Running With Quills: ELIZABETH PONDERS EVIL

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Monday, August 07, 2006

ELIZABETH PONDERS EVIL

Somebody once asked me where I get my ideas for bad guys, as some of them are way “out there.” Inquiring minds wanted to know: Is it life or imagination that inspires my villians?

Actually, it’s both.

Life with a dash of imagination.

For example, if I read news stories about drug lords shooting it out in Mexico, Columbians kidnapping folks for ransom, various crime families exchanging relatives as surety for a “business transaction”(shades of the Middle Ages!), and whitebread bankers going down for laundering billions in dirty money…well, do you blame me if I get plot ideas?

Or headlines about self-made “patriarchs” taking “wives” right and left, booting sons out in teenage years, and keeping daughters, repeat as necessary until built-in erector set fails…

Or diamonds used as barters for illegal arms…

Or emeralds used to launder drug money…

Or gems traded for arms in Afghanistan…

Or exchange students going missing anywhere in the world…

Or modern pirates working off of Sudan…

Or stolen oil traded for arms in Africa…

Or women and children sold/stolen for the international sex trade…

Or Former Soviet Union KGB/elite soldiers selling everything for cash…

Or money laundries on the Isle of Mann…

Or corruption among UN folks shoving stuff under the rug…

Or failed states and feral cities…

I could go on and on and ON, but you’re getting the idea. When it comes to villainous ideas, the world is chockfull and overflowing like a plugged toilet.

Do I like “living” with those sorts of things while I write a book?

No, but I really enjoy watching evil lose.

Seen through the veil of fiction, evil is easier to exorcise. In my books the good guys win. That’s why I write. I want to remind everyone to celebrate what’s good, kick evil butt, and enjoy life no matter how imperfect it might be.

So how do you like your fiction? Totally removed from conventional reality? Totally connected to conventional reality? In between?

And how do you like your villains—through and through evil, evil with odd splashes of good, or so mixed it’s hard to tell what’s evil and what’s good?

24 Comments:

Karibear said...: Oooh, virgin blog!

I don't mind characters being as evil as possible, just as long as they get their just desserts eventually. Of course, it is satisfying once in awhile for the baddy to have a change of heart and turn into a good guy, but that sort of stretches reality. Not that it can't and hasn't been done, but it takes more effort [I thnk] to make it believable, even in the context of the story.; 6:59 PM
Louis said...: Evil, in it's infinite variety lurks everywhere.

As for reading about the villians...I'll take mine with a splash of good, so that the goodness might creep out when least expected.

Of coarse, the really evil bad-ass guy isn't so bad to read about either. Puts that little chill in the spine that thrills us all.

Either way the Quills make for excellent reading.

Am I the first?; 7:01 PM
Lori of Canada said...: Elizabeth,

What a great blog topic. Wow. Very philosophical. For me, it depends on what I am reading. There are times when I want my villains to be clearly villainous, with no doubt that he/she is pure evil. Stephen King's The Stand is one of my favourite novels for that very reason.

However, often I find a villain more compelling who isn't out and out evil.

The scariest evil isn't the one where you can see it, or you know why it is evil, or you know it is pure evil. Rather, for me, the scariest evil is the one where you can see there are good qualities or elements. It is more frightening to think of a villain who can care about someone or something than one who can't connect with anyone or anything.

That is one of the reasons I love horror movies. The evil is usually pretty easy to identify (guy in a hockey mask, with a machete, in the woods is probably not a good omen) and the evil almost always loses. I love that.

I use a lot of analogies from teaching because well, I am a teacher. This is one of the discussions I often have with my students. A clear dichotomy of good and evil is a lot harder to find than we would like to believe. Good people can do bad things; and bad people can do good things.

I love fiction because I can forget about the reality, even for a brief time.

Lori M.; 7:09 PM
Anonymous said...: Yes to all the questions. I like all types of fiction and all types of bad guys. Why? Because the variety is what keeps it all interesting and not the same old story over & over. So I read contempory, scifi & fantasy, romance, suspense, paranormal...historical well, not so much anymore but a good author I'll still pick up a historical - its all about the story. If its a good story, I'll read it, regardless of genre. But the good guys AND bad guys have to be as compelling as the story itself.; 8:18 PM
Stella said...: The villain who almost passes as heroic is my favorite. Since I like three dimentional characters, not stock characters, the challenge to find the baddie is harder among a cast of people who keep me guessing.

Stella; 8:23 PM
Anonymous said...: Actually I think you are the only author left that I still read that writes contemporaries. (Unless Justine Davis releases a new one).

