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Post by robertxu on Dec 19, 2013 11:05:24 GMT
I would agree with Ruby and everyone else who has classified "Happy Endings" as a post-modernist critique. At its core, "Happy Endings" conveys Atwood's frustration towards traditional, cliched literature. Atwood is deconstructing the reality that is created by our western culture (and other cultures that also posit this): the idea that there is a formula to writing a love story. This concept of a literary formula as Fiona mentioned earlier is prevalent in all genres. Atwood deconstructs the "love story formula" by examining the meaning, or lack thereof behind "buzzwords" commonly used in traditional romantic literature. Her conclusion is that they really have no meaning at all because the words are so interchangeable. Atwood also talks about how traditional endings are fake and are meant to deceive, which once again supports the post modernist idea that cultural indoctrination defines reality. It is really interesting when Atwood talks about how these endings can either be fake or deliberately fake. She could be referencing the idea that these absolute realities and archetypes are formed by those in power that have malicious intents. For example, corporations would have an incentive to push this one-sided interpretation of relationships to promote consumerism. Atwood offers a break from this indoctrination by encouraging her audience to shy away from such generalizations and absolute truths and explore the idea that instead of an absolute reality where a boy and a girl go through turmoil and eventually end up together, to explore the idea that there are multiple realities. She accomplishes this in her writing by parodying a traditional love story and exaggerating its flaws to the point where the reader is disgusted. To escape from this narrow minded way of thinking, Atwood posits one has to stop looking at "beginnings" and "endings" as they are the source of such one-dimensional thinking and attack the "middle part" of relationships. "The middle part" of relationships is where complex realities form. Atwood finally attacks the traditional plot structure and how following a structure that is set in stone, like a literary formula is the equivalent of believing that there is an absolute truth. The idea of focusing on the "how" and "why" or the individual realities and meanings is essential to post modernism.
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Post by keelycorrigan on Dec 19, 2013 15:02:40 GMT
** Edit: This is from a previous blog post in which I mixed up which story we were writing on. I am writing about "Happy Endings" even though the blog post was about "No One's a Mystery". I still stand by my commentary, even with my silly, absent-minded mistake .
My angst against this question and—not against, but kind of against- “Happy Endings” finds its foundations from this piece’s almost cliché transcendence of genre. It is not a formulaic or textbook style example of any cut and dry specific style. I agree with Emily and Natalie when they write of the vignette-like quality of the piece, but I’d also posit that it reads as a soliloquy. Though not explicitly written in second person, the diction and shorter, informal syntax of the piece suggest a person to person feel.
But, I don’t believe that this is a complete vision of the piece. It has aspects of romance and tragedy, love and death. To me, this story about relationships only fits nicely into the genre of stories about relationships, which is almost all of literature. Back to square one, or…?
Honestly, and tangently, I really liked this piece because of its superficially simple style, yet internally nuanced and complex emanating questions. It is written in a relatively easy colloquial style to read, but it probes at very sensitive places of our human, romantic, sexual, emotional psyches. I have come to the conclusion, however, that the most complex way to view the story is not through the confined lens of a genre with bias-baggage but through envisioning it as a tale of humans. On paper, or in pixels, this sounds rather stupid because isn't every story a tale, in one way or another, about humans? What I mean is that when we think complexly about the characters in the story, we the story less and less as a formulated piece of genre but as a condensed or vignette version of someone’s perceptions of a particular topic: love.
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Post by billfeng on Dec 19, 2013 15:12:29 GMT
Genre: Postmodern literature, Formalist Critique more specifically
I think we're all thinking along the same lines. I, though, feel that "Formalist Critique" would be the best genre to label Margaret Atwood's work.
Atwood is really hitting the nail on the coffin in her criticism of one of the most over-used story forms in literary history: "love story which ends in A, B, C, etc.". I found it funny that I know at least 2-3 stories that end in each of these endings. Even ending F (John is a revolutionary, Mary is a spy) is overkilled in action movie plot lines. Atwood makes a remarkable case that people should put less emphasis on the form of the story, such as the ending, and more on the content. In advocating for so, Atwood is trying to dissuade people from taking on the Formalist critical lens and instead open themselves up to more content-based lenses.
The work itself is postmodern since it has no real literary structure attached to it. Rather, I see "Happy Endings" to be a list of grievances in terms of story. The line that hit me the hardest was: "So much for endings. Beginnings are always more fun. True connoisseurs, however, are known to favor the stretch in between, since it's the hardest to do anything with". Atwood's quote is antithetical to formalism. She encourages people to look at this vague "stretch" rather than analyze the specific checkpoints of a story. For these reasons, I feel that Atwood has splendidly left a fistpump-worthy message that criticizes formalism (the prime rib) and advocates for content (the other meat cuts).
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Post by hannahboe on Dec 19, 2013 19:58:42 GMT
In simple terms, I would categorize “Happy Endings” as realistic fiction; though I think it is more accurate call it “Satirized, Realistic, Almost-nonfiction fiction.” I think realistic fiction works because the short story combines six stories of a mixture of fictional characters, all in completely realistic and perfectly plausible situations. There is no question that each of these stories is something we have seen repeatedly (I suppose that makes it a bit archetypal too!) in other literature, movies, TV, and perhaps (though I hope not) in our own lives, to some degree. The point is these things happen. Maybe not exactly like the stories say, but in some variation of them – a few of us will grow up to live stimulating and challenging cookie-cutter lives, others of us may have our hearts broken by a spouse who leaves us for a younger man or woman, we may have the misfortune of experiencing a loveless relationship. These situations are real and they will continue to be real as long as the institution of relationships exists. These situations are SO real that it isn’t outside the realm of possibility that the author was writing non-fiction accounts of relationships she had experienced or witnessed and only changed the names. (I know this isn’t the case, but none of the stories are impossible.) Contrary to the title of the story, none of these situations really have happy endings. Sure, “A” sounds pleasant enough, but there is not one really good relationship in any of the stories. It is the pathetic quality of so many relationships and how often they occur that Atwood is mocking in this piece. Atwood takes realistic situations and presents them in a detached and scornful tone which only makes them seem worse than they are. She uses satire to posit that a cookie-cutter relationship is no better than one in which you find your lover and another man stoned out of their minds in a hotel room and that it doesn’t matter anyway because regardless of what happens before hand, “John and Mary die. John and Mary die. John and Mary die” (479).
