That must be pure fiction. Writing a happy novel about a happy family? How many pages? Never done before, you"ll be the first one to write it. I'm sure you can.

But I'm not sure I'll be interested.

Helen

Don't worry: it's fiction.

That's ok. As long as it doesn't have a happy end.

Happy End

That must be pure fiction? As long as it doesn't have a happy end?

It's interesting. Why the dislike for a happy end? Is that too confronting: happiness presented as a real and plausible thing? Anyway... I'm sure enough has been said about this subject already.

The subject also reminds me of a novel by W.F. Hermans. A man gets up and whistles while he makes his wife breakfast. While he's making her tea, he says to himself what a good man he is, that he doesn't poison his wife. It's the happiest beginning of a novel I know. The ending isn't bad either.

Tjitze

A novel with a happy end is depressing for most readers who rightly assume that they live fairly unhappy lives with an unhappy ending on the horizon.

Arnon

I agree. Most people can't handle it.

And don't get me wrong, I can't handle it either. I strangely feel obliged to say that.

But there are different kinds of happiness, just as there are different kinds of unhappiness. But that goes without saying, I guess.

That's all there is to say about it, as far as I'm concerned.

Maybe call it 'De Zandbak' ;)

Arnon

I have always considered the famous opening sentence of Tolstoys "Anna Karenina" an apologetics for novelists. Perhaps you were hinting at it all along, but in case you didn't, here it is --

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

@RH CdG
Maybe that is deeper meaning of the aphorism ‘In dead we will all be alike’: so the end could be a happy one for us all, although the beginning (of life) can be quite a mess nevertheless.

a novel about people who are blissfully unaware of evil and unhappiness, like young children. the reader knows better but can read this novel as a kind of refuge from knowing better. All kinds of nasty things happen in the novel, but throughout the children's naivety remains intact, they are not affected and still live in their own world, their state of mind does not change.
something like that would be interesting i think.

Is happiness a seller?

@Dries van cann
Are you sure young children are unaware of unhappiness and evil?
(Although I think that without a certain degree of naivety and the ability to live in their own world, a lot of children simply would not survive)

Jan Thys

I can see what you mean but it would be fiction, doesn't have to be realistic.

@Ivo, I'm not sure happiness is a seller, but sentimentality definitely is, see the works of Jonathan Safran Foer. Very telling for what people this day and age are wanting to read.

In my teenage years a rockband had a song titled 'Happy people have no stories'. Although it appealed to me at first - the song was meant as a sort of comfort for the unhappy, which i sort of was at the time (not yet familiar with relativity and all) - a taller and older classmate stated that it was one of the most stupid things he ever heard. I couldn't agree more.

'As long as it doesn't have a happy ending' is a different story. I mean, a novel needs some type of conflict, don't you think, or at least a certain depth or layer which makes the happiness (or unhappiness) stick out. What's the point if everything stays the same? You need either a crisis or an unhappy ending. Otherwise you're probably stuck with an überhappy ending and I don't believe in überhappy endings.

Also, I honestly don't think that there is someone who is totally happy àll of the time. There'll always be something at some point. But I do believe that there are people on this earth who are constantly miserable. One can only be glad (or 'happy', if you will) to have a mixture of both, i guess.

@Arnon
Assuming there'll be an unhappy ending is a positive attitude. Never underestimate the power of the worst-case scenario. Not rarely is it the source of the greatest form of happiness. I once read an artile about that. It said that overall defensive pessimist mostly fare far better than optimists. It also stated that we are more miserable when we think others aren't.

Cruel humor makes me happy. Is that sick?

Helen

Please don’t ask for confirmation that you are sick.

A story about a happy , successful writer with a niece, extended family, a few girlfriends and a charming godson might do the trick.
By the way, how is the Jewish Messiah doing it in the States? Success tonight.

Happy or Grotesque?

I think it is important to note that happiness can only be experienced when one knows what it means to be unhappy. This is probably why Dries' experiment of children who grow up blissfully in a miserable world would not work. If they are unaware of the misery that surrounds them, how could they be happy? Is happiness not something more than ignorance?

There are examples in literature and art of rigid characters, unable to change or develop themselves, e.g. in the commedia dell'arte. Or take Laurel & Hardy, characters with fixed actions who have no memory, no future, but who are eternal. Are they happy? Or, merely grotesque? Is that something we should aspire?

Correction

aspire to

Mieke

The Jewish Messiah is doing just fine. People are being converted, slowly but steadily.

I think about converting once in a while. Jehovah's witnessess knocked on my door today. I was still naked (with a bathrope) so I didn't open. I listened through the door though. They talked about praying and the good work of the lord. That didn't convert me. Judaïsm will, one day, I think.

I used to write stories, until a friend of mine (a redhead like me, I tend to believe redheads more) asked me if I could write a happy story. I haven't written since. That was 2 years ago.

Hmmm... "The Happy German" might be an interesting title. It would probably sell well in Germany too. Pure fiction of course.