The world today is evil enough, I really don't want to read about more of it. I read to escape what is blaring out of the TV all the time. So I prefer Fantasy / Paranormal - things I KNOW are not real. And I've discovered it is more fun to stretch the imagination with fantasy.

KathyLynn; 8:24 PM
Karibear said...: lori of Canada: I have a problem with the villains who have some good in them. Years ago I went on a true-crime kick, following an interview I'd heard on NPR with Henry Lee Lucas. Then I started paying more attention to some of the people I actually knew who'd done bad things. What was really scary for me was that after awhile, I could understand how they got to be that way and why they did whatever they did. Not sympathize, but understand - a lot of them had truly horrific childhoods, and I was more surprised than not that so many of them weren't a lot worse than they were. Anyway, that Aha! moment of understanding did me in. I totally quit reading true crime, don't watch cop shows, etc. I want my villains to be make-believe, and I want them to get what they deserve. Except for those very few who are redeemed by love, or something approaching a crisis of conscience.; 9:44 PM
Ranurgis said...: There are of course people in the world who show only their evil side. However, even Sadam Hussein tried to make "good" with a young child sitting on his knees while he was executing his sons-in-laws and various other henchmen. Rarely will you find an evil person truly showing all his evil qualities. Almost all of them will dissemble like Bundy and probably Henry Lee Lucas. Otherwise, why would it be so hard to catch the bad guys or even clearly identify them. Usually they show some side which seems to be good, e.g., a love for their children--as long as they obey him and follow his grooming of goodness or evil, whichever he wants them to portray.

Essentially, however, these men are thoroughly evil and ruthless. Probably every dictator and murderous ruler in history tried to win over the people first--except maybe for Caligula and Nero, but then, everybody knew that Caligula was certifiable and would fly into a murderous rage at the mere hint that he might be unbalanced.

I think the villains are much more scary if they are connected to conventional reality because you just don't know who or what they really are. Isn't that what usually makes them so hard to recognize and so unpredictable? And it's not their good qualities per se but their ability to dissemble, to act better and maybe even more charming than they really are. Oh yes, they do need to get their just desserts. They don't always get them in reality so we like them to bite the dust in our fiction at least.

BTW, Elizabeth, I just picked up "The Wrong Hostage" from the library this afternoon (oops, yesterday afternoon my time). So I hope to get to it soon.

hgfpm - He grooms for perfect murder.; 10:44 PM
Ranurgis said...: Your mention of the sex slaves reminds me of what a friend told me about a mutual friend.

The mutual friend was flying to Thailand on business. He and others in their Businessmen's Organization fly to Third World countries to help poor families set up a paying business, e.g., finance the cloth, thread, etc. for women in Thailand to make their native clothing to sell either there or on the Internet. Or donate a saw, nails and wood for carpentry for men to make furniture or whatever. They finance them and then, if the business is successful, the people pay back the money (no interest) so that others can be helped.

Anyway, he was flying to Thailand to set up some businesses. During the long flight, he struck up a conversation with his seat mate who seemed like a nice fellow. After talking to him for a while, he asked the man why he was going to Bangkok and without hesitation, the other answered, "To check out the candy,"

Now this mutual friend is a mild man but when he heard this, he almost decked the guy. This is the sort of thing that he is trying to help prevent by giving families the opportunity to make sufficient income for themselves so that they don't have to sell their children.

I'm wondering if that is why two cities in Thailand are among the top 10 cities in the world to visit. How totally repugnant and evil is that?

I'm really glad I read several novels and then about some homes that hope to help these used-up children that made me aware of these heinous crimes. It's barely comprehensible. If anyone wants to read about these children, mostly girls of course, I can give you some sites. There is also an opportunity to help.; 11:15 PM
Lori of Canada said...: Karibear,

I know what you mean - and I agree that there is something fundamentally frightening about a villain who you can almost sympathize with or feel bad for (fiction-wise, isn't that what made Silence of the Lambs such a success? How many people were rooting for Hannibal Lector, despite what his character had done). I love horror movies and I love seeing good triumph over evil.

I don't read a lot of true crime (I read Life with Billy when I was a teen, about an abusive husband and his wife who killed him, and was horrified by the details of what he had done to her). I still read a lot of non-fiction, though, when I am not reading fiction. I still try to wrap my mind around things like the genocide in Rwanda and try to understand how anyone could get to the point where they could participate in something like this. However, as a teacher, my responsibility feels larger. I find it important to make students understand that how things like that happen is that someone has to no longer recognize someone else as "human." Often, there is a persepective that the other group is less than human, and then of less value. I think it is key to make students understand how that happens because I want them to know how not to let that happen again. And because I tell them that I am fundamentally optimistic and think the vast, vast majority of people are capable of more good than evil.

