Open or closed ending

[Charles Darnay]

I was thinking about this recently: do you prefer books and/or movies that have an open or closed ending - mainly ones that leave you uncertain about the character's fate concerning some development in the story or do you like things to be wrapped up neatly (for better or worse)?

[hawthorns]

That's a good question. As a depressive, a nice happy ending is always welcome, but often does little to make a lasting impression on me as a whole. So yeah, I do like open endings. But I can't say I prefer one over the other; I guess it all depends on how the author executes it. That is to say, I haven't noticed any consistency between a novel's close and my enjoyment of it.

[AjaxAscendant]

Well, both have their merits; open endings allow the reader to imagine the eventual denouement of the lead character (and allow spin-offs, of course!), while closed endings bring closure to the reader as well, particularly if the read is interesting. Personally speaking, though, I prefer a closed ending over an open one.

[Dark Muse]

It really depends, when an open ending is done well than I often find them more thought provoking, and interesting than closed neat and tidy endings. And one of the things which I generally appreciate about open endings is they feel more true to life. Stories with open endings can take on a more realistic feel to them, because in real life peoples lives aren't wrapped up nice and neat, so I do like the idea of the characters lives extending on beyond the book. But I think it can be hard a times to pull off a really brilliant open ending and when they are done poorly it often has the effect of making the book or movie feel as if it was without any real point, and can just leave the reader/watcher with the impression of the story being left with loose endings. But there are some stories that I do feel might more greatly benefit from a closed ending than a more open one.

[Alexander III]

I think the end must be part of the flow of the book - the best example for this is Anna Karenina. We are given a solid conclusion for Anna and Lev - but vronsky and oblonsky and many others are given vaguer endings which fit so very well. But the entire novel had been leading up to the damnation of Vronsky and Anna - but their damnations by their natures had to be different. In many ways Vronsky's end is far more tragic, but that ending could only have been for Vronsky.

[PeterL]

I like both, but only if they are written in ways that fit the ending. A story should lead up to the ending. Some storie s point toward an ending, but never get ther. Or the development is one thing,then the last chapter says that all of the development was false, and something else happened. An example of a welll done open ending is "William Wilson" by E. A. Poe. Examples of bad open ending include "Sphere" by the guy who wrote Jurassic Park and Shutter Island" by Lehane.

Sometimes I wonder how some of the fantasy novels get published, because they go 'round and 'round without anything major happeneing and nothing like an ending.

[cafolini]

I think the question has little bearing on how much a book can be enjoyed if it is well written.

[Charles Darnay]

I think the question has little bearing on how much a book can be enjoyed if it is well written.

It's not a make-or-break issue, but I think it has some impact.

For me at least, there have been both books and movies that I thought: "if only that ended a chapter (or scene) earlier, it would have been so much better," when it seems like uncertainty would have been a much better way to leave it.

[Dark Muse]

I think the question has little bearing on how much a book can be enjoyed if it is well written.

In my experince the ending can often give me a completely different opinion and persepctive on the entirety of the work. This is not always the case, but there have been moments when a book which I thought was really good, I felt the ending ultimately ended up spoiling it at least to some degree, becaue it did not live up to the rest of the book. And there have been other times when a book which I am lukewarm on will have an ending that reveals a genius in the story I had not previously noticed and everything will come together so perfectly that the ending itself will improve my outtake on the whole story. And this is true of movies with me as well.

[Annamariah]

I usually like closed endings. If the ending leaves too much questions unanswered and doesn't offer any kind of closure, I feel a bit betrayed, as if the author got tired and didn't actually finish the story.

I'm not saying that everything should be wrapped up neat and tidy. I don't need to get answers to all possible questions, but there has to be an ending, some kind of a conclusion.

[nerriesantra]

It’s the closed ending for me, don’t wanna live hanging thinking what could have been or what would happen after this and that. Whatever ever the ending will be it was necessarily needed a every story, I presume, to satisfy the reader. On the other hand, when I don’t feel the ending that’s the only time I’ll make my own.:biggrinjester: