Comments on: What is a happy story? http://htmlgiant.com/random/what-is-a-happy-story/ the internet literature magazine blog of the future Thu, 24 May 2012 23:44:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: keith n b http://htmlgiant.com/random/what-is-a-happy-story/comment-page-1/#comment-33133 keith n b Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:59:32 +0000 http://htmlgiant.com/?p=16290#comment-33133 maybe i don't agree with your student, i don't know. i just read 'brief interviews with hideous men' in the anthology you assigned, and if he thinks that's a sad and depressing story then he should just shut the fuck up. still i would argue it's rare to see that kind of a range in contemporary fiction. and yet i would say that argument is fundamentally fucked, given that it's rare to see that kind of range in any fiction. maybe i don’t agree with your student, i don’t know. i just read ‘brief interviews with hideous men’ in the anthology you assigned, and if he thinks that’s a sad and depressing story then he should just shut the fuck up. still i would argue it’s rare to see that kind of a range in contemporary fiction. and yet i would say that argument is fundamentally fucked, given that it’s rare to see that kind of range in any fiction.

]]> By: keith n b http://htmlgiant.com/random/what-is-a-happy-story/comment-page-1/#comment-118940 keith n b Wed, 21 Oct 2009 16:59:00 +0000 http://htmlgiant.com/?p=16290#comment-118940 maybe i don't agree with your student, i don't know. i just read 'brief interviews with hideous men' in the anthology you assigned, and if he thinks that's a sad and depressing story then he should just shut the fuck up. still i would argue it's rare to see that kind of a range in contemporary fiction. and yet i would say that argument is fundamentally fucked, given that it's rare to see that kind of range in any fiction. maybe i don’t agree with your student, i don’t know. i just read ‘brief interviews with hideous men’ in the anthology you assigned, and if he thinks that’s a sad and depressing story then he should just shut the fuck up. still i would argue it’s rare to see that kind of a range in contemporary fiction. and yet i would say that argument is fundamentally fucked, given that it’s rare to see that kind of range in any fiction.

]]> By: keith n b http://htmlgiant.com/random/what-is-a-happy-story/comment-page-1/#comment-31647 keith n b Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:31:33 +0000 http://htmlgiant.com/?p=16290#comment-31647 happiness is hard to do. happiness, in the end, will kill you. happiness is a warm gun. happiness is as one-dimensional as much of the stuff that lies at the antipole. even in the worst times of my life there have been very rich, veiny textures that shone in a different light and in a different way than an overall happy feeling, but often i feel that those subdued, almost subliminally glowing textures are completely absent in fiction that deals with anti-happy themes. depression is a luxurious state of being that may very likely smother and kill you, but given the necessary pockets of air to breathe within the morass, it is possible to search and explore as though scuba diving in some lightless cave beneath the barrier reefs awash in sun. i agree with your student, but maybe for different reasons. tension in a story, for the sake of plot or even non-plot, can be as artificial and contrived as a forced happy ending or positive emotion. 'a world without hope, but no despair' --henry miller. rather than happiness or sadness, i hope for complexity of emotion, not necessarily a roller-coaster ride, but a rubik's cube of being turned slightly in several different directions and hoping that i walk away with the feeling of wanting to be alive, happy to be alive, to be immersed in the panorama and cathedral of unadulterated experience that the human condition enables, makes possible and is one piece of bright or dull colored rock that fits just so in the kaleidoscopic shift of patterns that never cease to fascinate, whether when genuinely smiling or with a razor in my hand, it's all there, all the time, accessible at different moments but never without potential to emerge unannounced. happiness is hard to do. happiness, in the end, will kill you. happiness is a warm gun. happiness is as one-dimensional as much of the stuff that lies at the antipole. even in the worst times of my life there have been very rich, veiny textures that shone in a different light and in a different way than an overall happy feeling, but often i feel that those subdued, almost subliminally glowing textures are completely absent in fiction that deals with anti-happy themes. depression is a luxurious state of being that may very likely smother and kill you, but given the necessary pockets of air to breathe within the morass, it is possible to search and explore as though scuba diving in some lightless cave beneath the barrier reefs awash in sun.

