Margaret Atwood
1983
"You'll have to face it, the endings are the same however you slice it. Don't be deluded by any other endings, they're all fake, either deliberately fake, with malicious intent to deceive, or just motivated by excessive optimism if not by downright sentimentality.
The only authentic ending is the one provided here:
John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die."
This is my favorite story we have read so far. I love romantic stories and this one flipped all of the preconceived notations of love stories I had around. It made me question everything I thought to be true of a love story. I naively thought a love story is one where two people love each other, and while there may be some struggling time, in the end, they live happily ever after. Every one of the endings to this story proved me wrong. Each story contains some aspect of love, whether or not both people felt it. The only consistent thing is that everyone always died, which a much more realistic approach to ending a story.
I love this quote because I am one of those people who enjoy the "deliberately fake" endings because of "excessive optimism," and "downright sentimentality." I am a hopeless romantic and would love to live one of those happily ever after stories. I know that isn't a sensible way to look at things, but when you read a love story or watch a movie, it does give you that false sense of optimism that it could happen to you. On an intellectual level I know the difference between real life and a story but I sometimes can't help but dream. As far as sentimentality, I am a very emotional person. When I read a story with an exaggerated plot, I am the person who will cry, "aww," as the story comes to that predictable, cheesy ending.
Before reading this story I looked at love stories like theses clips:
Pitch Perfect: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QxmVkNX_z8 "Endings are the best part."
Easy A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBnBgFBH-nc "I want my life to me like an 80s movie."
However, after reading this story and thinking very clearly as to how stories, romantic and otherwise, I have more realistic outlook.
Fun to consider why we love love stories, and how Atwood plays with, even undermines that love! You're right to note that she pokes a little fun at us for our sentimentality. But then, wouldn't Le Guin say that it's good to admire a happy story?
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