--
David Cowie
Containment Failure + 17762:54
The "Valse Triste" scene in _Allegro Non Troppo._
_The Tenth Good Thing About Barney._
The hunting scene in _The Sword in the Stone_ where the hound is
killed.
Dorothy J. Heydt
Albany, California
djh...@kithrup.com
Well, I have few things in this life that have made me cry.
Gorrillas in the mist.
Uncanny X-Men 303.
The Great Gatsby.
"I am old enough to know that Balance does not bring back the dead.
If I murder worlds, slay the galaxy, still my kin will not arise."
--- Pat Rin yos'Phelium
Wayne Throop thr...@sheol.org http://sheol.org/throopw
I'm a big baby, I cry at a lot of things that I shouldn't cry at. Like
most of the Discworld books, which yes, are funny, but the poignant
moments get some tears out of me.
As for movies, I inappropriately cried at the end of Terminator 2, when
the cyborg gets melted, and at the Incredibles, in the scene where the
plane is getting shot down. Yup. Big wuss here.
> So, which stories have made you cry?
Hmm.
THE LORD OF THE RINGS, Tolkien
BRIDGE OF BIRDS, Hughart
THE CURSE OF CHALION, Bujold
Various Liaden Universe(tm) books and stories, Lee & Miller
WATERSHIP DOWN, Adams
"Flowers for Algernon", Keyes
Some of the People stories, Zenna Henderson
Some of the Spareen stories, Susan C. Petrey
"Piecework", David Brin
The occasional Ray Bradbury story, none spring to mind just now
As I say, the list is much longer; I may come back to this later.
> Sadly, I find myself unable to give any examples of my own. If the thread
> lasts long enough, I'm sure that this will be revealed as an ... aspect of
> my personality, rather than as a weakness in my reading list. I sometimes
> find myself having an unexpected reaction to pop lyrics, but books ... not
> yet.
I find that I am much more likely to have a teary reaction to
bittersweet or unexpectedly happy events than to 'sad' things. Also,
it doesn't have to be a great book -- some fairly bad writing has
managed to push my buttons successfully. The Kurtz and Harris "Adept"
books spring to mind as examples, and the occasional Anne McCaffery
scene (especially in the Harper subseries).
David Tate
I am a sap for certain types of scenes, but the stories I feel have
legitimately choked me up include,
_The Haunting of Hill House_ by Shirley Jackson -- besides one scene
that scared the bejesus out of me, Eleanor's search for acceptance and
love tore at me each of the three times I read it.
"The Cold Equations" by Tom Godwin -- kids doing dumb things before they
realize the nature of the world always get to me. Along those lines,
there's a scene in Stephen King's _Pet Semetary_ that hit me like a truck.
Outside of genre, _Of Mice and Men_ by Steinbeck; always feel sorry for
Lenny.
Randy M.
[...]
> WATERSHIP DOWN, Adams
[...]
> The occasional Ray Bradbury story, none spring to mind just now
Ah! I didn't think of the former, and the latter's "The Homecoming" gets
to me every time. So does "The Foghorn," oddly. Or maybe not so oddly.
> I find that I am much more likely to have a teary reaction to
> bittersweet or unexpectedly happy events than to 'sad' things.
Yeah. The happy or bittersweet get to me, too.
Randy M.
Flowers for Algernon and The Cold Equations, both classic weepers, have
already been mentioned. Another which clearly belongs on the same page
is Asimov's The Ugly Little Boy.
A.I.
What Dreams May Come
Saving Private Ryan
Soldier
The Abyss (the part where Ed Harris is trying to revive Mary
Mastrantonio)
The Crow, a little bit
--
* John Oliver http://www.john-oliver.net/ *
* Reform California gun laws - http://www.reformcagunlaws.com/ *
* http://www.gunownersca.com - http://www.crpa.org/ *
* San Diego shooters come to http://shooting.forsandiego.com/ *
I forgot about AI... For some reason I cried from start to finish of tha
tmovie.
"The Grey Zone" made me cry.
--
The All-New, All-Different Howling Curmudgeons!
http://www.whiterose.org/howlingcurmudgeons
"The Long Shot"
I'm told that "When We Were Real" does it to many people.
--
Mark Atwood When you do things right, people won't be sure
m...@mark.atwood.name you've done anything at all.
http://mark.atwood.name/ http://www.livejournal.com/users/fallenpegasus
I get the opposite reaction. When I see/watch/read someone doing
something dumb, I get angry. Usually at them.
>David Cowie wrote:
>
>> So, which stories have made you cry?
>
>Hmm.
>
>THE LORD OF THE RINGS, Tolkien
>BRIDGE OF BIRDS, Hughart
>THE CURSE OF CHALION, Bujold
Big AOL. Quick scan of bookshelves doesn't show anything else that
jumps out at me.
>> Sadly, I find myself unable to give any examples of my own. If the thread
>> lasts long enough, I'm sure that this will be revealed as an ... aspect of
>> my personality, rather than as a weakness in my reading list. I sometimes
>> find myself having an unexpected reaction to pop lyrics, but books ... not
>> yet.
>
>I find that I am much more likely to have a teary reaction to
>bittersweet or unexpectedly happy events than to 'sad' things. Also,
>it doesn't have to be a great book -- some fairly bad writing has
>managed to push my buttons successfully. The Kurtz and Harris "Adept"
>books spring to mind as examples, and the occasional Anne McCaffery
>scene (especially in the Harper subseries).
