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I was looking through a stack of old comics and came across one called Evil Ernie. Mind you I have not read the whole series but what is the mindset behind this?
Do people really identify with "personally murdering everyone in Manhattan"? I like horror and some violent books and movies but in a good vs. evil struggle. Not the hero killing every living thing he just happens to come across.
So what drives someone to identify with monsters? demons? and murderers?
I have my own theories, but I would like to see how you guys think. And if you think that such things influence a character's actions?
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I suppose it's living vicariously through a character that is nothing like you, which drives us to read any story, really.
Most people would never ruthlessly kill everyone they meet, but maybe they've had a day or two (or several hundred in the course of 30+ years--it's possible) when they wanted to do just that. Reading these stories can be an outlet for that frustration, allowing them to take on the role of super bad guy, perhaps transposing the fictional characters with real life people they know.
And, of course, some people are just attracted to these things because they are a child of Satan. (kidding)
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Evil Ernie is tripe...it panders to the same crowd that gobbles up Insane Clown Posse and Johnny the Homicidal Maniac (another crappy comic book).
posted
I think that some people relate to innately evil characters because of that whole survival of the fittest animal instinct thing. Now, I'm not speaking of normal people. I mean the serial killers, serial snipers, Columbine shooters, bombers, disgruntled postmen, Hitler's, etc. of the world.
Line of thinking- It wouldn't matter if you killed every mosquito in the world if you thought that all mosquitos caused you pain, were stupid, ugly, annoying, and/or inferior.
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If you killed every mosquito in the world I would put a statue of you in my front yard. Who'd care about your motives?
Posts: 331 | Registered: Jan 2005
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posted
I think that it depends on the character's reasons, and on the character.
Still, it can be funny the things that bug you. I was just looking at something called...um, Marylith. The background splash has a girl firing an FN P-90. I've got no problem with that, P-90's are pretty cool, and just the right size for a girl. Now, you don't see a lot of them on the black market (and they use a specialized ammo), so the fact that this girl is supposed to be...you know, kinda damps the fun a bit.
But the picture clearly shows giant shell casings being ejected upwards and to the right of the weapon. I mean, those casings are at least .45's even if you allow for the maximum allowable cartoonish distortion.
Now, I didn't think much of the comic. How much of it was because of that, and how much because of the rest of the comic? I don't know. It's really hard to say. That was just the first thing. But it kinda set the tone.
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No one has ever convinced me that mosquitoes have any redeeming qualities. The story you refer to, Dakota, is obviously fiction.
Posts: 8826 | Registered: A Long Time Ago!
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But he probably didn't take them on the ark. Besides, mosquitoes breed best after a good rain. If they were on the ark, there were probably a lot more than just two! Posts: 1473 | Registered: Jul 2004
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I'm sure Noah did his best. Besides, if there had only been two mosquitos on the ark, and someone had killed them, it would have a violation of a divine ordanance.
Perhaps someone on Noah's Ark did kill the mosquitos but God stepped in and re-populated the species. Then, as a punishment for violating His directives, He made them into the scourge of campers and forest dwellers for all time.
posted
Getting back to the original thread of the topic, I don't know that I can say that I would "identify" with monsters or demons and "killing everyone in Manhattan" is such an extreme act that it is impossible to even imagine much less identify with. I hated the James Bond movie License to Kill because I felt it was a violation of the good vs. evil space-time continuum to have Bond - the good guy - killing people in the same thoughtlessly grotesque manner as the "bad guys."
That being said, I am also fascinated by a certain type of dark character that I find difficult to describe exactly. It is easier to give examples: Anne Rice's Lestat from the Vampire Chronicles C.S. Friedman's Gerald Tarrant from the Coldfire Trilogy Louise Cooper's Tarod from the Time Master Trilogy Janny Wurts' Arithon from the Mistwrait series
Of course, any of those characters could be justified as either "good" or "evil" since that is simply a matter of opinion but they are all undeniably "dark" characters of one type or another. All of which I am supremely fascinated by. Why.....I have no idea. I'd like to know myself.
Vampires are often considered monsters but they also capture my undivided attention in a mixture of infatuation and horror and extreme curiosity. Why is that? If I actually met one I'd faint dead away in fright yet when READING about one....I am enthralled.
So...I can't answer your question. Perhaps it is as HSO said that we like to vicariously experience feelings we would never permit ourselves in real life. Perhaps there are dark sides to our nature that are drawn to characters of like darkness.
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