LabRat quoted my objection to Evas øye, where I complained that the plotline was totally unrealistic. And then, Labby, you said this:
Ann, I had to have a quiet chuckle when I read this in your post. This sounds roughly like the plot of a hundred thrillers - fairly standard fair for the genre, in fact.
Well, point taken, so I have to explain a bit more clearly what I mean. I've read books that have been harrowing and utterly heartbreaking, but I've been able to admire them anyway, because they have been so good at describing "the human condition". To me, Shakespeare's tragedy Romeo and Juliet is a case in point. Everything is there, the young lovers' giddy infatuation with each other and a rigid and unforgiving society dominated by two opposing families who would destroy their children's union at any cost - and they do. Shakespeare's genius is that he makes us, who immerse ourselves in his drama, feel hopeful that things will end happily for Romeo and Juliet after all. We feel the young lovers' hope and optimism. And then when everything ends in utter tragedy, we realize how all-but-unavoidable this devastating ending was. The story of Romeo and Juliet is so tragic and yet so satisfying because the plotline is so compelling and so plausible (okay, I don't believe in Juliet's "sleep-death-potion", but I'm willing to regard that as a minor detail).
So Romeo and Juliet is a believable story that believably ends in tragedy. The thriller by Sidney Sheldon that you mentioned is an unbelievable story that unbelievably ends in triumph for the protagonists. That is the kind of story that, if you don't mind my saying so, is ever so slightly reminiscent of our favorite TV show, Lois and Clark. Because the character of Superman is totally unrealistic, and the idea that Superman would be able to lead a double life by donning and doffing a pair of glasses and fluffing up and smoothing down his hair is of course totally impossible. And the idea that an alien from another planet would look
exactly human, and the suggestion that (practically) everybody in the world would happily welcome a superpowered alien - well, don't get me started on how unreaslistic that is.
And yet I love the happy story of Superman. Why is that? It's because I love reading some stories that end just totally unrealistically happily. It's a thrill to imagine that the most wonderful things could happen. Also, I love to fantasize about how the laws of physics don't apply anymore, so that a man can fly - well, I love to fantasize about it, but I'll scoff if someone asks me to believe in that kind of thing in real life.
So what did I hate about Evas øye? Here's what. There is nothing exhilarating or thrilling about it, there are no delightful flights of unrealistic fancy, and yet the story is totally unrealistic,
and it is totally heartbreaking.
Why would I want to have my heart broken over a story that is never going to happen in real life? By reading about Romeo and Juliet I can learn something very important about the human condition. By reading Evas øye I learn nothing, and I have my heart broken for nothing.
Ann