i agree with your student, but maybe for different reasons.

tension in a story, for the sake of plot or even non-plot, can be as artificial and contrived as a forced happy ending or positive emotion. ‘a world without hope, but no despair’ –henry miller. rather than happiness or sadness, i hope for complexity of emotion, not necessarily a roller-coaster ride, but a rubik’s cube of being turned slightly in several different directions and hoping that i walk away with the feeling of wanting to be alive, happy to be alive, to be immersed in the panorama and cathedral of unadulterated experience that the human condition enables, makes possible and is one piece of bright or dull colored rock that fits just so in the kaleidoscopic shift of patterns that never cease to fascinate, whether when genuinely smiling or with a razor in my hand, it’s all there, all the time, accessible at different moments but never without potential to emerge unannounced.

]]> By: keith n b http://htmlgiant.com/random/what-is-a-happy-story/comment-page-1/#comment-118939 keith n b Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:31:00 +0000 http://htmlgiant.com/?p=16290#comment-118939 happiness is hard to do. happiness, in the end, will kill you. happiness is a warm gun. happiness is as one-dimensional as much of the stuff that lies at the antipole. even in the worst times of my life there have been very rich, veiny textures that shone in a different light and in a different way than an overall happy feeling, but often i feel that those subdued, almost subliminally glowing textures are completely absent in fiction that deals with anti-happy themes. depression is a luxurious state of being that may very likely smother and kill you, but given the necessary pockets of air to breathe within the morass, it is possible to search and explore as though scuba diving in some lightless cave beneath the barrier reefs awash in sun. i agree with your student, but maybe for different reasons. tension in a story, for the sake of plot or even non-plot, can be as artificial and contrived as a forced happy ending or positive emotion. 'a world without hope, but no despair' --henry miller. rather than happiness or sadness, i hope for complexity of emotion, not necessarily a roller-coaster ride, but a rubik's cube of being turned slightly in several different directions and hoping that i walk away with the feeling of wanting to be alive, happy to be alive, to be immersed in the panorama and cathedral of unadulterated experience that the human condition enables, makes possible and is one piece of bright or dull colored rock that fits just so in the kaleidoscopic shift of patterns that never cease to fascinate, whether when genuinely smiling or with a razor in my hand, it's all there, all the time, accessible at different moments but never without potential to emerge unannounced. happiness is hard to do. happiness, in the end, will kill you. happiness is a warm gun. happiness is as one-dimensional as much of the stuff that lies at the antipole. even in the worst times of my life there have been very rich, veiny textures that shone in a different light and in a different way than an overall happy feeling, but often i feel that those subdued, almost subliminally glowing textures are completely absent in fiction that deals with anti-happy themes. depression is a luxurious state of being that may very likely smother and kill you, but given the necessary pockets of air to breathe within the morass, it is possible to search and explore as though scuba diving in some lightless cave beneath the barrier reefs awash in sun.

i agree with your student, but maybe for different reasons.

tension in a story, for the sake of plot or even non-plot, can be as artificial and contrived as a forced happy ending or positive emotion. ‘a world without hope, but no despair’ –henry miller. rather than happiness or sadness, i hope for complexity of emotion, not necessarily a roller-coaster ride, but a rubik’s cube of being turned slightly in several different directions and hoping that i walk away with the feeling of wanting to be alive, happy to be alive, to be immersed in the panorama and cathedral of unadulterated experience that the human condition enables, makes possible and is one piece of bright or dull colored rock that fits just so in the kaleidoscopic shift of patterns that never cease to fascinate, whether when genuinely smiling or with a razor in my hand, it’s all there, all the time, accessible at different moments but never without potential to emerge unannounced.

