Booking Through Thursday: Villains
Mood
Sad
Booking Through ThursdayToday is the 7th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. I know that not all of you who read are in the U.S., but still, it’s vital that none of us who are decent people forget the scope of disaster that a few, evil people can cause–anywhere in the world. It’s not about religion, it’s not about politics, it’s about the acknowledgment that humans should try to work together, not tear each other apart, even when they disagree.
So, feeling my way to a question here … Terrorists aren’t just movie villains any more. Do real-world catastrophes such as 9/11 (and the bombs in Madrid, and the ones in London, and the war in Darfur, and … really, all the human-driven, mass loss-of-life events) affect what you choose to read? Personally, I used to enjoy reading Tom Clancy, but haven’t been able to stomach his fight-terrorist kinds of books since.
And, does the reality of that kind of heartless, vicious attack–which happen on smaller scales ALL the time–change the way you feel about villains in the books you read? Are they scarier? Or more two-dimensional and cookie-cutter in the face of the things you see on the news?
At first I was a bit insulted to think that such a large thing as 9/11 and similar terrorist attacks could affect something so unrelated as reading habits. But, when I thought about it I realized it was true. As my mother pointed out, 9/11 changed everything. It was a whole new world afterwards and reading habits, yes, were changed as well. As were writing habits now that I think of it.
I would have to say that one of the things that I no longer find palatable are two dimensional bad guys. Villains that are just bad for the sake of being bad. If anything the terrorism of the times has taught me that there are more reasons behind evil deeds then just the desire to be evil and that it is important to know them, to understand them, and to use that knowledge to better defend against them.
So, I find any books that have people be evil just to be evil (my recent reading of Paris Trout comes to mind) just isn't enough anymore. There has to be reasons, there has to be logic, there has to be more. I guess I can't stomach mindless violence and thoughtless evil. I never really could, but I think it's become more so since 9/11.
As to villains being scarier, I have to say yes and no. It depends on how they are portrayed. Mindless terror is frightening, but terror with purpose and thought that cannot be stopped, that cannot be defended against due to the protagonists' unpreparedness or ineptitude resulting in inevitable death, that is even more frightening.
Posted by Bitsy at 11:57 AM Comments
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