Happy endings= bad.

Oh no, he's priming for another depressing philosophical blog! Hurry, set all shields to happiness-filter. Prepare to synchronize all walls into joy-mode. Protect yourself before the sadness can get through!

... too late.

Now, not to be a total downer but I really do not like happy endings. Sure, they have their place in literature and other forms of art- sometimes. But when there is no reason, at all, to have a happy ending other than to justify itself. To paraphrase Douglas Coupland's characters of Gen A, "a happy ending for its own sake is like masturbation of the mind." Amen.

Sure, happiness is good. But when you just write it in to neatly tie up all the loose ends and leave a glow in your audience? Pure and utter rubbish. Looking back, all of my favourite books and movies end on a sour note, and if not then at least bittersweet. Let's look, shall we?

Lord of the Rings- Frodo and Bilbo leave middle earth forever, leaving their loved ones. Not to mention arwen's abandoning the rest of the elves and choosing a mortal life to be with aragorn.

Any Doctor Who finale ever- Donna's lost her memory. Rose in an alternate dimension (though that's really a happy ending for some)

Harry Potter- Dumbledore dies, along with one of the twins (fred or george, I can never remember), tonks, lupin, and like a thousand other people. AND DOBBY :'(

I think that's enough. An oddly accurate representation of my interests, too. But to return to our thesis: any happy ending, unless satisfactorily written in and explained, is eventually going to ruin your book/movie/song(?). Poe, Hemingway, Dickens: no great author would dare to leave a book in bliss. There has to be at least the illusion of some sort of unpleasantry. It's the only way to assure a fantastic piece of fiction.

***Edit: I thought I was going to work so I polished this off quickly, but due to the weather my shift was cancelled. Seeing as everyone else in my family is leaving to go see my brother's gig in Hamilton, that means about 5 hours home alone. The following will be random excerpts developed throughout this time.

Standing on a spinning chair is one of the most dangerous feelings ever.

Surprisingly, oranges and potatoes are not appetising together.

Soy milk doesn't make good milkshakes.

Pixel Perfect is one of the best Disney movies of my childhood ever.

Black parents have the best names for kids ever. Naleighla? Awesome (credit supernanny).