Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Villains and the Nature of Evil


by Janis Patterson

I admit it. I’m a cartoon junkie. I love watching weird little animated creatures dancing across the screen in all kinds of improbable story lines. In my opinion, the older cartoons are preferable, with better storylines. And better art. Give me a Rocky and Bullwinkle marathon and I am in pure heaven.
Something I have never understood, though, is the villain – human, hybrid, alien or animal – shouting that he is doing whatever he is doing solely for the sake of evil. Skeletor of the lamented He-Man franchise did that a lot.
Now I believe in evil. I know it is real, and I’ve actually seen it a time or two. But I must also believe that doing something solely for the sake of evil makes no sense, at least not in a mystery or thriller novel. Even the darkest dye villain does what he does for a reason, and in my opinion doing evil just for the sake of evil is not a reason. People do bad things, yes, and they do them for money, or power, or love, or some distorted and ugly thing in their brain, but to them it is a logical (sort of) and effective way to fulfill their vision… whatever twisted form that might take.
For example, a man who slaughters a schoolbus load of children is definitely evil, but is he doing it solely for the sake of purposefully serving evil? Or is he doing it to get publicity so that people will have to think of him? Or to avenge a real or perceived wrong? The end result is the same, but that’s a totally different thought process and rationale.
We believe in and accept heroes because in our culture it is accepted that it is right and desirable to do the ‘right’ thing. As a people we find it difficult to believe that one can do evil simply for no other reason than it is evil, and therefore we must attribute motives and desires to our villains. This renders them understandable to us – in our minds, at least.
But in our books do our villains really do evil, or do they merely go after what they want in a way that is unacceptable to our culture? Does the villain rob the store simply because we are not supposed to rob stores, or is it because they want something the store has – goods or money or whatever? Or, in a horrible extension, the life of someone in the store, perhaps in return for some real or perceived slight? Perhaps when looking in the news media you find stories of someone saying they wanted to do a crime just to have done one, or some similar rationale of evil, but that is real life. We deal in fiction, and fiction has rules. Real life doesn’t.
Genre writers have worked long and hard to make their heroes (and heroines) real and believable people with flaws and dreams and quirks. We can do no less for our villains, for if we don’t we run the risk of having our corporate raider morph into Snidely Whiplash, a two-dimensional sketch who twirls his mustache and threatens to foreclose the mortgage. Just pick the villainish cliché of your choice.

A hero who is real deserves an antagonist who is real, and it is our job as writers to make them both as believable as possible. 

13 comments:

Sandy Cody said...

Nice post, Janis. I agree that evil for the sale of evil makes no sense. The best mysteries give the reader at least a glimpse of how the villain came to be so bad - or what his/her goal is.

Vamp Writer said...

Interesting discussion on evil. I would add that evil can be in the eyes of the beholder. We, in the West, consider Jihadists who hijack and fly aircraft into the Trade Center or blow themselves up in the middle of a crowd of innocent shoppers as the epitome of evil. However, following the guidelines of their (twisted?) religion, they are "heroes" who are just killing "infidels" even if some from their own religion die in the process. Perhaps it is the religion itself that is evil and the real root of their evil is their religion & their society.

Jacqueline Seewald said...

Evil is very much a part of our world. Unfortunately, the urge to destroy exists alongside the urge to create. So as authors we must balance one against the other if we are to create meaningful fiction which is realistic.

Susan Oleksiw said...

This is very thoughtful. I usually have a visceral reaction to evil but it's hard to get the behavior as well as the reaction into a story. I remind myself as I begin a story that we are all human beings and we are all capable of the same behavior, good or bad or evil. And then i focus on the victims, and what has been done to them. That brings the behavior into focus. Good post.

Barry Knister said...

In creating villains, the first rule is this: no one, however evil or nuts, ever thinks of himself--or herself--as evil or nuts. This idea should inform the writer's development of all such characters. Doing so puts the reader up close and personal with the villain, which makes it harder to be detached from his crimes. Otherwise, the villain is a stereotype, and easily viewed as an object, not a person.

Rose Anderson said...

Wonderful thought-provoking post. One of the things I like about balancing my evil guys against my good guys is in real life evil sometimes wins. In my fictional worlds, good triumphs in the end.

Linda Andrews said...

My favorite type of villian is one's whose goals almost mirror the heros, just the steps taken to achieve it are different.

Marilyn Levinson said...

A good topic, Janis, and a subject mystery writers need to consider. Evil is committed for various reasons.

Larion aka Larriane Wills said...

a thought I've projected as well. even if rational human beings don't understand the reason, there is one behind their actions even if it's nothing more than to see if he can outwit everyone and get away with it.

Diane Burton said...

Great post, Janis. I like cartoons, too, esp. Rocky & Bullwinkle. :) If we accept that everyone is the hero of his/her own story then the villain is a hero in his own mind. To be great, a hero needs to battle a great (strong) villain.

Sydell Voeller said...

An interesting post, Janis. I'm not a mystery writer, but I agree that motivation is crucial for all characters.

Sydell Voeller said...

An interesting post, Janis. I'm not a mystery writer, but I agree that motivation is crucial for all characters.

Carole Price said...

We are capable of good, bad, or even evil behavior, and it's the writer's challenge to showcase that in our writing. Good post, Janis.