I seem to have two main buttons:
- Someone choosing to demonstrate one of the noble human virtues
(courage, honor, etc.) despite knowing in advance that (1) there would
be great personal cost (2) they could avoid that cost by weaseling
out, (3) the primary reward isn't something material. My best example
of this isn't a book, but a film - the final scene in "Glory",
although some parts of Tolkien pressed it too.
- Someone who has suffered for no good reason finally gets not what
they necessarily want, but what they deserve. Canonical example is
the fates of the minor characters (Bright Star, Miser Shen, and
especially Doctor Death) in _Bridge of Birds_.
--Craig
--
Craig Richardson (crichar...@worldnet.att.net)
"Then I heard the whirring of the motorized snowmen, sound[ing] like the
death rattle of very small robot lizards, and I left the seasonal aisle"
-- James Lileks, "The Bleat", 2005/10/10
: Yeah. The happy or bittersweet get to me, too.
As for example, the end of the "Leela's Homeworld" episode of Futurama.
If I recall the commentary correctly, viewer reaction to
"Jurassic Bark" was such that they never reran it.
James Nicoll
--
http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/immigrate/
http://www.livejournal.com/users/james_nicoll
I don't know about "legitimate", but "types of scenes"
for me are loss of a loved one, sacrifice, and stoicism.
And "a sap for" is approxmately correct. Characterizing them
in more detail is quite difficult; some that fit those categories
don't affect me much, but those that do, almost always fit one
of those categories.
> So, which stories have made you cry?
Not a story per se, but I wept openly at the end of Planescape:Torment.
Such an unexpected reaction to a friggin' videogame of all things.
Apart from that, text never makes me cry. I can only empathize so much w/o
non-verbal cues.
> David Cowie wrote:
>
> > So, which stories have made you cry?
>
> Hmm.
>
> THE LORD OF THE RINGS, Tolkien
> BRIDGE OF BIRDS, Hughart
> THE CURSE OF CHALION, Bujold
> Various Liaden Universe(tm) books and stories, Lee & Miller
> WATERSHIP DOWN, Adams
Oh! You reminded me. The Plague Dogs, also by Adams, made me cry more
than anything ever in my life. Ever. Not just a few tears, I was
weeping, snotting all over the place, ugly cry, shouting at the book
"You better not let them die! If you let them die I will hate you
forever and ever!" Man. I still can't go back to that book.
> As for movies, I inappropriately cried at the end of Terminator 2, when
> the cyborg gets melted,
That's APPROPRIATE.
--
Sea Wasp
/^\
;;;
Live Journal: http://www.livejournal.com/users/seawasp/
> I was listening to the radio a couple of days ago, and the DJ asked
> listeners for their stories about films that made them cry, especially if
> they were films that you're not meant to cry at. I thought "There has to
> be an rasfw thread in that."
> So, which stories have made you cry?
"Erich Segal's LOVE STORY made me cry. I think the precise moment was
when I looked at the copyright page and discovered I was holding the
-129th- printing of this piece of dreck. I promptly replaced it on the
rack and wiped my tears away."
- Mike Resnick, <BpItEi5...@delphi.com>
--
Steve Coltrin spco...@omcl.org Fox can't take the sky from me
"A group known as the League of Human Dignity helped arrange for Deuel
to be driven to a local livestock scale, where he could be weighed."
- Associated Press
I'm pretty sure I've said before - spoiler for _Prime Directive_, Star
Trek novel by the Reeves-Stevenses.
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
An alien planet with a culture similar to twentieth century Earth, down
to the cold war, nukes itself while the Starship Enterprise is helpless
in orbit... I ask you to excuse my oversimplification. Enterprise is
judged by the Federation to have /caused/ the disaster by breaking the
Prime Directive. And aid can't be given to millions of survivors
because that would break the Prime Directive, too.
The good guys finally work around all of this and beam down in force
with all the aid that the twenty-third century can offer, and it's "I'm
Captain Kirk from the Starship Enterprise, and we're here to help."
Silence. Is the Universal Translator working? And then a little kid
in rags comes up to Kirk with eyes like saucers and says "Starship!"
Like ten seconds later, all the aliens are saying "Starship!"
(By the way, the Translator is, indeed, working correctly.)
It's getting to me now.
I imagine that shortly after that, some rather less excited and quite
awkward conversations take place about how they didn't get there like a
year sooner, before the war...
Heinlein's "The Man Who Travelled in Elephants"
Beagle's "Professor Gottesman and the Indian Rhinoceros"
Ryman's _The Child Garden_ and his story about Cambodia(?)
I'm sure there are more, but those are the one's that come to mind now.
--
Nancy Lebovitz http://www.nancybuttons.com
http://livejournal.com/users/nancylebov
My two favorite colors are "Oooooh" and "SHINY!".
MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL - The part where the killer bunny dies.
Yeah, I know it's weird, and I really didn't actually cry, but I thought
about it.
> I was listening to the radio a couple of days ago, and the DJ asked
> listeners for their stories about films that made them cry, especially if
> they were films that you're not meant to cry at. I thought "There has to
> be an rasfw thread in that."
> So, which stories have made you cry?
