You are kidding me.

BTW, is the reference to the pseudo-split personality another term for compartmentalizing?

I love the story of the frog and the scorpion. When I’ve had to deal with evil people, sometimes I have had others try to tell me that perhaps the person who did The Bad was really just in pain or misguided. That may very well be true.

Or they might be a scorpion.

I could choose to sit around and ponder whether or not someone is just displaying scorpion-like traits, or I could get the heck out of stinging range.

Life is short, and scorpions make it shorter.

I’ve always believed that a lack of introspection and self-awareness is the beginning point for evil, but then you have a new breed of characters such as Dexter, Jack Bauer (24) and Sayeed (Lost) who we love but who also perpetuate acts of torture and brutality on others (sometimes the “goodies” and sometimes the “baddies” in the old-fashion lexicon) in order to reach their objectives and to save the world or at the very least their city. These characters are struggling with their conscience, their darkness, their training, their obsessions and their essential nature. The writers/producers are not letting the characters get away with these acts either – they’re exploring the darkness from all angles which is interesting. It brings to mind the story of the frog and the scorpion crossing the river.

Colleen I agree with you. Not everyone has had a dysfunctional upbringing – some people just commit evil acts because they’re a bundle of nastiness and are driven by narcissism, ambition, revenge and so on. When Jozef and I were blocking out the story for the first Elf~Fin book we spent a long time discussing the villains. We decided to do two takes on villainy – that which can be partly explained and that which is inherently bad and has no explanation.

Laurie, that is an interesting piece of comics history. Thank you.

Your statement brought me to mind of a turning point in mainstream superhero comics when Michael Golden instigated the use of “black blood” to get around the Code prohibition of showing blood. He didn’t do it intentionally. It was his genuine artistic style. He just didn’t leave a whole lot of open white for the colorist. He was able to depict sprays and globules of gooey, viscous liquid. I was working at the Code at the time, and I asked the Director if this was a violation. His classic words, which I remember to this day: “I don’t understand black blood.” And he passed it for approval. After that, everyone used “black blood”!

I blame myself for this dark turn… (!)

I’m glad you noted that.

Some people commit evil acts that came from nowhere but their own bad character. Bad character doesn’t always originate somewhere else.

The worst boogeyman is the one we create from ourselves.

I think a lot of writers balk at writing darkness and evil because they don’t like the possibilities of saying “it came from me” about that sort of thing. “Is this really inside me?” they wonder. And indeed, I wrestled with this a bit when I wanted to write a poem about the damnation of Don Juan (based on Mozart’s *Don Giovanni* opera). I wanted to write him as completely amoral and unromantic. “Would people think that *I* was this way?” I wondered.

But something from *The Lord of the Rings* (the book!) stuck with me. Elron in talking about their plans makes an observation that good can understand evil, but that evil cannot understand good. And I realized that understanding evil, even realizing that I might be *capable* of doing evil, does not mean that I will CHOOSE to be evil or commit evil deeds. And once I realized that I felt free to move ahead.

I think we have to be honest about our characters, even the evil ones. Especially the ones who choose their acts deliberately. Not all who do so have been abused or otherwise damaged. Soft-pedalling that does not improve the story.

That said, I’m not one comfortable with gore for the sake of gore. And I do wonder a bit at those who lavish it into their stories beyond the point of initial shock (a purpose I do consider legitimate).

Anyway… lots of great things to think about in the essay!