…what would it be? It can be a book or a movie, and you can have it in whatever form you want; for example if it’s a favorite book you can have a movie adaptation made of it, or a musical, or whatever. Or if it’s a movie, you could have it written as a book or whatever else you can think of. The main point is that your only source of story-based entertainment for the rest of your life is going to be this one story.
So what one story could you be happy with forever?
Oh, and it can be something longer as long as it’s a finite story. For example, all however-many seasons of The Sopranos wouldn’t count, however The Tudors might, because it’s the life story of one person, and presented as such. It counts as going against the spirit of the thread to try to find some ‘finite way to explain’ longer things just so you can include them, however. Like don’t try to come up with a way to sneak all of Monty Python in or the entire works of Shakespeare… Try to embrace the concept of the thread.
I would probably choose something that has both drama and comedy in it, to satisfy whatever itch I may have. The first thing that comes to mind within the parameters of the challenge, would be Chasing Amy, the Kevin Smith film. Another close choice would be Baz Luhrman’s Moulin Rouge!
W. Somerset Maugham’s novel Of Human Bondage. I’ve read it once a year for the last 30 years and could find material to think about in this brilliant book forever.
I’ve thought about this very question before. And I just can’t answer it, simply because my answer changes every few years. Ten years ago, it definitely would’ve been Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere. It wouldn’t be anymore. I loved Jasper Fforde’s Shades of Grey, but I’m sure I’d turn somewhere else eventually.
Yeah, that’s it, unless the OP insists that it’s three books and doesn’t qualify. It has more back story than any other work of fiction.
I’ve never delved deeply into the surrounding literature (except to stick a nose into the Silmarillion and get disgusted), and it might be frustrating to never be able to. However, there are enough background references in LOTR that I could flesh out on my own to fill my time.
I thought of a better way to rephrase the OP: What if every book you read, every tv show, every movie for the rest of your life was retelling the same story. What would the story be?
One Hundred Years of Solitude. I can’t imagine getting sick of it. Once, when it was the only book I had handy (long story), I finished it, then immediately began reading it again, and enjoyed it even more. It’s that good.