Your wife really thinks your dog is magical? I'd read that.
I don't know I go to some of my favorite stories thoughout fiction and marriage and all the baggage and such generally leads to better fiction. In films I'll go right to the top with the godfather parts 1, 2 (three does not count), did the marriage add an element and improve the story? Yep.
Now to classics, let's see with shakespeare you have Hamlet and Macbeth both of which were made far more compelling with an aspect of marriage and betrayal (Hamlet's mother and Lady Macbeth), going farther back we would have some ancient myths. The Once and Future King had some marital elements I believe as well (scarcasm). Starting with Homer the Illiad is made compelling and only possible due to helen and Hectors opposing dynamic with Achilles is only hightened by him being a devout family man. The Odyssey is about a guy getting back home to his wife and family as the driving force.
Most all the myths I've ever read start with the god's pairing up and having kids and the ramifications therein, and almost all modern literature is based upon concepts retold from these.
Now in modern mediums you have a lot more single stories and a single way of life is more acceptable now then ever in the past but if you look at some of the better shows out there (sopranos, the shield, etc.) involve the family dynamic in a major way. Others don't, but I just don't see a marriage being a drawback. Sure pete wouldn't be out at the clubs but pete's never really been about that and seeing him trolling for women would be a letdown. What the marriage did was bring a greater sense of responsibility to a character based on responsibility and I just don't see that as a bad thing.
Technically girlfriend. I was confusing, trying to be clever. What I should have said was GFINO.
Yeah, at first it was just getting yelled at for calling him a "dog." But she's taken it to a whole new level.
Some of the more classic examples you used, you're absolutely correct that they contained/dealt with or the plot revolved around a marriage. You would also agree that those marriages are ones that most of us wouldn't want to have. Because fiction is all about conflict, and if marriage is to be a big part of the story (like a lot around here yearn for), than it should have a big, heaping helping of conflict, also. But that's never what I hear here. What I hear is this uber-romantic version: Pete needs someone to share his life with, Pete needs someone who will support him, Pete needs his soul-mate. That's the kind of thing I want in real life. I don't want that in fiction. I want conflict.
I would point out that once Odysseus gets home, the story is over. No one is really interested in seeing him kiss his wife on the cheek and take out the trash every night. They just want to see him get there. Just like Jack dying at the end of Titanic drives the drama home (and making it one of the top movies, box-office wise, of all time). But would anybody really be all that interested in the movie if he survived, and they planned to make a bunch of sequels under the Adventures of Jack and Rose banner. It would have been the biggest flop of all time.
Look, I see sexual tension (because that's really what were talking about here) as
one of the tools in the writer's toolbox, just like sub-plots, foreshadowing, humor, etc, etc. Is it the only tool, or the most important tool, or a necessary tool? By no means. (If it is, Dr. Seuss starts taking on a whole new meaning.) But it is A tool, and an important one. The King Arthur example you gave is overflowing with it. I've never watched The Sopranos or The Shield. I'd imagine most of the Soprano's marriage conflict ,if there were any, came for his occupation, but did Tony's eye's never stray? Was there never any "other woman" conflict? (I honestly don't know. I'm really asking)
So, how does that relate to our wall-crawler? Very simply, I like when writers have that tool in their tool-box. It adds a texture and underlying emotion to stories that you can't get otherwise. And it works on a subconcious level, which is why all this discussion of "well, they could have told these stories as a married couple" rings completely hollow.
I guess you could make the argument that the marriage dynamic is just as valid a "tool." But they had 20 years to write interesting marriage stories, and they didn't (for the most part). They weren't all lazy. I think they all ran into the same problem: No-one likes to see a married couple fight. It's uncomfortable. Certainly, no-one likes to see sexual tension in a marriage, because for the most part, that implies another man, or another woman. And that's icky. So what conflict can you create between them. Well, you're limited to the small things that Shin stated above. And while those things can be cute, is there really a payoff for them? To me, no.
Rambling over.
eter/MJ reunion (2003)
