karmadog
Now I'm a drink behind.
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2001
- Posts
- 1,198
My point was that pigeonholing a character is a poor choice and a difficult thing to do if you understand him.
A good author never writes a character who is all good or all bad. If he does, he's written a cliche and a fully realized character is no cliche.
I still maintain that all of those terms are irrelevant to a writer. The writer should think in terms of conflict and drama (mostly in an abstract way, if you take my meaning) while a reader is welcome to make his biased opinions.
In most cases, if the writer has contempt or disgust for one of his characters it shows, to the detriment of his story, the reader is free to hate a character should he choose.
To take a pop lit example that I really like.
Think of the novel 'Lonesome Dove'. Even Blue Duck is complex. If the author hated him, which I sincerely doubt, it would show and the novel would suffer because the reader would feel manipulated. Not to say that McMurtry is in favor of murder and rape, but he understood his character at a level deeper than can be symbolized by the word 'villain'.
To use an example earlier stated, if Satan in 'Paradise Lost' was as simplistic as the Church would have liked, Milton would have been forgotten. At least a portion of the brilliance of the story was that Milton understood his character and didn't simply make him 'Evil'.
The danger for the writer thinking in simplistic categories is that she will create something trite.
A good author never writes a character who is all good or all bad. If he does, he's written a cliche and a fully realized character is no cliche.
I still maintain that all of those terms are irrelevant to a writer. The writer should think in terms of conflict and drama (mostly in an abstract way, if you take my meaning) while a reader is welcome to make his biased opinions.
In most cases, if the writer has contempt or disgust for one of his characters it shows, to the detriment of his story, the reader is free to hate a character should he choose.
To take a pop lit example that I really like.
Think of the novel 'Lonesome Dove'. Even Blue Duck is complex. If the author hated him, which I sincerely doubt, it would show and the novel would suffer because the reader would feel manipulated. Not to say that McMurtry is in favor of murder and rape, but he understood his character at a level deeper than can be symbolized by the word 'villain'.
To use an example earlier stated, if Satan in 'Paradise Lost' was as simplistic as the Church would have liked, Milton would have been forgotten. At least a portion of the brilliance of the story was that Milton understood his character and didn't simply make him 'Evil'.
The danger for the writer thinking in simplistic categories is that she will create something trite.
