Overreliance on bleak and depressing story beats makes for reading and writing that suffocates, especially in dark fantasy. The subgenre needs the breathing room moments of levity and quiet provide.
You make several great points here, and could not agree with you more. For myself, I enjoy 'dark' stories, but those where a character repeatedly ruminates on their issues without doing anything about it get incredibly boring.
Psychologically, if the character does take some action to alleviate said negative emotion, or part of the story is about getting that motivation, then that can be powerful - even if they ultimately fail, like in 1984. Winston Smith takes action against Big Brother, the totalitarian state, falls in love, learns the truth, but - spoiler - he fails in the end.
You touched on dark comedy, and dark comedy, for me, can be one of the most powerfully dark genres - precisely because humour is used to trivialise what should stay serious. Arguably the best filmmakers at this are the Coen Brothers. Light-hearted humour and the actions of ludicrous characters obscure the deeper darkness and bleakness of the story. Those watching it will be thoroughly entertained - but, if you take some time to think, especially in films like Fargo and Burn After Reading, you will realise the utter bleakness of the stories.
Your comment about the story of a evil character regretting his earlier acts (though written poorly) reminded me of Clark Ashton Smith’s great short story “The Last Incantation” (http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/112/the-last-incantation). It’s only about six pages, but it gets that sense of regret much better than the novel you mention and shows how an author can subvert expectations well while making it believable. I think you’ll like it a lot.
Downtime is something I have to remind myself to write in. When it's done right, it can lighten up the mood a lot. A steaming bath in the middle of an adventure can relieve tension, as can two characters smoking a pipe, or eating a meal.
You make several great points here, and could not agree with you more. For myself, I enjoy 'dark' stories, but those where a character repeatedly ruminates on their issues without doing anything about it get incredibly boring.
Psychologically, if the character does take some action to alleviate said negative emotion, or part of the story is about getting that motivation, then that can be powerful - even if they ultimately fail, like in 1984. Winston Smith takes action against Big Brother, the totalitarian state, falls in love, learns the truth, but - spoiler - he fails in the end.
You touched on dark comedy, and dark comedy, for me, can be one of the most powerfully dark genres - precisely because humour is used to trivialise what should stay serious. Arguably the best filmmakers at this are the Coen Brothers. Light-hearted humour and the actions of ludicrous characters obscure the deeper darkness and bleakness of the story. Those watching it will be thoroughly entertained - but, if you take some time to think, especially in films like Fargo and Burn After Reading, you will realise the utter bleakness of the stories.
Your comment about the story of a evil character regretting his earlier acts (though written poorly) reminded me of Clark Ashton Smith’s great short story “The Last Incantation” (http://www.eldritchdark.com/writings/short-stories/112/the-last-incantation). It’s only about six pages, but it gets that sense of regret much better than the novel you mention and shows how an author can subvert expectations well while making it believable. I think you’ll like it a lot.
Downtime is something I have to remind myself to write in. When it's done right, it can lighten up the mood a lot. A steaming bath in the middle of an adventure can relieve tension, as can two characters smoking a pipe, or eating a meal.