Screw that lady, and her tiger!

Kitty Pryde · Sep 30, 2010

I'm so sick of the 100% ambiguous ending! Can someone tell me the point of it? Is it supposed to MAKE ME THINK? I don't need to think! I spent the whole book thinking! To be clear, I don't mind an ending left partly ambiguous, you know, like, they defeated the vampires, but will they make their rocky relationship work? Or something. But to spend the entire book going WILL SHE??? WON'T SHE???, keeping the reader on edge, and then just saying, screw it, I'm not telling you! feels like nothing but a cheap played out gimmick.

I just finished a book about whether or not a girl will commit suicide. And...I'll never know. What is the point of a book like that??? This is a book by an author I like, but grrrrrr! Another book that enraged me hinged entirely upon whether a murder would take place or not, and the ending never revealed it. IMNSHO, the only excuse for leaving a story unfinished like that is the author's untimely death. :Soapbox:

Wayne K · Sep 30, 2010

Kitty Pryde said:
I'm so sick of the 100% ambiguous ending! Can someone tell me the point of it? Is it supposed to MAKE ME THINK? I don't need to think! I spent the whole book thinking! To be clear, I don't mind an ending left partly ambiguous, you know, like, they defeated the vampires, but will they make their rocky relationship work? Or something. But to spend the entire book going WILL SHE??? WON'T SHE???, keeping the reader on edge, and then just saying, screw it, I'm not telling you! feels like nothing but a cheap played out gimmick.

I just finished a book about whether or not a girl will commit suicide. And...I'll never know. What is the point of a book like that??? This is a book by an author I like, but grrrrrr! Another book that enraged me hinged entirely upon whether a murder would take place or not, and the ending never revealed it. IMNSHO, the only excuse for leaving a story unfinished like that is the author's untimely death.

Which sounds likely

scarletpeaches · Sep 30, 2010

Ambiguous =/= unsatisfactory.

Kitty Pryde · Sep 30, 2010

No, these are books published by major houses. The suicide one is like the author's 10th book. The murder one was a debut novel.

Cyia · Sep 30, 2010

Kitty Pryde said:
I just finished a book about whether or not a girl will commit suicide. And...I'll never know. What is the point of a book like that??? This is a book by an author I like, but grrrrrr! Another book that enraged me hinged entirely upon whether a murder would take place or not, and the ending never revealed it. IMNSHO, the only excuse for leaving a story unfinished like that is the author's untimely death.

I don't buy the value in an ambiguous ending or the "it's to make you think" excuse. If anything, it's a cop out because the author doesn't want to "offend" or "disappoint" anyone by giving a concrete answer they might not like. With the open ending, it's supposed to be open to the interpretation of the reader, but I don't read a book to see how I would end it. I read a book to see how THE AUTHOR would end it. I may like it; I may hate it, but it's not my story, nor is it my responsibility to finish it.

Kitty Pryde · Sep 30, 2010

scarletpeaches said:
Ambiguous =/= unsatisfactory.

Fair enough. But leaving the main question of the plot 100% ambiguous = 100% enraging and unsatisfying.

MissMacchiato · Sep 30, 2010

I hate ambiguity. I read for mindless pleasure. SPOON FEED ME, DAMN IT!

scarletpeaches · Sep 30, 2010

I'd love to know what books you're referring to.

Yep. I haz a nosy.

ccarver30 · Sep 30, 2010

Cyia said:
I don't buy the value in an ambiguous ending or the "it's to make you think" excuse. If anything, it's a cop out because the author doesn't want to "offend" or "disappoint" anyone by giving a concrete answer they might not like. With the open ending, it's supposed to be open to the interpretation of the reader, but I don't read a book to see how I would end it. I read a book to see how THE AUTHOR would end it. I may like it; I may hate it, but it's not my story, nor is it my responsibility to finish it.

While this is true, I don't think I could live with myself.

scarletpeaches · Sep 30, 2010

I like ambiguous endings because they show the characters have a life beyond the last page turn.

Well, unless they bump themselves off of course...

Although their story - or this story, this section of their life - is complete, they carry on and have other stories to tell.

Susan Coffin · Sep 30, 2010

Yeah. What books?

Maybe the author is writing a series, thus you will find out in number two or whatever is next.

Soccer Mom · Sep 30, 2010

I'm in the "hates ambiguous endings" camp. Tell me a story, including the end, please.

Kitty Pryde · Sep 30, 2010

SusanL said:
Yeah. What books?

