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Overheard two people arguing about the end of 'The Road' at the library
I was picking up my holds yesterday and these two guys were going at it near the new releases. One guy said the ending was 'pointlessly bleak' and the other kept saying, 'No, you missed it, it's about carrying the fire.' They got pretty into it, voices rising a bit. I just stood there pretending to look at a cookbook, but I was really listening. It made me think about our book club's last meeting where we talked about 'Station Eleven' and half the group hated the hopeful parts. I realized sometimes the debate IS the point, not who's right. It's about why a story makes us feel that strongly. Has your club ever had a fight over what a book's ending really meant?
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skyler_anderson651mo agoTop Commenter
My sister's book club actually stopped meeting for three months after they fought about that weird ending in "The Magicians" where everyone just... gives up. I still think the guy who walked out was right though.
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calebw501mo ago
Happens all the time with people who can't handle ambiguity in stories. It's like that moment when your friend group argues about whether pineapple belongs on pizza and suddenly no one wants to hang out for weeks because everyone's dug in too deep on their position.
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