Monday, January 7, 2013

Darkness in Entertainment Media

I have recently discovered something that troubles me. It has to do with the favor of society when it comes to  entertainment.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have posted two stories on fanfiction.net, both taking place in the same setting. One was a full story that I thought was one of my best works, which began and ended  happily. Over the next few weeks after I posted it, it received a few hits here and there, but no reviews at all.

Soon after, I posted a single chapter of another story which I didn't think was as good, but wanted to get an opinion on it: this one went straight into the conflict, which was, in a way, dark. Almost immediately after posting it, I received a rave review, saying nothing bad about the story itself (they did, however, correct me on my grammar).

Why is it that a really good story, with a happy ending, doesn't get any response after several days, when a relatively bad story, with a dark plot, gets a positive review after mere minutes? Why do people enjoy dark plots more than happy plots?

Is it that society today is so accustomed to sad endings, that they are surprised at something that actually ends happily? I can't say that I understand this in the least. My bad story wasn't even finished! And, looking over it, I realize that the plot is so dark that I don't feel comfortable going through with the project any further.

Truth be told, the dark story also hasn't gotten any reviews since that first day, but still- it got more response than what I consider the better story: I posted that story two weeks ago, with no reviews, and I posted the bad story ONE week ago, and it got two reviews on the first day it was posted. (granted, one of those was from my best friend, so I don't count that)

WHY does a dark plot get a better response over a happy one?!?

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