> I don't care if the tears came because of the story's own qualities, or
> because it reminded you of something in your life.
> I'm giving a generous definition of crying, as anything from "needing a
> deep breath and a minute to settle oneself" onwards.
The last page of _The Masters of Solitude_ (especially the
completed epitaph), after everything that has come before.
The ending of _Watership Down_.
The ending (corny as it was) of Charles Harness's _The
Catalyst_.
One scene in _The Dispossessed_ which I don't recall
exactly, but I think it is after Shevek and his wife have
been separated by the Anarres politicals and are
reunited again.
Robert
I don't weep for sad, but I will for pride.
"Flowers for Algernon" and "The Cold Equations" have already been
mentioned. Others for me are OSC's "Lost Boys" short story, Saul's
story in _Hyperion_, and two by Stephen King, which surprised me a bit;
_The Stand_ and _The Talisman_, both when certain characters die. The
one in _The Talisman_ shook me so much I couldn't go near the book for 3
days after reading that bit, and whereas I loved the story I have no
desire to re-read it knowing that that's gonna happen.
The Other Kim
kimagreenfieldatyahoodotcom
> Luna wrote:
>
> > As for movies, I inappropriately cried at the end of Terminator 2, when
> > the cyborg gets melted,
>
> That's APPROPRIATE.
Oh, thank you! Through the years I've gotten so many strange stares as
a result of that admission that I've grown to assume that's just the way
faces look.
>I don't weep for sad, but I will for pride.
I'll weep for both, if the sad is done well.
In the brilliant - and otherwise hilarious - movie "Tampopo", there's
a scene where a young mother gets up off her deathbed to fix her
husband and two children a last meal. It's not at all thematically
related to the rest of the movie - except that it deals with food -
but it gets me /right here/ every time.
> As I say, the list is much longer; I may come back to this later.
A few more:
Le Guin, _The Lathe of Heaven_ and _The Tombs of Atuan_
Heinlein, "The Long Watch" and _The Moon is a Harsh Mistress_
C.S. Lewis, _Perelandra_
Weber, _On Basilisk Station_ and _Honor Among Enemies_
Russell, _The Sparrow_
Duane, _A Wizard Alone_
Lee & Miller, _Scout's Progress_, _Carpe Diem_, _Plan B_, _I Dare_,
etc. (to be more specific than last time).
Continuing the analysis, I think many of these are tied not merely to
plot features, but to a certain formality of diction or mannered
encounter. I'm tempted to quote bits (as Wayne did above) to
illustrate, but I probably wouldn't be able to stop, and it's not clear
that they would mean anything out of context. And, there's the obvious
martyrdom scenario (e.g. "The Long Watch", _On Basilisk Station_) that
I'm also susceptible to, *if* it is presented in sufficiently stately
prose. Too purple or too matter-of-fact, and I won't react that way.
Bujold, Lee and Miller, and Russell (or at least _The Sparrow_) all
have a knack of turning the perfect phrase at the precise moment to
affect me this way. In non-SF, G.K. Chesterton does it occasionally,
as does Patrick O'Brian.
David Tate
>So, which stories have made you cry?
The Odyssey, when Odysseus comes and his old, dying, dog Argo
recognizes him, wags his tail, and breathes his last.
Hm? It's been shown multiple times on the cartoon network.
So... you mean it was never rerun on (um... were was its' first run?) fox?
:: That's APPROPRIATE.
: Oh, thank you! Through the years I've gotten so many strange stares as
: a result of that admission that I've grown to assume that's just the
: way faces look.
Hm. I can see where it might not strike somebody as especially moving,
but it certainly has all the elements of appropriateness. In fact...
I can't quite figure out the rationale for somebody finding it
sad inappropriate (as oposed to a bit excessive).
Is it the same thing as with pets? Terminators gots no souls,
and it's heresy to pine for them to show up in the afterlife?
Or something?
"You listening, Bog? Is a computer one of Your creatures?"
--- Manny
Hm. Actually, I found "Our Lady's Juggler" more affecting for some reason.
> I was listening to the radio a couple of days ago, and the DJ asked
> listeners for their stories about films that made them cry, especially
> if they were films that you're not meant to cry at. I thought "There
> has to be an rasfw thread in that."
> So, which stories have made you cry?
> I don't care if the tears came because of the story's own qualities,
> or because it reminded you of something in your life.
> I'm giving a generous definition of crying, as anything from "needing
> a deep breath and a minute to settle oneself" onwards.
> Sadly, I find myself unable to give any examples of my own. If the
> thread lasts long enough, I'm sure that this will be revealed as an
> ... aspect of my personality, rather than as a weakness in my reading
> list. I sometimes find myself having an unexpected reaction to pop
> lyrics, but books ... not yet.
"The man who traveled in elephants" has had that effect on me.
cd
--
The difference between immorality and immortality is "T". I like Earl
Grey.
Hm, yes, there needs to be a deft touch, or it'll fall flat.
Although, there is a way to do it matter-of-fact style.
"That is all I have to say about that."
--- Forrest Gump
> "The man who traveled in elephants" has had that effect on me.
That one almost does. I'm pulling a blank on books that have, but a
number of movies which managed it. Also a couple of video games:
Chrono Trigger, when Crono is brought back to life and Marle is trying
to talk to him, clearly trying to talk just to keep from breaking down
in tears, and I'm tearing up just remembering it.