Ranurgis, I have to admit that the fact that that abuse happens makes me nauseous. However, the good that that man (the friend of yours) is doing is amazing.; 4:44 AM
Kris said...: I like my bad guys mixed, so you kind of feel for them like the drug lord who got into selling drugs and stays in to pay for his very sick daughter's healthcare. Not too many people are totally evil, there are two sides to just about every coin.
I like my books to be an escape from my mundane world, so i like reading about kick butt heroines and heros, because I am not.; 6:41 AM
Teresa Medeiros said...: I love it when motivation is revealed. If someone is evil, I want to know why! (Think BUFFY when they went back and did Spike's history and you discovered he was actually this gentle romantic poet type who suffered from an overbearing mother and who was rejected by the woman he loved because she said he was "beneath him".); 8:29 AM
Anonymous said...: I think that the villain has to fit the story. Sometimes it just has to be pure evil and other times there is room for redemption. I believe that evil is out there and we often do not recognize it because it hides beneath a pretty or benevolent facade. I like a recognizable bad guy in my fiction 'cause it's so hard to tell in real life. Of course, I'm fond of good good guys, too. Mostly I'm not too into stories where I have to guess which character is the hero.

Marva

vwamb - Vicky wants a macho bartender.; 8:52 AM
Suzanne Simmons said...: I've never written truly evil villains...until now. I've actually got real bad guys in my upcoming paranormals. :-)

But evil villains is one aspect of Elizabeth's novels that has always been an eye-opener for me. I not only love her books, but I learn so much. I actually grilled EL when I read THE WRONG HOSTAGE. Could this kind of thing actually happen? The answer, of course, was yes. Absolutely. WoW!; 9:48 AM
KathyK said...: I think evil is more true-to-life when the villain is able to rationalize his evil deeds as "necessary though regrettable" and sees himself as a good person. I believe that most people who do evil things don't take delight in those things and they really don't want the consequences of those acts, yet they feel forced into it somehow. However, true crime is not my bag. I want goodness and love ALWAYS to triumph and that isn't what happens in real life all too often. I don't believe that "to understand all is to forgive all." But I do believe that we will all stand before the Judge someday to answer for our deeds and that even the best people will have a lot of 'splainin' to do, pleading for the mercy of the court. So I don't think of myself as better than someone else, just forgiven.; 9:54 AM
Anonymous said...: As I was reading the comments after mine, I thought of a well-known quote that certainly applies to a lot of dictators like Sadam Hussein, Adolf Hitler and Idi Amin of Uganda (by the way, my niece finished her co-op for her university degree in early childhood education there).

"Power corrupts; absolute power corrupts absolutely" i.e., completely.

I just checked to see who wrote this. It was Lord Acton (1834-1902) who was a historian and studied historical documents in their original language as much as possible. (http://www.libertystory.net/LSTHINKACTON.html

If you think of it rationally, I think you'll realize why. If you wield absolute power, there's nobody there to dare tell you "No, you can't do that. Think about what you're doing". All you will see is what you can do with that power--and I think the mob mentality comes in here, too. If everyone around you is doing something bad, you begin to think that's normal and I think psychologists will bear me out in that. The mob is in a kind of frenzy, e.g., football fans in Britain though why, is of course something to ponder.

I think a lot of people do rationalize their bad/evil behavior. In fact, I think they rationalize it to the point where nothing is "evil" anymore. It's just the right thing to do to protect themselves or protect their family, their money, their property, their ideals (if you can call them that).

It's a fascinating subject and I think there are more ruthless villains in the world than we suspect. Yes, most of them have a background that made them that way. But there are other people who have had the same or similar backgrounds who became the exact opposite of these people: they were determined to do good, not evil. How can you explain that except for something in the each person's character that made them react differently.; 1:40 PM
DFender said...: So how do you like your fiction?
Well written.

Totally removed from conventional reality?
Occasionally.

Totally connected to conventional reality?
Sometimes.

In between?
Now and then.

And how do you like your villains—through and through evil, evil with odd splashes of good, or so mixed it’s hard to tell what’s evil and what’s good?
All of the above.

As I've mentioned in a couple of the other Quill blogs...

