Ambiguity

Jill, who has never watched The X-Files, has been working through the shows on Netflix (currently up to season 3, and holy shit there were a lot of amazing episodes this season).  One thing that is really impressing me with these shows, many of which I’m watching for only the second time, is that they are rarely tied up with a neat bow in the end.  Frequently, you have Mulder’s theory, and you have Scully’s, and you can decide which one you feel like going with.  Other times, you’re not really certain if anything at all supernatural even happened.

Some people probably feel like ambiguity is a sign of lazy writing, but in fact it’s quite difficult to craft an ambiguous story that still leaves the viewer satisfied in the end.  Truly lazy writing is the fanatical desire to explain everything, no matter how far it stretches credulity, and no matter how little desire the viewer has in having it explained.  I call it the George Lucas Approach.

For instance, we didn’t need to know C-3PO’s origin.  He could have just been a random robot.  But no, Lucas had to show us that he was built by Anakin Skywalker.  We didn’t need to know where Boba Fett came from.  He could have just been a bounty hunter.  But NO, Lucas had to show us that he was the clone of a man who wore the same outfit as him and shares the same genetic code as stormtroopers, who are revealed to be clones as well.  Indiana Jones COULD have just acquired his various acoutrements and eccentricities over the course of his life, BUT NO, Lucas had to show us that it all happened in one eventful afternoon.  We didn’t need to KNOW how Force-sensitivity worked, but…well.  I could continue this rant, but it would just shame us all.

This bullshit is the height of laziness.  A good writer will trust his audience to be able to make decisions and figure things out for themselves.  A lazy one will play connect-the-dots until there is no mystery left.