: Glittering points of light. The whole point of a dark story --morally dark --should be to highlight and showcase points of light that might be lost or overlooked in a more brightly lit

@Moriarity138

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Glittering points of light. The whole point of a dark story --morally dark --should be to highlight and showcase points of light that might be lost or overlooked in a more brightly lit context. I personally hate dark sludge books, but there are a few I love, and it's all for those glittering points of light.

Here are my favorite examples:

Lolita (Nabakov): The narrator is a narcissistic, sociopathic moral abomination. But he has a brief moment of (relative) moral clarity late in the book --that's what the book is really all about.
The Moor's Last Sigh (Rushdie): This book is about lots of unhappy people who betray each other and meet violent ends, often at the hands of loved ones. But there's a minor character who becomes a good person against the odds, and who has the strength of character and positive attitude the main character lacks.
Boys of Life: This is a dark fable about artistic obsessions overriding human instincts, extreme perversions, abuse and murder. But there are genuinely kind and caring people scattered throughout it.
Children of Men (movie): This is a near-future dystopia of incredible darkness and dysfunction. But strung across it, like a glittering string of pearls, are multiple people who are willing to overcome their own selfishness, and risk or even lose everything, even their own lives, to help out a complete stranger and her child.

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