Tasha Dhanraj mourns our fictional friends
It’s midnight and I’m sitting in a dark room, sighing heavily to myself as I think back on the fictional lives of four fictional people. That’s right. I actually feel sad emotions about the ending of Desperate Housewives. And before you judge me thinking, “Oh silly teenage girl who watches trashy TV and grows too attached to people that don’t exist” read this and every time I say “Desperate Housewives” just replace it with whatever high brow programme you once felt the same about, be it The Wire, House MD or Buffy The Vampire Slayer.
The fact is, what I’m feeling is universal. We all lament the end of fiction that captured us. Even you strange, mysterious folk who don’t own televisions and just read books by Russian authors whose names I can’t pronounce. You too must have felt sad at one time or another when you turned over the final page of a great book.
The whole point of fiction and fantasy is to lift us out of our lives and immerse us in another. Regardless of whether we have any influence or any way to interact with what is happening, it is us indulging in the excitement of experiencing life outside of what our normal life is. In a way, all TV and all books and all video games are our secondary lives.
Whilst some of us choose to watch and read things that challenge our mind and others (like me) just like to watch things that do nothing but entertain our minds for an extra hour before we have to start stressing about the real world around us, we all go there to escape. I’m not saying that anyone who’s ever read a book or watched a TV show was deeply dissatisfied with life, but everyone who’s ever been alive can share in the fact that sometimes – for no reason at all – we can’t be bothered with being bothered about what is going on around us and that’s where fiction comes in. We schedule time for it, we have certain rituals that go with it, like enjoying it with a cup of tea, or whilst wearing a snuggie. It is, in its own right, a part of our life.
“A bunch of beautiful people who lived on a make-believe lane have disappeared”
It’s natural to feel sad when a part of our life that made us happy disappears. So no, I shall not apologise for feeling upset that a bunch of beautiful people who lived on a make-believe lane have disappeared. Desperate Housewives was amazing.
