly forget all about it.  It's not that I have a problem differentiating between reality and fiction, at least not in most cases, unless it's a story that's too close to home and makes me relive a part of my life that I'd hoped to forget. It's just that I try to figure out what would cause the author to write what they did.  I mean, they are in control so why did they tell the story the way they did? 
Sometimes I think authors often feel like drama or intrigue means sadness, misery or a series of unfortunate events but to me, drama means something is happening.  Something to draw me to the character...make me connect with them.  Whether its events unfolding in daily life or adventures filled with excitement or in between.  Not always something terrible or depressing or placing too much drama on every little unfortunate thing that happens. Just something to keep me following along with a special emotional grabber on occasion.  By that, I still don't mean some tragedy.  With too many of those in a story, the reader becomes desensitized to the plight of the character.  They just stop caring.  And if the person continually shows self deprecating judgement and self pity, I just label them as self absorbed...not interesting.
In a world where things don't always have a happy ending, why, if you have a choice, would you make a story end mysteriously or sadly or leaving viewers/readers feeling cheated?  I guess I'm just a hopeless romantic.

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