Terry,

Count me in the "not liking angst" group. I tend to avoid the more angst-laden episodes of L&C, and with rare exception, I avoid all angst-heavy fiction, both in and out of fandom. This avoidance is a deliberate choice. I will be the first to admit that I come to L&C to escape the angst in my real life. To give you a smattering of what I am talking about:

- My son has both physical and developmental disabilities that manifested literally from his first breath of life. By the time he was three days old, I had been told that he had diffuse brain lesions, and that he might never walk or talk. Shortly thereafter, he failed to thrive. Had he been born seven years earlier, he wouldn't have survived through his first year of life. As it was, he spent his first summer in the hospital while the doctors tried to figure out why he was projectile vomiting multiple times a day. He ceased eating and drinking altogether and was only kept alive by feeding tubes -- first one dropped down his nose, and then eventually one that was surgically implanted. Meal times were torture times for the first several years of his life.

- Our son's disabilities got to be too much for my then-husband, who walked out of our lives and, aside from paying a small fraction of the child support that he owes, has chosen to have nothing to do with us. (I don't even know where he is living any more.)

- My son was subsequently diagnosed with autism -- severe enough that now, as a teenager, he still has almost no expressive language, still needs help with basic hygiene (e.g., washing and drying hands), and still needs the level of supervision one typically gives to a two year old.

- As is not uncommon among nonverbal, hormone-riddled teenagers, my son sometimes lashes out in the only way he can -- physically. He has bruised me, his fingernails have dug into my skin until I bled, and he has kicked holes in his bedroom walls. (Fortunately, the medicine he is currently on has helped him regain his emotional equilibrium while not turning him into a zombie.)

- I have almost no support system. I can count on one hand the number of living relatives I have, and I am my son's youngest relative. My other family members live in another state, and have various health issues which preclude them from assisting me. Because of my son's special needs, I can't find a qualified babysitter, and because of his autism-related behavioural issues, I have difficulty even going to a grocery store with him. I can do fun things outside of the house exactly two weekends a year: The two weekends that he goes to an overnight camp for children with autism. The rest of the time, I am either at work or at home. I spend so much time being either "Mom" or "Dr. M." that I have almost forgotten who "Lynn" is.

Early on in my son's life, I was overwhelmed emotionally, and realized that I was seriously at risk of developing depression. I knew that my son needed me to be well enough to take care of him, and that depression would make that extremely difficult. At that point, I decided that, for his sake, I would do everything I could to try to be emotionally healthy. Among other things I did (e.g., deliberately seeking out silver linings), I promised myself that what little entertainment I would have time to indulge in would all be upbeat.

I freely admit that L&C is pure escapism for me. When I come to the MB, I want to read something that will leave me in a better mood than I was in when I came to it.

So to get back to your original post... Is there a place for angsty fiction? Absolutely. But just not for me, or at least not until such time as I have less angst in my real life.

Although I am sure that the specifics of the list I just gave above are unique to me, I imagine that I am not alone here in coming to the boards to find a brief respite from the troubles of RL.

Not much joy today,
Lynn