There is a certain honesty to this truth that I admire. Like a James Bond plot, there is room for passionate lust, but unlike the Bond plot, John and Mary get married and live happily ever after.Ītwood, in the end, says that the only authentic ending is “John and Mary die.” Every other ending is contrived. The final plot is John as a revolutionary and Mary a counterespionage agent. This seems less interesting unless written with great skill-it is fascinating how in fiction, as in real life, evil is more interesting than good. The fifth plot involves Madge taking care of Fred during his suffering from heart disease and then doing charity work. The fourth plot is a disaster plot-Fred and Madge escape from a tidal wave. The third plot involves an affair leading to a murder-suicide, but Madge survives and marries Fred, and they live happily ever after. The other plots, involving John being a lazy hedonist whose actions lead his wife to commit suicide-and then John and his second wife Madge live happily ever after. ![]() ![]() Although the characters have a happy life, it would take a fine writer indeed to make such a plot interesting (one author who succeeds is Tony Early in Jim the Boy). It lacks conflict between the married couple, John and Mary. Atwood’s work is a series of short plot summaries, beginning with the happy ending plot which, ironically, is the least interesting. Margaret Atwood’s story, “Happy Endings,” is similar to Coover’s “The Babysitter.” Both works are postmodern metafiction, Both deal with the technique of writing-only with plot in the case of Atwood, but with a broader perspective in Coover.
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