]]> By: Roberta http://htmlgiant.com/random/what-is-a-happy-story/comment-page-1/#comment-31615 Roberta Sat, 10 Oct 2009 10:51:01 +0000 http://htmlgiant.com/?p=16290#comment-31615 'happy' seems simplistic. just the way nobody's experiencing just one singular emotion at any given moment, so i don't think there's any such thing as a 'happy' novel or a 'sad' novel. plus, don't our reactions to books decree how we categorise them? (if we do.) i might differentiate between a book that left me feeling 'happy' and one that struck me as being intended to actually be cheerful. we all react to things in different ways. 'the colour purple' has a 'happy' ending, i suppose. everything's tied up very neatly - and the abused and the abusers and those who have had their genitals mutilated and their faces ritually scarred all skip off into the sunset together. i think the ending detracts from the book itself, lessens its impact. it's forced and unsatisfying. i suppose it's whether some approximation of 'happy' fits the text, isn't ambiguous or at the sacrifice of anything within it. 'nadja' popped into my mind, because theoretically i suppose it's fairly anti-happy. but i found it's a book that makes me feel light. it's got a weird ungrounded almost ethereal lightness throughout. that makes me feel not a million miles from 'happy.' some banana yoshimoto makes me feel a little like that. it's so light and delicate. i'm not sure 'happy' is necessarily what the given authors intended, though. but those are my reactions, conditioned by who i am, whatever mood i am in when i'm reading, and all that jazz. ‘happy’ seems simplistic. just the way nobody’s experiencing just one singular emotion at any given moment, so i don’t think there’s any such thing as a ‘happy’ novel or a ‘sad’ novel.

plus, don’t our reactions to books decree how we categorise them? (if we do.) i might differentiate between a book that left me feeling ‘happy’ and one that struck me as being intended to actually be cheerful. we all react to things in different ways.

‘the colour purple’ has a ‘happy’ ending, i suppose. everything’s tied up very neatly – and the abused and the abusers and those who have had their genitals mutilated and their faces ritually scarred all skip off into the sunset together.
i think the ending detracts from the book itself, lessens its impact. it’s forced and unsatisfying.

i suppose it’s whether some approximation of ‘happy’ fits the text, isn’t ambiguous or at the sacrifice of anything within it.

‘nadja’ popped into my mind, because theoretically i suppose it’s fairly anti-happy. but i found it’s a book that makes me feel light. it’s got a weird ungrounded almost ethereal lightness throughout. that makes me feel not a million miles from ‘happy.’
some banana yoshimoto makes me feel a little like that. it’s so light and delicate.
i’m not sure ‘happy’ is necessarily what the given authors intended, though. but those are my reactions, conditioned by who i am, whatever mood i am in when i’m reading, and all that jazz.

]]> By: Roberta http://htmlgiant.com/random/what-is-a-happy-story/comment-page-1/#comment-118938 Roberta Sat, 10 Oct 2009 10:51:00 +0000 http://htmlgiant.com/?p=16290#comment-118938 'happy' seems simplistic. just the way nobody's experiencing just one singular emotion at any given moment, so i don't think there's any such thing as a 'happy' novel or a 'sad' novel. plus, don't our reactions to books decree how we categorise them? (if we do.) i might differentiate between a book that left me feeling 'happy' and one that struck me as being intended to actually be cheerful. we all react to things in different ways. 'the colour purple' has a 'happy' ending, i suppose. everything's tied up very neatly - and the abused and the abusers and those who have had their genitals mutilated and their faces ritually scarred all skip off into the sunset together. i think the ending detracts from the book itself, lessens its impact. it's forced and unsatisfying. i suppose it's whether some approximation of 'happy' fits the text, isn't ambiguous or at the sacrifice of anything within it. 'nadja' popped into my mind, because theoretically i suppose it's fairly anti-happy. but i found it's a book that makes me feel light. it's got a weird ungrounded almost ethereal lightness throughout. that makes me feel not a million miles from 'happy.' some banana yoshimoto makes me feel a little like that. it's so light and delicate. i'm not sure 'happy' is necessarily what the given authors intended, though. but those are my reactions, conditioned by who i am, whatever mood i am in when i'm reading, and all that jazz. ‘happy’ seems simplistic. just the way nobody’s experiencing just one singular emotion at any given moment, so i don’t think there’s any such thing as a ‘happy’ novel or a ‘sad’ novel.

plus, don’t our reactions to books decree how we categorise them? (if we do.) i might differentiate between a book that left me feeling ‘happy’ and one that struck me as being intended to actually be cheerful. we all react to things in different ways.

