contrarianarchon

1. I think you really overestimate how awake I was when I wrote that. I was mostly just trying to depict a general dislike of stories with a lot of grief/suffering/etc in them as quickly as possible because that seemed like an important selector WRT the kinds of media people were likely to recommend. You're right that a story with literally no negative emotions in it would be bad. I guess I was also trying to poke at the emotions a story was meant to invoke in the reader? There are many stories which are meant to make you sad or scared or morally outraged and that was very much not what I want/wanted.

2. sounds like an excellent rec, I'll save that for the next time I feel like that. Or the next time I'm bored. Whichever comes first.

(Thank you to people who made some attempt to help. It is much appreciated!)