The other was FFVII: Aerith's death. Cloud's found her, he's fought
off this killing impulse... and then Sephiroth drops down and whacks
her, right in front of him, before he can even move. I played the
following battle scene against Jenova with tears running down my face,
hammering the buttons as though I could somehow punch Sephiroth with
the vehemence of my anger.
Old Yeller
Dumbo
Bambi
> "Erich Segal's LOVE STORY made me cry. I think the precise moment was
> when I looked at the copyright page and discovered I was holding the
> -129th- printing of this piece of dreck. I promptly replaced it on the
> rack and wiped my tears away."
>
> - Mike Resnick, <BpItEi5...@delphi.com>
" One must have a heart of stone to read the death of little Nell
without laughing."
- Oscar Wilde
>I was listening to the radio a couple of days ago, and the DJ asked
>listeners for their stories about films that made them cry, especially if
>they were films that you're not meant to cry at. I thought "There has to
>be an rasfw thread in that."
>So, which stories have made you cry?
>I don't care if the tears came because of the story's own qualities, or
>because it reminded you of something in your life.
>I'm giving a generous definition of crying, as anything from "needing a
>deep breath and a minute to settle oneself" onwards.
>Sadly, I find myself unable to give any examples of my own. If the thread
>lasts long enough, I'm sure that this will be revealed as an ... aspect of
>my personality, rather than as a weakness in my reading list. I sometimes
>find myself having an unexpected reaction to pop lyrics, but books ... not
>yet.
Bradbury's done it me a few times, notably "Kaliedoscope" and "The
Foghorn". Simak has done it frequently, anyone that reads the CITY
stories with no tears is not human...
Hughart's done it and so has Richard Adams, though I was expecting it
in both cases... When I finally kill Ian in the "Smoking Leg" stories
I expect that I'll have a real good cry as I'm starting to feel like I
really know the guy... On the other hand, I'm not going to kill off a
cash cow, but sooner or later the perpetual skeptic has to learn that
the supernatural is real...
Cheers,
John
> The other was FFVII: Aerith's death. Cloud's found her, he's fought
>off this killing impulse... and then Sephiroth drops down and whacks
>her, right in front of him, before he can even move. I played the
>following battle scene against Jenova with tears running down my face,
>hammering the buttons as though I could somehow punch Sephiroth with
>the vehemence of my anger.
If he's going to feel free to mention games, I'll mention CG animation. The
death of Dinobot in "Beast Wars". A character who was about to commit
suicide right at the beginning of the episode redeems himself and saves
existence in a last stand against impossible odds (and as a byproduct
starts humanity on the climb to civilization.
I have no idea why but that episode gets me.
> I was listening to the radio a couple of days ago, and the DJ asked
> listeners for their stories about films that made them cry, especially
> if they were films that you're not meant to cry at. I thought "There
> has to be an rasfw thread in that."
> So, which stories have made you cry?
> I don't care if the tears came because of the story's own qualities,
> or because it reminded you of something in your life.
> I'm giving a generous definition of crying, as anything from "needing
> a deep breath and a minute to settle oneself" onwards.
"The Long Watch" by RAH
some stories by Arthur C. Clarke:
"Encounter At Dawn"
"The Sentinel"
"The Star"
"Transcience"
"Fountains of Paradise"
"The Five People You Meet In Heaven"
> I'm pretty sure I've said before - spoiler for _Prime Directive_, Star
> Trek novel by the Reeves-Stevenses.
>
> -
>
> -
>
> -
>
> -
>
> -
>
> -
>
> -
>
> -
>
> -
>
> -
>
> -
>
> An alien planet with a culture similar to twentieth century Earth,
> down to the cold war, nukes itself while the Starship Enterprise is
> helpless in orbit... I ask you to excuse my oversimplification.
I love the scene in that book when Spock is explaining the difference in
the probabilities of Sulu and Chekov showing up at a certain meeting point-
in-time: "There was a 2% chance that Sulu would turn pirate . . ."
>> As for example, the end of the "Leela's Homeworld" episode of
>> Futurama.
>
> If I recall the commentary correctly, viewer reaction to
> "Jurassic Bark" was such that they never reran it.
Maybe Fox never did, but it's definitely part of the syndication
package running on the Cartoon Network in the U.S. And I wish it
wasn't, because that's where I saw it.
-- wds
-- wds
>> So, which stories have made you cry?
>
> "The Long Shot"
Do you mean "Long Shot" by Vernor Vinge?
-- wds
> "The Long Watch" by RAH
>
> some stories by Arthur C. Clarke:
> "Encounter At Dawn"
> "The Sentinel"
> "The Star"
> "Transcience"
> "Fountains of Paradise"
>
> "The Five People You Meet In Heaven"
>
I forgot "The Swarm" by ACC
and the short story by Asimov that ends with the electronic book saying:
"Someday . . . someday . . . someday . . ."; also, "The Bicentennial Robot"
Tales of Uncle Remus?
Br'er Fox, he lay low...
Asimov's "The Ugly Little Boy" was the first story that came to my
mind . I'm surprised it wasn't mentioned earlier in the thread.
Some of Heinlein's stories got me weepy, but I can't think of any
specifics, so the stories can't have been that good.
