In My Humble Opinion

I confess I don't understand how anyone can enjoy reading depressing books (Thomas Hardy leaps to mind) that portray life as defeat for the protagonist. I admit that books portraying life as all rainbows and roses are dull, too, but surely there is a happy medium.

To me, books that portray the protagonist in an important conflict, with himself or other people or nature, yet end with said protagonist triumphing in some way are the most satisfying reads. Perhaps the depressing books are touted because they are technically good, but that doesn't strike me as enough to warrant wading through such sad reading. It is true that real life doesn't always come out the way we want it to. We don't always triumph in our conflicts. However, books aren't real life. I would think that ending a book on a hopeful note would give the reader the courage and hope they need to continue with their own struggles.

I suppose I look on books as teaching tools. They portray conflict and then show ways to approach the conflict so that the protagonist overcomes the conflict and is able to put it behind him and move on with his life. Obvious teaching and preaching are also not good, but the example of persisting in the face of conflict surely is a good use of writing talent, rather than portraying gritty realism ending in defeat for our hero.

I realize that there are many viewpoints among people, but I have to wonder if anyone really likes depressing, defeatist books. Do they pretend to like the books because those books are supposed to be intellectually important? I do not believe that intellectual maturity requires that we torture ourselves emotionally. If they really like the negative books, what does that say about their view of life? Are they just naturally pessimistic? I confess I don't know the answer to those questions.

I think that showing a protagonist using all his faculties to overcome a conflict is a more true intellectual exercise. It is also emotionally satisfying. There is no reason that such a book cannot be technically good, as well, if that is what the reader is looking for. On top of everything else, such a book can be an example of persistence and diligence, of how to use one's abilities to their limit to overcome the conflict. It gives hope to the reader that he, too, can overcome the conflicts in his own life. That seems to me to be the best gift that a writer can give to the reading public.