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Usually, at the end of a crime, thriller, horror, fantasy, science fiction, or other action genre novel, the identity of the antagonist is uncovered and the riddle that drives the plot is resolved: the murderer gets caught as the detective understands why he committed the deed; the secret agency wards off the danger to their country, as they identify which foreign government is behind it and what their motives are; the monster is revealed, its origin understood, and its threat overcome; and so on.
But that is not how things turn out in reality. Many murders remain unsolved, many conspiracies unexposed, many mysterious events are never fully understood. Yet, in fiction, such a lack of resolution will leave most readers frustrated and unsatisfied.
I recently finished a novel, in which an innocent bystander is accidentally caught up in what appears to be some mysterious criminal undertaking, forced by the turn of events to commit a murder, and eventually left behind, without ever learning who he was fighting against and what their intention was. I thought I wrote this well, but my test readers all complained vehemently. Apparently the lack of explanation made the story appear random, and the unresolved end left readers feeling betrayed by, I guess, the implicit promise of genre conventions.
Of course I could now come up with who did it and why, but since the basic idea of my novel was to leave the riddle unresolved, I am now wondering:
How can I leave the identity of the antagonist(s) and the purpose of their activities a mystery, without frustrating the reader and leaving them dissatisfied at the end?
It would be especially helpful, if you could provide an example in the form of a published novel or film in which what you propose has been successfully employed.
* * * * * *
In their reply to my post, delb0y asks:
Since the answer to that question might be relevant to others, I'll give it here.
As a reader, I find myself both disinterested and disappointed by the resolutions in most novels and movies. For one, I read for the protagonists emotions and personality development, not for learning what was behind the events in some fictional universe. It is completely irrelevant for my life who the murderer was or what some secret agent is trying to achieve, but following the reactions of the protagonist to those events and the changes they undergo gives me some insight into myself and some impulse to change my own person and life. I am learning from the portrayal of characters, but not from the portrayal of events.
At the same time, the monster, when it finally appears, or the explanation, when it is given, is most often deeply disappointing when measured against the fear the protagonist had or their concern. When I see the alien and the end of the movie of that name, my tension suddenly drops in disappointment. What the protagonists fear is an alien horror, yet what I see is human imagination. Yes, I would be afraid if that thing attacked me in an underground carpark, but distanced as I am from the events in front of the screen it does not have the impact on me that the reactions of the movie's characters made me expect.
Given my own reading experience, I wanted to attempt a story that focusses on the experience of the protagonist and leaves what I perceive as irrelevant, the riddle that drives his experiences, unsolved.
The device of the McGuffin seems proof to me, that many movies are not about the riddle at all.
But that is not how things turn out in reality. Many murders remain unsolved, many conspiracies unexposed, many mysterious events are never fully understood. Yet, in fiction, such a lack of resolution will leave most readers frustrated and unsatisfied.
I recently finished a novel, in which an innocent bystander is accidentally caught up in what appears to be some mysterious criminal undertaking, forced by the turn of events to commit a murder, and eventually left behind, without ever learning who he was fighting against and what their intention was. I thought I wrote this well, but my test readers all complained vehemently. Apparently the lack of explanation made the story appear random, and the unresolved end left readers feeling betrayed by, I guess, the implicit promise of genre conventions.
Of course I could now come up with who did it and why, but since the basic idea of my novel was to leave the riddle unresolved, I am now wondering:
How can I leave the identity of the antagonist(s) and the purpose of their activities a mystery, without frustrating the reader and leaving them dissatisfied at the end?
It would be especially helpful, if you could provide an example in the form of a published novel or film in which what you propose has been successfully employed.
* * * * * *
In their reply to my post, delb0y asks:
I'd ask why the basic idea was to leave the riddle unsolved? What's driving that decision?
Since the answer to that question might be relevant to others, I'll give it here.
As a reader, I find myself both disinterested and disappointed by the resolutions in most novels and movies. For one, I read for the protagonists emotions and personality development, not for learning what was behind the events in some fictional universe. It is completely irrelevant for my life who the murderer was or what some secret agent is trying to achieve, but following the reactions of the protagonist to those events and the changes they undergo gives me some insight into myself and some impulse to change my own person and life. I am learning from the portrayal of characters, but not from the portrayal of events.
At the same time, the monster, when it finally appears, or the explanation, when it is given, is most often deeply disappointing when measured against the fear the protagonist had or their concern. When I see the alien and the end of the movie of that name, my tension suddenly drops in disappointment. What the protagonists fear is an alien horror, yet what I see is human imagination. Yes, I would be afraid if that thing attacked me in an underground carpark, but distanced as I am from the events in front of the screen it does not have the impact on me that the reactions of the movie's characters made me expect.
Given my own reading experience, I wanted to attempt a story that focusses on the experience of the protagonist and leaves what I perceive as irrelevant, the riddle that drives his experiences, unsolved.
The device of the McGuffin seems proof to me, that many movies are not about the riddle at all.
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