IS PARADIGMATIC LITERATURE HELLISH?

If Sam Spade spends all his time boozing and wisecracking
with the secretary, with no cases to crack, who is going to read about it?

Quote:

Well, there's supposed to be a conflict - and I guess the word 'conflict' connotes at least some sort of tension-which wouldn't be brought about by purely nonconflictual and happy events.

Yes.
There is.
I have seized that concept and I am holding it for scrutinous examination.

Quote:

But yes, it seems we have been programmed to be more interested in tragedy- maybe because we don't want it to happen to us, we'd rather just read about it or watch it happening to someone else.

Is that indicative of Sadism ?

Quote:

You know, experience it vicariously.
What do you think that says about us?

If WE r intentionally experiencing it, then it raises questions of masochism.

Quote:

Even as a happy person myself, I enjoy Shakespeare's tragedies more than his comedies...they're more psychologically interesting to me.
I do love mysteries and especially murder mysteries. Not because I enjoy the thought of anyone getting murdered - but I am interested in why the perpetrator does whatever s/he does.
Unfortunately, so few of the movies or books written or produced ever investigate that aspect fully enough for my tastes.

People tend to prefer shallower analyses; less work for more indifference.

Quote:

More often the treatment is just a surface and gratuitous portrayal of violence, because that's what most people seem to enjoy. Like you and your Death Wish movies David...
(Gotcha!!)
Again, what do you think that says about us?

Those movies concerned the Bronson character avenging
his wife n daughter, not ascertaining the reasons for their brutalizations.
I surmise that the audiences deemed the root causes of personal greed satisfied thru predatory violence and sadism were facially plain enuf to not require elucidation.
Bronson 's character cared about WHAT was done
to the victims, not the reasons therefor.

Quote:

But I found a book about a woman and her garden written in the late nineteenth century. It was a first edition - I found it in a used bookstore in Woodstock when I lived in New York last year and I bought it because when I stood there and read the first pages - it reminded me so much of how I felt gardening and in a garden - so happy and pleased with the sensual world around me. That's a totally happy book that became a minor classic back then. Maybe people were different then.
It's packed away, but if I can find it, I'll excerpt from it for you. See what you think-and you can tell me whether a novel length description of total contentment and happiness would hold your attention.

I very recently wrote an optimistic short story sci-fi,
based on a TV show, essentially of the tenor of the above post
to Ed. Instead of multiple disasters, problems were resolved
by goodness boms exploding all over unexpectedly.

Quote:

It held mine - but probably only because it was about flowers and plants.

Thay can be among the good things that happen.
U can strike oil, while u r digging.
David