Someone once asked me "why do you watch movies or read books with unhappy endings, why would you do that"

"The Rifle" by Gary Paulson is a book which follows the story of a Muzzleloader in the U.S. The gun is used as a tool then a weapon of war, following that it's passed around until modern times when it becomes a decoration over a fireplace where it rest for some years. An inadvertent ember drifts into the guns flash hole and ignites a decades old charge resulting in the death of a child.

I recently purchased a used Muzzleloader and the first thing I did was check to make sure it was not charged. A couple years from now you likely will not remember the ending to the Hallmark stories you read this year but a book like "The Rifle" and the lesson it was meant to teach will be burned into your mind for decades to come.

The lessons imparted from a dark story and unhappy ending can be far more valuable than the fleeting heartwarming euphoria of a happy ending.
Not all of my daughters bed time stories will have a happy ending, but they'll all drive home lessons that are best learned through tale rather than experience.

Most original fairy tales taught valuable lessons to children and had dark, unhappy endings, for that reason.

Keith

Just blow down the barrel, if you can it is not loaded, if you can't it probably is......jk

Plenty of people love the macabre, just look at the success of M Shamalyan and the crap story's he wrote.