Why do people like misery fiction so much?

Hi all!
I had a great reading week, hope you did too!
Ann
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[@sarahcountryman1776]

I agree with you. I don't understand how people can be entertained by others' misery.

[@bookofdust]

Ann, I sense, from what I’ve gathered, you are an optimist. As someone who’s lived with life long crippling depression and more on the side of pessimism, I find great solace and comfort in a world I recognize and inhabit everyday and know I’m not alone in that experience. Even as a child I was obsessed with Holocaust stories and I’m not even Jewish. Much of that is because my parents and my brother, separately, went to the Anne Frank House and visited concentration camps and I did not get to go. When I came to Amsterdam the first time I literally went from the train station directly to the Anne Frank House, finding a hotel on the way, to drop off the luggage. I toured the whole house, which at that point I knew so well and intimately, that it was like visiting a place I had already been. I wasn’t having any emotional response until I walked down the stairs and on the landing saw Shelly Winters’ Oscar and I burst out in tears sobbing, I knew it was there, but I hadn’t expected to see it. But after just seeing Anne’s cut outs of movie stars from Hollywood magazines mounted on her bedroom wall, the connections of those two things completely destroyed me in how that would have struck her having an Oscar in the place that had been her home. By the way The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas is literal trash. The museum at Auschwitz has condemned it as dangerous. The Zone of Interest is like a balm to that wound, and I’m surprised no one has been talking about the fact that this is the reality of the commander’s family that lived there, not the misguided drivel of that book. It is one of the best movies of it kind in years and a much needed wake up call to how evil can exist and the forms that it can take. A message we very desperately need to hear and be aware of at this particular moment in time.

[@AnnNovella]

I don’t have problems with books/movies like Anne Frank, Schindler’s list, because they are real. And I’m glad that the museum at Auschwitz has condemned the Boy.., as dangerous. It’s a struggle to stay an optimist.

[@HelenSchneider-tl3yh]

I avoid most books in this genre but I am listening to The Book Thief right now and really like it. There is an exception to every rule.

[@sarah-roadworthy]

I do read books in the misery vein. You mentioned Shuggie Bain. One of my favs is Constellation of Vital Phenomenon (Anthony Marra). Both books do have love, hope, humor and humanity in them. As I think about many of the books in this "genre" I enjoy I realize they do have these elements to balance out the misery. When I read Holocaust literature or war literature I often think what I would do in those situations. I think that is what appeals to me. People often had to make horrible choices without the benefit of hindsight. I'm interested in books that explore a moral grey zone or place characters in situations with no clear good choices.

[@lenkasarkhelova]

Yes, you hit the point. I like books with strong characters so often the heroes go trough a really tough time to come out more stronger but I hardly cope with books of sheer violance with no hope, no light at the end of the hero's journey and I ask the same question: what is the use of misery with no hope at the end? Just to see that we arent the only people suffering? And can there be any pleasure in such literature? I feel it painful to read. Luckilly there are other genres to choose from 😅

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Interesting video! I tend to avoid things with a basis in truth for the reasons you outline, but then I do enjoy (if that’s the word) some very dark and bleak fiction

[@AnnNovella]

Yeah well, thanks to you Notice got republished. :D

[@CriminOllyBlog]

@@AnnNovella LMAO

[@TKTalksBooks]

A Little Life was so so difficult for me. The other one, a classic, that was almost intolerable was Jude the Obscure. That one really did me in.

[@phoenixjones660]

So, so with you on this one!

[@davidnovakreadspoetry]

I’m wracking my brain to think of an example of something in this genre that I’ve read and am drawing a blank. Somebody above suggested Thomas Hardy, and I have read _Tess_ and that was pretty miserable. Whilst reading I don’t think I made any comparison between the main character and myself or our respective worlds - hers seemed so alien to me. If _Tess_ is an example of ‘misery fiction,’ all I can say is that it didn’t establish a taste for which I am hankering to go back. Not long ago I read Primo Levi on Auschwitz, and I can’t imagine why anyone would want to fictionalize from that. I believe Eli Weisel did, I wonder if he gave any thoughts on it.