"The Cold Equations" was a classic, but not a weeper- I just got a sick
feeling in my stomache.
- A. McIntire
>So, which stories have made you cry?
Far more than I would like to admit. I respond to literary sentiment
probably too well for my own good (which is odd since many people IRL
seem to think just the opposite). I guess that's how I can tolerate
Lackey: her writing may be third-rate, but she pulls the right strings.
So I guess I won't try to name any particulars.
-GAWollman
--
Garrett A. Wollman | As the Constitution endures, persons in every
wol...@csail.mit.edu | generation can invoke its principles in their own
Opinions not those | search for greater freedom.
of MIT or CSAIL. | - A. Kennedy, Lawrence v. Texas, 539 U.S. 558 (2003)
Also, all those old Shirley Temple movies- A. McIntire
I did one on catharsis in SF not too long ago.
> So, which stories have made you cry?
Hmm...off the top of my head and within the genre: Bridge of Birds,
Hero, the Tale of the Children of Hurin, Big Fish, The Book of the Dun
Cow & Book of Sorrows, Field of Dreams. I'm sure if I bothered to look
upthread I'd find more.
In general, I'm a sucker for capital-B Beauty and for Walter
Benjamin-esque Aura. The Art Institute of Chicago, the Western Wall,
touching leaves of a Gutenberg Bible, and the listeneng to the last
measures of The Art of Fugue have each put me in tears.
For me it was _The Algebraist_ when I got to page 17 and realised I'd
wasted my AU$25. <g>
And I howled like a baby in _Lord Foul's Bane_ after I got halfway
through and realised it wasn't going to get any better.
Luke
> In general, I'm a sucker for capital-B Beauty and for Walter
> Benjamin-esque Aura. The Art Institute of Chicago, the Western
> Wall, touching leaves of a Gutenberg Bible, and the listeneng to
> the last measures of The Art of Fugue have each put me in tears.
What's this Western Wall?
-- wds
Damn you! Now I have to drain my keyboard, even _thinking_ about that
bit makes me sniffly.
Cheers,
Gary B-)
--
______________________________________________________________________________
Armful of chairs: Something some people would not know
whether you were up them with or not
- Barry Humphries
>In article <pan.2005.11.23....@privacy.net>,
> David Cowie <m...@privacy.net> wrote:
>
>> I was listening to the radio a couple of days ago, and the DJ asked
>> listeners for their stories about films that made them cry, especially if
>> they were films that you're not meant to cry at. I thought "There has to
>> be an rasfw thread in that."
>> So, which stories have made you cry?
>> I don't care if the tears came because of the story's own qualities, or
>> because it reminded you of something in your life.
>> I'm giving a generous definition of crying, as anything from "needing a
>> deep breath and a minute to settle oneself" onwards.
>> Sadly, I find myself unable to give any examples of my own. If the thread
>> lasts long enough, I'm sure that this will be revealed as an ... aspect of
>> my personality, rather than as a weakness in my reading list. I sometimes
>> find myself having an unexpected reaction to pop lyrics, but books ... not
>> yet.
>
>I'm a big baby, I cry at a lot of things that I shouldn't cry at. Like
>most of the Discworld books, which yes, are funny, but the poignant
>moments get some tears out of me.
>
>As for movies, I inappropriately cried at the end of Terminator 2, when
>the cyborg gets melted, and at the Incredibles, in the scene where the
>plane is getting shot down. Yup. Big wuss here.
If talking animals count as being on-topic, I always cry at the part
in _Black Beauty_ where Ginger dies. In fact, I start crying the page
or so ahead, because I know that it is coming up.
Rebecca
>On 23 Nov 2005 12:40:52 -0800, "Dr. Dave" <dt...@ida.org> wrote:
>
>>David Cowie wrote:
>>
>>> So, which stories have made you cry?
>>
>>Hmm.
>>
>>THE LORD OF THE RINGS, Tolkien
>>BRIDGE OF BIRDS, Hughart
>>THE CURSE OF CHALION, Bujold
>
>Big AOL. Quick scan of bookshelves doesn't show anything else that
>jumps out at me.
>
>>> Sadly, I find myself unable to give any examples of my own. If the thread
>>> lasts long enough, I'm sure that this will be revealed as an ... aspect of
>>> my personality, rather than as a weakness in my reading list. I sometimes
>>> find myself having an unexpected reaction to pop lyrics, but books ... not
>>> yet.
>>
>>I find that I am much more likely to have a teary reaction to
>>bittersweet or unexpectedly happy events than to 'sad' things. Also,
>>it doesn't have to be a great book -- some fairly bad writing has
>>managed to push my buttons successfully. The Kurtz and Harris "Adept"
>>books spring to mind as examples, and the occasional Anne McCaffery
>>scene (especially in the Harper subseries).
>
>I seem to have two main buttons:
>- Someone choosing to demonstrate one of the noble human virtues
>(courage, honor, etc.) despite knowing in advance that (1) there would
>be great personal cost (2) they could avoid that cost by weaseling
>out, (3) the primary reward isn't something material. My best example
>of this isn't a book, but a film - the final scene in "Glory",
>although some parts of Tolkien pressed it too.
I was sniffling at the end of _Deadhouse Gates_, now that I think
about it. What made it even worse was that I had cheated and read the
last part of the story ahead, to see how it all turned out, which made
the story even more poignant.
