Chuck Palahniuk. Ghosts (№ 369)

He says that readers don't need a story about a charming and talented child who appeared on television, made a lot of money, and then lived happily ever after, and still live happily ever after.
People don't need a happy ending.
People want to read about Rusty hammer, a boy from the "make room for daddy", who then killed himself. Or about Trent Lumina, cute kid from "Nannies and the Professor", who hanged himself on the fence at the Playground. About a little Anise Jones, who played Buffy in "family matters" - remember, she walked arm in arm with a doll named Mrs. Beasley, and then swallowed a lethal dose of barbiturates. Perhaps the biggest dose in the entire history of the County of Los Angeles.
That is what you want people. The same reason why we watch auto racing: what if someone crashes. Not for nothing do the Germans say: "Die reinste Freude ist die Schadenfreude". "The purest joy is gloating". And indeed, we are always pleased when those whom we envy, something bad happens. It is the purest joy and the most sincere. The joy I see in a pricey limo, turning the wrong way on one-way street.
Or when Jay Smith, the "Little varmint", nicknamed Shorty, find dead with multiple stab wounds in the desert in Las Vegas.
Or when Dana Plato, the girl from "Other foreplay", gets arrested, removed naked for "Playboy" and dies after eating sleeping pills.
People stand in queues in supermarkets, collect coupons for discounts or anything. And so they bought a newspaper, you need to print the right materials.
Most of these people want to read about how Laziness 0 Grade, lovely daughter of "Eight is enough", was found dead in some trailer, with my stomach literally full of prozac and vicodin. There is no tragedy, no failure, says my editor, there is no history.
Happy Kenny Wilcox with wrinkles of laughter will not be sold.
The editor said to me:
- Give me Wilcox child pornography in the computer. Give me a number of dead bodies buried under his porch. Then it will be history.
Editor says:
- Better yet, give me all of the above, and he will be dead.