You know what I haven't seen or read or anything in a while? A bad-ass just mind-fucking kind of sci-fi horror type thing.
Some book or comic or movie or tv show where shit is just straight up fucked up and you have no idea why.
So far, the River seems to be pretty close to that. But the characters are not 100% stuck in the fuckedupedness the way they need to be for it to really be just creepy and weird and mind-fucking enough for me.
Maybe that's why I was such a huge fan of LOST. Because it was a bunch of people stuck in a world of mindfuck and couldn't get out. And the only way out is through it. Maybe.
This got me thinking though... what kind of things do I really like in a story? What things really draw me in? What kind of endings do I like and what kind do I hate?
I guess I love the fucked up, anything-can-happen-and-possibly-will situation without it leading into magic. I fucking HATE magic. Ok... let me re-phrase that. I can't stand wizard-like magic. Basic supernatural weirdness? Cool. Dude with a magic fucking wand? Boring as shit. It's a cop out. Weirdness that isn't really explained with serious detail? Ok... I can deal with that. It could be a case of wildly advanced tech that is almost supernatural... or it could be actually supernatural weirdness. Either way. Doesn't really matter.
But something about a douche holding a magic wand and changing this or that? Lame as fuck. I mean, what... does dude-with-a-wand have the oh-so-terribly-convenient limitation of NOT being able to turn people into trees or a pocket-full of wadded up Sheetz reciepts and just walking away to go about his fucking business? And then you always gotta go find this other "lost-for-millenia" amulet or something in order to escape said magic... but somehow you manage to discover, even being a total fuckwit in this world, where-as the inhabitants of said magic fucking kingdom have had no luck for the last 3000 years? What the fuck? Fuck that noise! My bullshit detector goes off there just as fast as it does with pretentious cause-heads! So sorry kids... fuck magic wizard bullshit.
And if it involves the main characters needing to battle with swords and shit? yeah... I'll pass on that crap too. Unless they've also got fucking laser guns and shit too. That mix of the super techy and the bad Ren Faire dinner show is ok... but throw out the tech and it's just another attempt at Braveheart or something about dragons or something else that I don't care about.
So fantasy is kinda meh for me. Unless it's mixed with sci-fi tech stuff and thrown into some weird literary blender, I'll pass. Mostly because of the massive plot holes in them. Oh... but if it's a commentary on religion or time or life? I can sometimes dig that. That's what LOST was. It was playing with religion/faith and time and whatnot with not so much magic is just unexplained fuckedupedness.
But getting back on point here... fucked up weirdness? Good. We need more of that "holy shit, what the fuck is going on?" stuff. It doesn't even have to be super sci-fi-ish. It can just be somebody thrown into the middle of some kinda weirdness with conspiracies or some other sort of convoluted plot. I don't care. It's that feeling of being in the middle of a total shitstorm and not even being able to tell which way is up most of the time. And then being wrong when you think you can.
I think the other thing that I'm missing is good endings that aren't all "oh, everything is wrapped up nicely" and much more bittersweet. Where the fuckedupedness is dealt with, but a whole host of new potential shit to fuck your life up is right there instead. Like where you've gone thru the rabbit hole and you can't get back out. You'll never get back out. And a realization that things will never be like they were before everything went to shit. It makes the story mean a little more. If the status quo is just restored at the end of the story? What was the point? Ok, people changed maybe during it... but beond that? They can still go back to their old lives and probably revert back into the people they were before. A story that negates itself at the end is pointless. If the character is gonna just be able to pretend it didn't happen cause everything is back to how it was, then why did I read it?
Though that might have to do with me being a bit of a cynical asshole.
Ok... and here's some belated valentine's day Deadpool for reading this rambling piece of shit.
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