[@ReadingIDEAS.-uz9xk]

To me it is like those people who dress up in uniforms and turn up at the war memorials and pretend they have served when they have not.

[@AnnNovella]

Lol!

[@bookboundweirdo]

Growing up in a european country, we read SO many Holocaust/WW2 memoirs as part of the school curriculum. I've also read a few Holocaust fiction books later in life. I think it always comes off as more genuine when books and movies were created by people who lived through that time period or saw the direct aftermath (even if it's fiction and they're not writing from personnal experience), but it seems like new books and movies are less and less genuine in regards to presenting history for what it was. I guess it also depends from what angle the story is told. This is a tough one Ann!

[@erinh7450]

This. I don't need to read a book about WW2 from some American that maybe visited Europe once (or maybe not) that was born years after the war ended who use the war as low hanging 'conflict' to have your protagonists overcome, with women in period clothing with their backs turned to us, gazing into the distance on the cover. Those type of fictional accounts all tend to romanticize the war and the suffering people went through (and often contain either minor or gross historical inaccuracies). If I'm going to read fiction about WW2 (or other conflicts), it's going to be from people who lived through it, or the aftermath. I think this is a reason I don't tend to read much 'historical fiction', but do like to read fiction written in 'historical' times. These two are not the same.

[@harukikougami]

The best option to get a good answer to this question would be reading Schopenhauer and Kierkegaard :P :)

[@AnnNovella]

Not smart enough for those two.

[@harukikougami]

I absolutely doubt that! ;)@@AnnNovella

[@erinh7450]

I don't at all mind books on hard topics, but I think what differentiates misery lit is the wallowing. or romanticizing of the misery. I do *not* like the latter two. I avoid the slew of modern book club WW2 stories, I will not be reading A Little Life, and heck, I even DNF'd Shuggie Bain.

[@AnnNovella]

Ow Shuggie!

[@eiketske]

I don’t read those sort of books either. Her name was Sarah was the turning point for me. We read that with one of my bookclubs and even though it showed me something of how jews were treated in wartime France the whole book was just screaming… NO to me. Now as soon as I see something set in WWII it has to work really hard at convincing me to read it. There is a line, I can’t explain it but when I see a book I know if it’s crossed that line. Is integrity the right word? I do want to read Martin Amis’ book The Zone of Interest. I think that might be on the good side of the line.

[@AnnNovella]

Will look that one up.

[@sandra7319.]

I guess I'm thinking where is the line?. Most literary fiction and award winners have a tilt toward sadness, longing, colonialism, etc. or are a strong mix of the same. I would love to hear about a list of books that were overall funny or optimistic and well written if you have such a list. 😊 Of course, the Brontes and Jane Austen would fit in the latter.

[@AnnNovella]

Hmmmm… Good idea!

[@sandra7319.]

@@AnnNovella Ooh, I can't wait. BTW, I've thought it scores of times before, but I just love your channel and the work and thought you put into it. 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

[@AnnNovella]

@@sandra7319. auw shush ☺️☺️☺️

[@painbow6528]

Because women dominate book sales, publishing, retail, tastes, etc.

[@AnnNovella]

Do they? Really? Explain

[@gaildoughty6799]

I don’t understand any of this either.

[@claudiah6964]

I don’t like the genre either. There’s enough in the real world, you just have to read the newspapers which are filled of very sad stories. I love Nordic noir for instance, it’s fiction and it’s not real!

[@LeeKempter]

I have to agree with you. I am able to read a NF (clinical type) book about the holocaust. But the rest, no, I just can't. I couldn't even read Ann Frank. I can't explain it either. Sometime I think it is like giving other people ideas and suggestions. No, please no. Is it my age ?? Well, no I have always had problems with Ann Frank

[@AnnNovella]

Anne Frank is different, because it’s real.

[@lindaleehall]

Are you saying that rather than empathise with Ann’s experience, you would deny her very existence? She wrote her diary in hopes someone would remember. I would feel a much lesser person if I had not read her words.

[@AnnNovella]

@@lindaleehall She wanted her story to be told, so that her life could make a difference. To me that’s different than fiction, so I’m a 100% with you