What's with all the depressing stories?

After reading the 190 notable stories of 2009 for this year's Million Writers Award, I have one question for all the writers and readers out there: What's with all the depressing stories making the rounds?

Don't get me wrong. I love depressing stories when they're well done. (Note to readers: cliches about life to follow.) After all, life isn't an endless refrain of Don't Worry, Be Happy. Without falling into the valleys of life, you can't understand why the peaks are so f'in high. Ups and downs, good and bad, happiness and tragedy--they're all part of the whole being alive and human gig.

So I do enjoy stories and books on depressing subjects and situations. A perfect example is Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy, which is not only one of my all-time favorite novels but also a damn-depressing book. To balance that out, I also love uplifting books like Life of Pi by Yann Martel. Not that this novel is a happy happy book either--I mean, the main character loses everyone he loves and spends months in a lifeboat with a tiger. But despite the bad things that happen in Life of Pi , there is a glimmer of hope to the story. You finish the book feeling that life isn't all bad. That good things are possible.

And that's all I ask from my reading--that some of the stories give me that glimmer of hope.

But as I read those 190 notable stories, I felt under siege by the forces of depression. Incest. Violence. Murder. Betrayal. Anger. Extremely unhappy endings and beginnings and middles. There were very few uplifting stories on the list. I wondered what had happened to stories like the wonderful "Friday Afternoons on Bus 51" by Sruthi Thekkiam, which I picked for the Million Writers Award top ten a few years back.

While I haven't done a happy/depressing analysis of the previous Million Writers Award notable story lists, my sense is that this is the most angst-filling list ever. And perhaps this is only natural. The world has been going through a bad run of late, what with the economic near-collapse, wars, and so on. So perhaps it is only natural that the stories being published recently are overall darker in tone than a few years ago.

Again, don't take me wrong. In a few days, when I release my 10 favorite stories from the notable list, most of those stories won't be happy happy. In fact, it's possible all of them will feature a dark display of anger, violence, murder, betrayal, and evil deeds. I'm picking the best stories possible. If they're all depressing, so be it.

Still, is it too much to ask for a few rays of sunshine once in a while?

Comments

[Kellye Parish]

"The world has been going through a bad run of late, what with the economic near-collapse, wars, and so on."

^ I think this is a big part of it. Art reflects life and all that. I have to say, the last short I sent off (about a dragon rider who loses his mount in a tragic accident) was pretty well...tragic. Several of the short stories I've written lately have been pretty grim. And a lot of my stuff centers around dystopias, so it tends to be rough sailing anyway...

I'm like you though - I like my stories pretty dark, but I also like a glimmer of hope or a silver lining somewhere, some redeeming compassion or humanity. I think that's the major difference between a piece of work that's dark and one that's just oversaturated with despair.

[Jetse]

The pre-selection is up to your judges, who didn't pick up a single story from DayBreak Magazine (every one of them upbeat) that I submitted.

Either these stories were all bad, or just not to your judges's taste.

I couldn't submit any SHINE stories, as these are print. Some
reviews think I might have hit the mark:

"That’s why Shine is such a significant — dare I say, historic — anthology. And with a rich diversity of settings and thematic speculation, this is a collection most science fiction fans will undoubtedly embrace."

Paul Goat Allen at the Barnes and NobleSciFi & Fantasy Blog: http://bookclubs.barnesandnoble.com/t5/Explorations-The-BN-SciFi-and/The-Future-s-So-Bright-I-Gotta-Wear-Shades-Optimistic-Science/ba-p/504197 ;

"Overall, Shine is utterly worth reading."

Nick Mamatas (not exactly a PollyAnna person) at SciFi Wire: http://scifiwire.com/2010/03/sick-of-the-apocalypse-ch.php

And many more.

I'm trying to put my money where my mouth is, and make a difference. It just seems that the SF ghetto doesn't seem (or want to) notice. Also, I do want to note that most SF writers -- you included, Jason -- find it very hard to *write* an upbeat story.

As the biblical saying goes (King James translation):

"And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?"

In other words: I try to practice what I preach (even if it goes against the grain, or the zeitgeist). How about you?

[Jason Sanford]

Kellye: I'm pretty much in agreement.

Jetse: I wish the judges had selected some of the DayBreak Magazine stories. But that was out of my control.

And I'm not calling for writers to only write upbeat stories. As I mentioned above, life is a mix of the up and down, so naturally writers will try to emulate this mix in their stories. You'll also always have some writers who prefer more down stories and others who prefer the upbeat. But what struck me from reading those 190 stories is how few upbeat stories there were across all genres. And not just upbeat stories, but also missing were stories about dark subjects which (as Kellye said) still found a glimmer of hope or a silver lining somewhere.

With my own writings, I think I tend to reach for that glimmer no matter how dark the subject. In fact, I don't think I've written a story which didn't have a glimmer of hope in it somewhere (perhaps "Here We Are, Falling Through Shadows," although that still can be read as glimmering ever so softly at the end).

And to anyone reading this, Jetse is absolutely correct about the Shine anthology. It is well worth reading!

[Nick Mamatas]

Maybe you're just easily depressed.

[Jason Sanford]

Gee, thanks. As if I wasn't already depressed. :-)

[Kellye]

This post actually inspired me to make my new WIP scifi short a LOT more upbeat, and it's been nice to write something humorous and somewhat optimistic for a change.

Maybe we AREN'T all going to hell in a handbasket. Thanks Jason. :)

[Steve Goerger]

That's why I had the mule-baby be winged at the end of "Mule Factory"! Wings=hope! Just for you Jason!