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Post by Marshall on Dec 19, 2013 20:21:15 GMT
Reading through some of the other posts, the same words keep popping up, but not in the same context or order. We agree that the story is fiction, I see that much. I don't see what it's satirizing if that's how you categorized it. After being reminded that the word metafiction exists, it's the only word I can use to formalize where this story is classified in my mind. It is aware. The story is addressing us directly, it knows that it knows. I really liked reading it. the design is simple and effective, using different endings to remind us that it's not real. But it does this in a way that's more real than any other type of writing. Instead of immersing us into plausible events, it openly mocks itself.
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Post by avinash on Dec 19, 2013 20:56:57 GMT
I would consider "Happy Endings" a realistic satire. One of the appealing aspects about satire is taking seemingly mundane events and scenarios and portraying them in a lighter perspective. Atwood uses language that is direct and straight to the point. There is no imagery and flowery use of language. For example she says, "Crying is bad for your face, everyone knows that and so does Mary but she can't stop." I found this statement abrupt. At the same time, though, it served its purpose and conveyed a point in a concise manner. Part F. helps affirm my perception of Atwood's work as a satire. "...you may get a lustful brawling saga of passionate involvement, a chronicle of our times, sort of." This sentence talks about the different ways Atwood's series of stories can be perceived when you change the personalities of certain characters and the ensuing result. Atwood wordage is sarcastic and pokes fun at the fact that no matter how drastically different you make a character (compared to her story) you will still end up with the same ending.
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Post by abbylyons on Dec 19, 2013 21:00:50 GMT
Since I can't really think of a pre-existing genre that "Happy Endings" would fit under, I will create my own. What makes "Happy Endings" distinct from everything I've previously read is its lack of detail. It provides only a few vague sketches outlining the characters' life stories. I will categorize this writing style as "the skeleton." In essay-writing, a skeleton is a short list which shows the ideas that will be present in the essay in the correct order, but is missing the supportive details and meaningful conclusions present in the actual essay. "Happy Endings" allows the reader to fill in the details and ultimate meaning of the characters' lives, potentially resulting in the reader thinking about his own life and whether it is just another skeleton on a piece of paper or a meaningful existence that extends beyond the page.
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Post by rileyhatfield on Jan 8, 2014 4:47:10 GMT
I would consider the genre of "Happy Endings" to be a piece of text that makes you want to make better decisions in life.
Life is all about choices and decisions. These can range from barely life altering to extremely life altering. For example: Do I really want fries with that? Versus, Should I marry him? Either way, each decision we make, whether it's very small or huge, will change our life in some way. This story is the essence of life-at-a-crossroads. In each story, each character makes a choice that changes the ending of the story. For example, in story B, if Mary had decided to leave John early on in the relationship, she would not have felt the pain of his rejection and betrayal and therefore would not have taken her life (at least not for the same reason). Perhaps she lives a happy and successful life with another man that loves her and she forgets everything about John. But she doesn't. Instead she chooses to stay with John, and her life quickly spirals downward. And after reading all six of the possible endings (and we know there are infinite more) we think to ourselves, I need to make better decisions so that I don't end up with a bad ending to my life story.
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Post by danyhong55 on Jan 20, 2014 22:12:13 GMT
First and foremost, it is a choose your own adventure genre. Though much shorter and much more linear, "Happy Endings" is like those choose your own adventure children stories where instead of yelling at the character to not look inside rattling cupboard, readers can decide what's best. "Happy Endings," however, is invariably more fatalistic in nature than are those children books. After presenting all of the possible endings to "John and Mary meet," Atwood repeats the phrase "John and Mary die" three times claiming it to be the only authentic ending of the book. According to the author, there's really not a happy ending and that rather than focusing on "boring" endings and conclusions, beginnings are much more exciting. The way she views how stories end is almost nihilist in that "The end" has no meaning. She in fact gives us several ending, which I will discuss a little more in depth later, that are equally possible in the realm of life, but none of the change the idea that none of them is the "right" way to live or come to an end in their lives. On the other hand, the children's choose your own stories do have a right answer, one that solves all mysteries, one that leads to the most satisfying end. In the "Goosebumps" series, the others endings are not so happy. But the fundamental philosophies behind Atwood and R.L. Stine are completely different. In one story, everyone dies and that is the true ending. In the other, the protagonist solves the mystery and goes home happy.
I talked earlier about the diverging paths in "Happy Endings" and though they all lead to "John and Mary die," They are all in different genres of their own. Ending A seems to be more fairy tale in nature where everyone falls in love and lives happily ever after. Ending B seems to be more a loveless tragedy, where Mary's unrequited love for John leads to her own demise. Ending F is more Bond-like with spy agencies and secret missions. The plethora of sub-genres make it difficult to pin down a singular, umbrella genre for "Happy Endings." Instead, only Choose-Your-Own-Adventure does the story justice
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