Maybe the author is writing a series, thus you will find out in number two or whatever is next.

I'll rep you. The murder one--yeah, it actually is part of a series. The other book takes place simultaneously but in another town, so as to not reveal whether the murder took place or not! Sigh. The suicide one isn't really a series book.

Calla Lily · Sep 30, 2010

Soccer Mom said:
I'm in the "hates ambiguous endings" camp. Tell me a story, including the end, please.

*jumps on Soccer Mom's bandwagon*

HelloKiddo · Sep 30, 2010

Are you sure it wasn't "I'll give you a hint what happened, but I'm not gonna spell it out"? That's different from "Choose your own ending."

Kitty Pryde · Sep 30, 2010

Nope, both books were 100% ambiguous--Will he or won't he? HAHAHA YOU'LL NEVER KNOW!

Monkey · Sep 30, 2010

In general, it sounds like a terrible way to end a book.

And yet, I always liked the particular story you refer to. I came up with the ending I wanted almost immediately, and just assume that because the author didn't say how it ended, my ending is just as valid as anyone else's.

......... II Tiger Door .......
......x Hero...................Both doors' hinges are toward the hero.
..........II Lady Door.......

The hero opens both doors at the same time, creating a zone of safety, like this:

....................Doorway
Tiger............/..|
................< x.|
Lady............\..|
....................Doorway

And the Tiger eats the Lady!!

A happy ending.

kaitie · Sep 30, 2010

Rep me, too. I wanna know.

leahzero · Sep 30, 2010

There was a particularly hyped blockbuster movie this summer that ended ambiguously, too. My entire theater burst out laughing at the final scene. (It was not funny.)

The open-ended ending is hard to do well, IMO. And most I've read come across like cop-outs. A book can end ambiguously but still give you a sense of resolution, like a character pondering suicide who has faced his or her demons.

If there's no sense of resolution, however small or slight, I feel cheated. If I wanted a complicated story with no resolution that will someday end in media res, I have my real life.

poetinahat · Sep 30, 2010

I'm in the "don't want all books written by the same formula" camp. I'm quite all right with being made to think. But yeah, if a sunset ending appears on the cards, I don't want a fricken Monty Python foot. Unless it's Monty Python.

It depends for me on whether I've got expectations at the outset - is it a crime novel, for example, and do I expect the mystery to be solved, and to have the solution explained at the end? Do I expect for all of the relevant information to have been included along the way? Am I angry if the whole thing hinges upon some fact that I was never told? Well, if so: yes, yes, yes, yes.

But does a novel need a Disneyesque, ride-into-the-sunset, all-questions-answered ending? No, not all the time. Sometimes, for me, no ending is an ending.

Sometimes I can enjoy a book where there's no point to the middle -- in three tries, I haven't yet been able to finish Ulysses, but in parts, it's a wondrous thing. Soul Mountain, on the other hand, I got all the way through and felt no satisfaction; I wished I hadn't.

scarletpeaches · Sep 30, 2010

Satisfying resolution, yes.

Patronising author spoonfeeding me every last detail, HELL to the fuck no.

Kitty Pryde · Sep 30, 2010

But isn't it just the height of authorial crappery to ask one question for the entire novel, hold us in breathless page-turning suspense all the way through, and then not even hint at what might happen?

kuwisdelu · Sep 30, 2010

Kitty Pryde said:
But isn't it just the height of authorial crappery to ask one question for the entire novel, hold us in breathless page-turning suspense all the way through, and then not even hint at what might happen?

I'd say it depends on the nature of the question.

poetinahat · Sep 30, 2010

Kitty Pryde said:
But isn't it just the height of authorial crappery to ask one question for the entire novel, hold us in breathless page-turning suspense all the way through, and then not even hint at what might happen?

Susan Coffin · Sep 30, 2010

Well, if the book was not meant to be serialized, then it should have had a complete ending, or at least given some type of indication what the ending was.

That's it, I'm rep'in ya'all!!

Screw that lady, and her tiger!

i luv you giant bear statue

i luv you giant bear statue

Rewriting My Destiny

i luv you giant bear statue

Bring on the Sweet, Sweet Coffee

Nicole Castro

Tell it like it Is

Crypto-fascist

i luv you giant bear statue

On hiatus

bemused observer

i luv you giant bear statue

Is me.

With great power comes

The colors! THE COLORS!

say it loud

i luv you giant bear statue

Revolutionize the World

say it loud

Tell it like it Is