‘the colour purple’ has a ‘happy’ ending, i suppose. everything’s tied up very neatly – and the abused and the abusers and those who have had their genitals mutilated and their faces ritually scarred all skip off into the sunset together.
i think the ending detracts from the book itself, lessens its impact. it’s forced and unsatisfying.

i suppose it’s whether some approximation of ‘happy’ fits the text, isn’t ambiguous or at the sacrifice of anything within it.

‘nadja’ popped into my mind, because theoretically i suppose it’s fairly anti-happy. but i found it’s a book that makes me feel light. it’s got a weird ungrounded almost ethereal lightness throughout. that makes me feel not a million miles from ‘happy.’
some banana yoshimoto makes me feel a little like that. it’s so light and delicate.
i’m not sure ‘happy’ is necessarily what the given authors intended, though. but those are my reactions, conditioned by who i am, whatever mood i am in when i’m reading, and all that jazz.

]]> By: MoGa http://htmlgiant.com/random/what-is-a-happy-story/comment-page-1/#comment-31333 MoGa Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:55:31 +0000 http://htmlgiant.com/?p=16290#comment-31333 This woman set me back with my work for about six months. Took a long time to get over some b.s. she said in a workshop. Anyway. After that, I left realism to the realists. This woman set me back with my work for about six months. Took a long time to get over some b.s. she said in a workshop. Anyway. After that, I left realism to the realists.

]]> By: MoGa http://htmlgiant.com/random/what-is-a-happy-story/comment-page-1/#comment-118937 MoGa Fri, 09 Oct 2009 17:55:00 +0000 http://htmlgiant.com/?p=16290#comment-118937 This woman set me back with my work for about six months. Took a long time to get over some b.s. she said in a workshop. Anyway. After that, I left realism to the realists. This woman set me back with my work for about six months. Took a long time to get over some b.s. she said in a workshop. Anyway. After that, I left realism to the realists.

]]> By: Schulyer Prinz http://htmlgiant.com/random/what-is-a-happy-story/comment-page-1/#comment-31290 Schulyer Prinz Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:07:17 +0000 http://htmlgiant.com/?p=16290#comment-31290 Joseph Heller wrote a truly happy novel and it destroyed him. There was nowhere to go afterwards. , iThe Journalist by Harry Mathews ends with the over-all sensation of relief (as in, things are not as bad as I thought they were). And, in case anyone forgot, D. Barthleme's Snow White ends with "The revirgination of Snow- White's asshole. Heigh-ho" That is the ultimate in happy endings. Joseph Heller wrote a truly happy novel and it destroyed him. There was nowhere to go afterwards. , iThe Journalist by Harry Mathews ends with the over-all sensation of relief (as in, things are not as bad as I thought they were).
And, in case anyone forgot, D. Barthleme’s Snow White ends with “The revirgination of Snow- White’s asshole. Heigh-ho” That is the ultimate in happy endings.

]]> By: Schulyer Prinz http://htmlgiant.com/random/what-is-a-happy-story/comment-page-1/#comment-118936 Schulyer Prinz Fri, 09 Oct 2009 15:07:00 +0000 http://htmlgiant.com/?p=16290#comment-118936 Joseph Heller wrote a truly happy novel and it destroyed him. There was nowhere to go afterwards. , iThe Journalist by Harry Mathews ends with the over-all sensation of relief (as in, things are not as bad as I thought they were). And, in case anyone forgot, D. Barthleme's Snow White ends with "The revirgination of Snow- White's asshole. Heigh-ho" That is the ultimate in happy endings. Joseph Heller wrote a truly happy novel and it destroyed him. There was nowhere to go afterwards. , iThe Journalist by Harry Mathews ends with the over-all sensation of relief (as in, things are not as bad as I thought they were).
And, in case anyone forgot, D. Barthleme’s Snow White ends with “The revirgination of Snow- White’s asshole. Heigh-ho” That is the ultimate in happy endings.

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