Rebecca
LOL, had a almost as bad experience with a comic book.. We3... I was
towards the end of it like "if they kill the cat im gonna freak" LOL
>> "The Long Watch" by RAH
>>
>> some stories by Arthur C. Clarke:
>> "Encounter At Dawn"
>> "The Sentinel"
>> "The Star"
>> "Transcience"
>> "Fountains of Paradise"
>>
>> "The Five People You Meet In Heaven"
>>
>
> I forgot "The Swarm" by ACC
>
> and the short story by Asimov that ends with the electronic book
> saying: "Someday . . . someday . . . someday . . ."; also, "The
> Bicentennial Robot"
>
I also forgot ( I had to get up out of bed to post again, my head was
buzzing with more answers)
"Dog Star" by ACC
(Imagine, if you can, that story as read by Higgins, the British butler in
Magnum, PI. That's how it sounds in my head)
"The City And The Stars" and "NightFall" by ACC
(2 different versions of the same story but both qualify for me)
"Silent Running" (film with Bruce Dern & 3 robots named Huey, Louie (sp?),
and Dewey)
"Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan" -- Spock's death scene through Mr. Scott's
bagpipe solo of "Amazing Grace"
Out of genre: Some of the dog & cat stories of James Herriot, like the one
about the cat who brings its only kitten to the fireplace before dying of
cancer . . . on Xmas day, if memory serves.
Sherlock Holmes, concerning the criminal who dies on the moor in "Hound of
the Baskervilles" -- "Evil, indeed, is the man who has no woman to mourn
for him"
You must love the soulbonders who believe that they're in love with Sephiroth,
who was never evil (Cloud's the asshole) and who makes love to them on the
Astral Plane.
One of them even obtained a marriage license for the two of them . . .
--
Christopher Adams - Sydney, Australia
The question is whether it's pathological for a dropped egg to fall.
http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/mhacdebhandia/prestigeclasslist.html
http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/mhacdebhandia/templatelist.html
The only book I've read recently that made me snuffly (no actual
_weeping_, mind, but snuffly) was _East of Eden_, by Steinbeck.
The fate of the Hamilton family is what got me, especially Tom.
The anime _Kimi ga Nozomu Eien_ and _AIR_ have also made me snuffly.
Yeah, I'm a dork.
I read "The Scholar's Tale" part of "Hyperion" when my daughter was
about 18 months old, walking, beginning to talk and just generally
developing like hell. When I finished that bit I just broke down
completely.
The ending of "Bridge Of Birds" still gets me after several re-readings.
The final scene of "Eight Skilled Gentlemen" isn't bad either[1].
Cordwainer Smith: "The Lady Who Sailed The Soul" certainly, and probably
one or two others.
Moving away from books: "E.T.", and the final episode of "Babylon 5".
And moving completely away from SF, "The JCB Song" by Nizlopi: see
http://www.jcbsong.co.uk/
I still miss Dad.
[1] Can't we get up a collection or something for Barry Hughart to
publish the next one? As an e-book even, or the chapter-at-a-time
thing? Mr Wheeler, Mr Watt-Evans?
--
David Allsopp Houston, Tranquillity Base here.
Remove SPAM to email me The Eagle has landed.
_Earth Abides_
--
Reverend Paul Colquhoun, ULC. http://andor.dropbear.id.au/~paulcol
Asking for technical help in newsgroups? Read this first:
http://catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html#intro
...having predicted that Sulu and Chekov would join a pirate crew in
order to make their way to the location. Chekov with fifty per cent
confidence, Sulu with forty-eight...
Hmm - do you suppose Spock just makes the numbers up, like Mr Scott?
The ending of _Watership Down_. Whilst I was on public transport going to
work in the morning...
--
Pete
Using children's "missing pet" posters for the covers was a rather
nasty touch. (As was the bloody violence.) Science labs don't /want/
stolen pets - who knows where they've been
<http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/huntingdon.asp>
These days you probably want animals with genes added or subtracted,
anyway.
(And the Wikipedia page for _The Plague Dogs_ notes concentration camp
imagery... and that the book and movie have different endings, and
apparently not the change you'd expect?)
I suppose it doesn't rule out an unscrupulous lab animal supply company
just stealing to order (like the crematorium a little while back that
was found to be just dumping the corpses in the woods), but people
would probably notice they were getting mixtures, non-matching
animals... hey, you suppose back when there were hundreds of beagles in
cages smoking, the ----shire Hunt ever woke up to find they'd been
robbed?
Diane Duane's _A Wizard Alone_ -- I read it not terribly long after my
grandmother died of cancer. I knew while reading it that I wasn't crying
due to the book's own merits, but that didn't make me stop doing it, either.
(If I'm going to mention that, I suppose I should mention that the most
crying I've ever done at any work of fiction was the episode of _Buffy
the Vampire Slayer_ entitled "The Body"...which aired two weeks after
my grandfather died. I had tears streaming down my face for the whole hour.)
Stephen Gould's _Jumper_.
Molly Grue in _The Last Unicorn_ saying "How can you come to me when I
am *this*?" Not the prose version, but the spoken words in the movie did it.
Jo Walton's _Lifelode_.
The last issue of _Zot!_, when Zot convinces Jenny to stay on her Earth.