If the story moves along at a nice pace, engages me, attracts me to the good guys/gals, gets me to love to hate the baddies and has me wishing the story could go on and on... and eventually end with happiness...
HEAVEN! YaY!

If all of those ingredients are available then I'm in reader heaven. It's much more difficult than most people seem to think to find authors that can throw all those ingredients together for the perfect recipe. The Quills are marvelous. All of 'em. That's why I'm here :)

Deb

inwyqtoc: In writing, you Quills totally obliterate competition!; 3:44 PM
Karibear said...: I'm certainly not going into particulars, but I was referring more to the seriously abused - and yes, I know plenty of abused children have overcome their histories. Nor was I referring to the true sociopaths and psychotics. They follow their own rules, if any, and not those of society. As for Lucas, I think some of the abuse he suffered resulted in brain injuries, which puts him in another class. JMO.

What I tend to think of as 'bad guys' are more along the line of vets - particularly of the Vietnam fiasco - who were taught amazing and numerous ways to kill, then brought home and turned loose on society. Some were lucky, some were not. And it's very difficult to live with someone - or even deal with someone - who has flashbacks, and doesn't know who or where he is.

Sort of reminds me of Pearl Cove, where Our Hero got out of what he'd been doing before it destroyed him - and he knew it would, if he didn't leave.; 9:22 PM
Anonymous said...: EL,
Who is that in the photo?; 10:10 PM
elizabeth said...: Anon. Haven't the faintest. It's from a clip-art file.; 10:47 PM
Ranurgis said...: I'm not sure of the particular deeds done by Vietnam vets. But many I'd put in the PTSD category, the same as vets of any kind. I know from what my mother told me that my father was quite changed after he first got back from WWII, and she was ready to divorce him. However, they got together with the minister who married them and though I have no clue to the details of these sessions, I can imagine that a lot of prayer went into them. My mother always insisted that he was a better husband than a father though he wasn't an abusive father or anything like that either. He was just closed up inside and didn't know how to relate to children. Babies were fine but anyone between the ages of 3 to 18 or so was beyond his range of handling. I'm not sure if that goes back to the war because I've more or less inherited that characteristic. I just lean the other way so that I'm a very bad disciplinarian for that age. I try to do it with reason and end up just getting upset myself while he would try to do it by silencing us and not letting us work things out with him--probably because he just didn't know how to.; 8:23 PM
Anonymous said...: Without the vets, we wouldn't have any freedom. Today, they get counseling. But vets are not the only ones who suffer from this. Police come to mind. What about the officer who can't handle it after having to shoot/kill a teenager high on drugs in order to protect innocent people. What about firemen who know there's still someone in a burning building, but they can't get to them. Or a doctor that can't save a patient. The list goes on. Half the people in my family are vets. Including me. I know first hand about the flashbacks. My Dad had one every time he watched a WWII movie. My oldest brother was in Vietnam. I hate to think of where this country would be without the vets willing to put their life on the line to keep this country free.; 11:06 AM
SuePicky said...: Ms. Ann, I've always become enthralled by anything you've written because I know how much you've researched and that there is truth behind the fiction. I not only enjoy reading your work for pleasure but also because I never fail to learn something. I like the villains evil, and I like how you're hero's are alpha good bad boys.; 3:04 PM
Anonymous said...: I think that the degree of evil a person displays equals the degree of disconnection the person has from his or her soul. I guess I am creating a duality here with the soul being good and the other self, the conscious self, being only as good as her proximity to her soul.

I mean, there is this place deep within us that is safe and good and knowing and harmonious. I think this place is the refuge we all yearn for in life even if we dont know it. Some things bring us closer to it and some things separate us from it. Trauma, drugs, and disease can all separate a person from that place or bring the person closer to it. So can love, success, and prosperity.

That is why I believe that anyone has the capacity for great good or great evil. Which adds up to a scary prospect and a wonderful opportunity. And that is why an art form (among other things) can be soooo meaningful; because no matter what, whether it is a book, a movie, a smile, a happy dog, or even an uncomfortable truth, if it brings a person closer to her soul, it has spread great good in the world.

As for villains, the ultimate archvillain is, in my opinion, "Honest Iago." I really think that Milton's Satan and Iago have more than a little in common and I often wonder if Milton was influenced. In any case, the mixed villain is the best kind but not necessarily the most enjoyable. I love the ones who are turned around by love and compassion. Unfortunately, I have only seen the latter in fiction.

--Ophelia; 8:27 PM

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Monday, August 07, 2006

ELIZABETH PONDERS EVIL

24 Comments: