Cool question, (not that I don't also love your political ones :)) I am just reading a book now that describes itself as cruel. The subject is trapped in a situation where he cannot win.. It will be interesting but I suspect I won't like it.. I really don't like sad endings, unresolved conflict and all that..I don't like it because real life has enough sad endings, unresolved conflicts and problems so I really don't want to be reading about them/watching them and having to live all that vicariously...
So I guess that's also my answer.. in real life we don't always get to resolve things or make it ok.. I am a hopeless optimist as you know and I do think that eventually from sad comes good..and in a way our lives are always twisting and turning and changing..sometimes we have a hand in that and sometimes it just happens.. but unlike stories we cannot always change it, or not enough to make it alright again.
I agree with every word you wrote Addb! I know. BIG SURPRISE! I would just like to add one thing which is that eventually what you thought was a catastrophe turns not to be at all. Sometimes you need to give things time to work themselves out to their final conclusion. I am an impatient person. Waiting is something I'm NOT very good at doing. I have reconciled myself to things I didn't like very much and lo and behold at some later point they changed OR my assessment of the value of them changed and it was in fact a "happy" ending all things considered. Are you a patient person? If so I very much admire that trait. I realize I am not and keep trying to become more so but when the opportunity arises back I am in that same old rut and only AFTER the fact do I realize that yep I blew it again. I don't know what happens to realization when you are in throes of something. Maybe it takes being ambidextrous. I'm not! Thank you for your reply! :)