Tell Me A Story

My wife and I just finished the game What Became of Edith Finch. I very much enjoyed the game and enjoyed the writing, but the ending disappointed. Without revealing too much for those who have not played it (and I'd recommend the game to anyone), it's an ambiguous ending.

I don't care for that.

I see this most often in SF&F short stories. Drives me nuts. The better the writing, the nuttier I get. If I wanted to choose my own ending, I'd write my own thrice-cursed story! All the author has done is wasted my time because the author *has not told a story*. A story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. This type of story has a beginning. If you're going to muck around with structure and four thousand years of reader expectations, why not do away with the middle? Here's how it begins, here how it ends, let's leave it mysterious how we get from the one to the other! *grrr* Homer did not leave it to us to decide Odysseus' fate. Shakespeare did not end with the curtain falling on Hamlet at dinner.

It's a violation of the contract between reader and story teller. As such, in a very serious sense, it is not art. Tell me a story. I'll still decide what it means for me, but fulfill the contract or get off my lawn. *shakes fist*