That's all I can remember offhand...there are certainly others.
--
David Goldfarb | "Tom Galloway, you are a whore."
gold...@ocf.berkeley.edu |
gold...@csua.berkeley.edu | -- Neil Gaiman
I tear up at Sam's last line of dialogue. Not for what he says, but,
well, for everything, I suppose.
Well, but that's because it's the best CRPG ever.
Another one that did it: The ending of Fallout.
--
Leif Kjønnøy, cunctator maximus. http://www.pvv.org/~leifmk
Because it SHOULD affect you that way?
I put in a "mee toooooo" on that one. Though, oddly, I appear to be
the only one on the planet who saw a version of that series where the
character was called "Raptor". But either way, yes, an extremely
touching episode. As the characters were robots, they were allowed to
"die", which you can't do with human characters in American animated
stuff.
--
Sea Wasp
/^\
;;;
Live Journal: http://www.livejournal.com/users/seawasp/
I had never heard of such things. Such people are just wierd. Like
the ones that seem to like to slash every character except those that
really MIGHT have a relationship.
Oh come on, what was so sad about the idea of the dog just
waiting...forever and ever and ever and ever....
--
The All-New, All-Different Howling Curmudgeons!
http://www.whiterose.org/howlingcurmudgeons
It's Memories of Ice that gets me every time. Itkovian's final scene -- in
fact, pretty much every scene with Itkovian in after the Bbs reach Capustan
does me in. And Dujek's line "I have lost a friend." And Mallet's
reaction.
And Kay's The Lions of Al-Rassan got me also. Tigana not so much, but it
would probably get me now.
Rob Kerr
Just curious: I respect David. I respect a number of other people who
liked Zot! I can't stand the thing.
How many people reading this liked Zot! (Yes, Kurt, I know you liked it.)
> In article <pan.2005.11.23....@privacy.net>, David Cowie
> <m...@privacy.net> wrote:
>
> > I was listening to the radio a couple of days ago, and the DJ asked
> > listeners for their stories about films that made them cry, especially if
> > they were films that you're not meant to cry at. I thought "There has to
> > be an rasfw thread in that."
> > So, which stories have made you cry?
> > I don't care if the tears came because of the story's own qualities, or
> > because it reminded you of something in your life.
> > I'm giving a generous definition of crying, as anything from "needing a
> > deep breath and a minute to settle oneself" onwards.
>
> The last page of _The Masters of Solitude_ (especially the
> completed epitaph), after everything that has come before.
>
> The ending of _Watership Down_.
>
> The ending (corny as it was) of Charles Harness's _The
> Catalyst_.
>
> One scene in _The Dispossessed_ which I don't recall
> exactly, but I think it is after Shevek and his wife have
> been separated by the Anarres politicals and are
> reunited again.
And I forgot:
_The Return of the King_ - the horns blowing after the gate
of Minas Tirith is broken: "Rohan had come at last."
The ending of _The Once and Future King_.
Several places toward the end of _Deadhouse Gates_.
Oddly I was never moved to that extent before I became a father, but now I
find the scene where Bill meets Susan in "The Day of the Triffids" (up to
the point where they bury Tommy) to be incredibly tear-jerking, despite
having read it hundreds of times pre-fatherhood.
I can't think of any other examples offhand, but the recent BBC series of
Spooks moved me to tears several times, thinking about the poor little son
of two of the agents.
Losing a father and gaining a son within 6 weeks of each other has
definitely done something to my psyche.
Paul
And typically as soon as I hit "send"...
Several scenes from "The Time-Traveller's Wife" - the closer to the end, the
more frequently they came. No actual tears, but I did have to break from
reading at several points.
Paul
AOL
Paul
If you mean short stories, "The Man Who Traveled in Elephants" by
Heinlein made me cry and laugh both. Several of the stories in THE
OCTOBER COUNTRY, a collection by Bradbury, make me cry when I read them
the first time. "Our Lady's Juggler" by Anatole France, which is
arguably SF, made me cry. There are some novels that have moments that
made me cry. When Mike dies in THE MOON IS A HARSH MISTRESS is one of
the easier to remember. I cry easily. Every time Lucinda Williams sings
the lines I quote in my tagfile <pointing down> for instance.
Will in New Haven
--
"Did an angel whisper in your ear
And hold you close and take away your fear
In those long last moments."
Lucinda Williams - "Lake Charles" off CAR WHEELS ON A GRAVEL
ROAD
Oh, the whole last chapter. I don't actually cry, but I feel
like it: nonetheless, a bunch of people got together once on
Tolkien's birthday to do readings, and I was the only one who was
willing to attempt the last chapter. (I got through it by
concentrating on breath control and tone production, as if i were
singing it. A technique I also recommend to _Eye of Argon_
readers.)
Dorothy J. Heydt
Albany, California
djh...@kithrup.com
Ang Lee did a film of _Sense and Sensibility_ about ten years
back. There's a scene in which Colonel Brandon, after having
longed for Marianne while she longs for the dashing young rotter,
throughout the whole damn movie, is about to ride off to fetch
her mother to her because she's ill. And she says "Thank you,"
which is the first kind word she's ever had for him. This is the
point, says the commentary by the scriptwriter and producer,
where all the guys start crying, and indeed they would find
tear-stains all over that page of the script, even before they
started shooting.
