on endings
Nov. 28th, 2006 02:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thehefnerIn Creative Writing, we were told not to write a story with an ending in mind. You should just write and let the ending grow from there. I may not be that accomplished a writer (2 unpublished books and a handful of unpublished short stories), but even at the time I had a strong urge to call "bullshit." And now that I have finished THE DARK TOWER, now more than ever, I can hold Stephen King up as proof against that way of thinking.
The problem with Stephen King is that he has no idea how the book is going to end before he writes it. He has said that the ending comes from the story, and I can understand that feeling, sure. He even says the very thought himself in the afterword: "The journey is more important than the destination." And he's right. He's absolutely right.
I rather like his take on it, "You are the unfortunate ones who still get the lovemaking all confused with the paltry squirt that comes at the end of the lovemaking (the orgasm is, after all, God's way of telling us that we're finished, at least for the time being, and should go to sleep.)"
Here's the thing. King's an excellent, sometimes brilliant storyteller. When he's at the top of his game, he weaves and builds excellent tales that make the reader interested, make them care, make them want to see what happens next. But without an ending in mind, without some excellent, powerful climax to work up to, I kind of see it as building a mansion on top of a lake. Maybe that's not the most apt metaphor, but hopefully you know what I mean.
Not that his endings suck, exactly. They just... sorta... *end.* His endings wrap up the story, tie up the loose ends, are basically perfectly functional. If he can come up with a decent solution to finish a story, that's it then, the end. It doesn't matter if it's "satisfying," just that it's the end, justifying it as "the way it has to end." It may satisfy the writer, but it kind of blows for the reader. But then, I suppose your view on that basically falls back on whether art is for the artist or the patrons (I kind of like to have it both ways, like having both versions of Star Wars available to us on DVD).
I've heard a story described as a promise. And when a writer delivers a lame ending, I think he breaks that promise. I mean, go back to the sex metaphor. Yeah, sex has to be more than just the orgasm, but, y'know, the orgasm's kinda important too, isn't it? The climax! Just having it come shouldn't be enough. It should be that promise fulfilled to the very last drop, the culmination of every thread woven from the story's rich tapestry. Especially, especially if the story before it has been great! Ok, now my metaphors are all over the fucking place, but whatever. It's LJ. You're lucky I'm even spelling "laid" correctly.
I'll actually write about the DARK TOWER itself at some point after I've digested it a bit and talked with the few other folks who've read it.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
spacechild, charisma18, and testopolis, I'm a-looking in your directions. For now, I just needed to get out these thoughts which I'd been pondering ever since Prof. Mooney's class, ever since I finished books like THE SHINING, SALEM'S LOT, and CELL with little more than a "Huh? That's it? Well, uh, I guess that works. Still..."
The thing is, up until I read the ending of DARK TOWER (I mean the very, very end, the coda, which King himself advises you not to read. I'd take his advice, I thought the way it ended before that worked just fine. It's like AI: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE all over again!), I thought that even if I hated it, nothing could take away my deep love for the rest of the stories. The journey and the destination and all that, right? But now, a mere half hour after finishing the book, I can't help but wonder and fear if the ending might have put a stain upon all the rest of the books. To think, "THAT'S what it's all lead up to? That's what it was all for?" Can I just consider that coda a DVD extra optional ending? I can, right? God, I definitely want to reread THE TALISMAN to see if I can still love it like I did before.
The journey is more important than destination, absolutely. But the destination should be pretty bloody good too. Otherwise, why travel there in the first place?
The problem with Stephen King is that he has no idea how the book is going to end before he writes it. He has said that the ending comes from the story, and I can understand that feeling, sure. He even says the very thought himself in the afterword: "The journey is more important than the destination." And he's right. He's absolutely right.
I rather like his take on it, "You are the unfortunate ones who still get the lovemaking all confused with the paltry squirt that comes at the end of the lovemaking (the orgasm is, after all, God's way of telling us that we're finished, at least for the time being, and should go to sleep.)"
Here's the thing. King's an excellent, sometimes brilliant storyteller. When he's at the top of his game, he weaves and builds excellent tales that make the reader interested, make them care, make them want to see what happens next. But without an ending in mind, without some excellent, powerful climax to work up to, I kind of see it as building a mansion on top of a lake. Maybe that's not the most apt metaphor, but hopefully you know what I mean.
Not that his endings suck, exactly. They just... sorta... *end.* His endings wrap up the story, tie up the loose ends, are basically perfectly functional. If he can come up with a decent solution to finish a story, that's it then, the end. It doesn't matter if it's "satisfying," just that it's the end, justifying it as "the way it has to end." It may satisfy the writer, but it kind of blows for the reader. But then, I suppose your view on that basically falls back on whether art is for the artist or the patrons (I kind of like to have it both ways, like having both versions of Star Wars available to us on DVD).
I've heard a story described as a promise. And when a writer delivers a lame ending, I think he breaks that promise. I mean, go back to the sex metaphor. Yeah, sex has to be more than just the orgasm, but, y'know, the orgasm's kinda important too, isn't it? The climax! Just having it come shouldn't be enough. It should be that promise fulfilled to the very last drop, the culmination of every thread woven from the story's rich tapestry. Especially, especially if the story before it has been great! Ok, now my metaphors are all over the fucking place, but whatever. It's LJ. You're lucky I'm even spelling "laid" correctly.
I'll actually write about the DARK TOWER itself at some point after I've digested it a bit and talked with the few other folks who've read it.
spacechild, charisma18, and testopolis, I'm a-looking in your directions. For now, I just needed to get out these thoughts which I'd been pondering ever since Prof. Mooney's class, ever since I finished books like THE SHINING, SALEM'S LOT, and CELL with little more than a "Huh? That's it? Well, uh, I guess that works. Still..."The thing is, up until I read the ending of DARK TOWER (I mean the very, very end, the coda, which King himself advises you not to read. I'd take his advice, I thought the way it ended before that worked just fine. It's like AI: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE all over again!), I thought that even if I hated it, nothing could take away my deep love for the rest of the stories. The journey and the destination and all that, right? But now, a mere half hour after finishing the book, I can't help but wonder and fear if the ending might have put a stain upon all the rest of the books. To think, "THAT'S what it's all lead up to? That's what it was all for?" Can I just consider that coda a DVD extra optional ending? I can, right? God, I definitely want to reread THE TALISMAN to see if I can still love it like I did before.
The journey is more important than destination, absolutely. But the destination should be pretty bloody good too. Otherwise, why travel there in the first place?
