Friendship Romance and Fiction

                I was watching the tv series ‘friends’ and a thought pop up in my mind.  We have lots of movies based on romance and love but a very few on friendship. Why is it so? I consider friendship to be more universal than romance but still when it comes to fiction, it is completely dominated by the romantic stories. The influence of romance in fiction is so high that it is considered to be a genre. You will hear people saying I am going to watch a romantic movie but how many times have you heard someone saying I am going to watch a friendship movie. It is very rare.

                ‘Friends‘ can  be considered as a good work on friendship. More than the comedy part the emotions and bonds are brilliantly depicted. But I am unable to remember many movies solely based on friendship. When I googled the friendship movies I got something like lord of rings triology and all. Yes there is an element of friendship and all in those movies but you cannot consider it primarily based on friendship. 

                So why does this fiction people hate friendship and gives so much importance to romance? Almost everyone will have friends but there are people who do not have a lover. Also friendship has no age limits even a three year old can have friends. But this romance thing happens only after an age and may be after an age the strength of romantic feelings may decay. I cannot make a final judgment on the last part as I am in my twenties and I do not know what happens at a later stage but as of now I believe so. The limit of number is also there. I mean it is difficult for one to share romance with many at same time. May be there are people who can romance more than one at same time. But as the number goes on increasing I think it is difficult to handle. Friendship does not have that kind of a limit. You can have from 1 to say a thousand or many more friends.

Now you have got an emotion which does not have age limits and almost 100  percent of people share and on other hand you have a slightly more limited emotion which many are unable to share and when you look at your movies and novels they are all completely filled by second one. That’s unbelievable. What can be underlying reason?

                When I shared my thoughts with one of my friends (note: here again when I had a doubt I shared it with my friend and not lover because I do not have a romantic counter part) he shared an interesting view point. Everyone knows about friendship and we all will have friendship with some others during one time or another. But when it comes to romance it is rare. Even though many say they have a lover we can see lots of unhappy couples around us. Also even while romancing many are looking for better relationship. So there is a lack of clarity in romance. What is it? Many don’t know. So that gives room for fictionalization or dramatization. That is a good way of looking at this. Our writers are finding it easy to fictionalize it and they are giving it to us saying this is what is called true romance.  It is more like a fantasy stuff possibilities are unlimited. Only writer’s imagination is limit.

                Now do not consider me as an ‘anti love’ or ‘I hate you’ kind of person. I just want to find out why romance dominates in fiction. If there are better arguments than above they are all welcome.