That one and, in the film, when Elves show up to help at Helm's Deep.
As they SHOULD have and despite Tolkien.
>
> The ending of _The Once and Future King_.
>
> Several places toward the end of _Deadhouse Gates_.
Will in New Haven
I wept for pride when they kicked the benevolent aliens asses off the
planet in "No Truce with Kings" by Poul Andeson. I wept when the French
UN representative ended the long speech about letters of Marque &
Reprisal with "And France has done so" in one of Anderson's lesser
works. I wept several times for the Ythri. Poul Anderson is one of the
great almost-forgotten treasures of SF and fantasy. On another thread,
I would say his best comp is Tris Speaker, except that he's better.
>> And I forgot:
>>
>> _The Return of the King_ - the horns blowing after the gate
>> of Minas Tirith is broken: "Rohan had come at last."
>
> That one and, in the film, when Elves show up to help at Helm's Deep.
> As they SHOULD have and despite Tolkien.
Despite? He sent them Elrond's sons and a fair company of Rangers, plus
word that the Elves were besieged. That was far more logical than what
they did in the film. Makes me wonder why they used the half-assed cheat
they did in the film, rather than sticking with cannon.
(Of course, a lot of the film affects me that way).
cd
--
The difference between immorality and immortality is "T". I like Earl
Grey.
The name Cloud reminded me, although the characters prolly have nothing
in common. The death of Cloud in Ford's _The Last Hot Time_ brought
tears. Some other moments in the book came close. Maybe what happened
between the protagonist and his lover did also. Great book.
Several moments in _Lonesome Dove_ but why I thought of that just now,
I don't know.
yes, and they talked. not like smart assed talking animals either, they
talked like we would expect those animals to think.
very heart tugging.
Science labs don't /want/
> stolen pets - who knows where they've been
> <http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/huntingdon.asp>
> These days you probably want animals with genes added or subtracted,
> anyway.
>
> (And the Wikipedia page for _The Plague Dogs_ notes concentration camp
> imagery... and that the book and movie have different endings, and
> apparently not the change you'd expect?)
>
> I suppose it doesn't rule out an unscrupulous lab animal supply company
> just stealing to order (like the crematorium a little while back that
> was found to be just dumping the corpses in the woods), but people
> would probably notice they were getting mixtures, non-matching
> animals... hey, you suppose back when there were hundreds of beagles in
> cages smoking, the ----shire Hunt ever woke up to find they'd been
> robbed?
That honestly wouldn't surprise me. Science animal company A has a big
delivery of schnausers, runs four or five short, sees a few on the street a
few at the spca... know wwhat i mean?
Oh my god cartoons!
I have to say that Robotech was one of the most harrowing experiences of my
life. When they had the final attack on earth and earth was totally
devestated.... Or when Rick found the minmei doll in the ruins..
Well I was in like grade 3 and watched it on lunch.. I did not learn
anything that afternoon.
Yikes! Still tugs at the tears.
they play that one on teletoon? I have never seen that episode..
> Stephen Gould's _Jumper_.
The note left in the water bottle/canteen at the start of Steven Gould's
"Wildside"
> In article <dm4abg$2ojh$1...@agate.berkeley.edu>,
> David Goldfarb <gold...@OCF.Berkeley.EDU> wrote:
>>The last issue of _Zot!_, when Zot convinces Jenny to stay on
>>her Earth.
> Just curious: I respect David. I respect a number of other
> people who liked Zot! I can't stand the thing.
> How many people reading this liked Zot! (Yes, Kurt, I know you
> liked it.)
I did. Bright, optimistic hero from a world out of a 30's serial?
What's not to like? And I think the Earth Stories were some of the
most insightful YA vignettes I've seen in any medium.
Mike
--
Michael S. Schiffer, LHN, FCS
msch...@condor.depaul.edu
"I will not say, 'do not cry', for not all tears are evil . . ." - Gandalf
>Hmm...off the top of my head and within the genre: Bridge of Birds,
>Hero, the Tale of the Children of Hurin, Big Fish, The Book of the Dun
>Cow & Book of Sorrows, Field of Dreams.
I saw _Field of Dreams_ a week after my father died. I didn't read
the book until much later, but the movie made me cry.
If we're segueing into comics, then Crisis on Infinite Earths #7
(death of Supergirl), and the related "Should Auld Acquaintance Be
Forgot" ("We don't do it for the glory. We don't do it for the
recognition... We do it because it needs to be done. Because if
we don't, no one else will. And we do it even if no one *knows*
what we've done. Even if no one knows we *exist*. Even if no one
remembers that we *ever* existed.")
> In article <pan.2005.11.23....@privacy.net>,
> David Cowie <m...@privacy.net> wrote:
>
>
>>So, which stories have made you cry?
>
>
> Far more than I would like to admit. I respond to literary sentiment
> probably too well for my own good (which is odd since many people IRL
> seem to think just the opposite). I guess that's how I can tolerate
> Lackey: her writing may be third-rate, but she pulls the right strings.
>
> So I guess I won't try to name any particulars.
>
> -GAWollman
>
I'll ditto on that. I've been trying to think of some that haven't been
mentioned yet.
Since we have branched out into other media, I'll mention one that gives
me the shivers every time I watch it. The opening cut scene for
Starcraft:Broodwar.