Rationalizing Evil

Over at Critique Circle, I've come to realize through my critiques that I have a great interest in why good, or even mediocre, people do bad things. It's so easy to shrug and go, "They allow / do this because they're sadistic / sociopathic. They know precisely what they're doing and what the consequences are for other people. They're just insert-vice-here." I think that does a great mis-service to those crimes, the victims, and even the victimizers. We won't learn anything by tarring our villains with black paint. We won't be able to teach ourselves and our future generations to avoid pitfalls of thinking that led to such horrible events as the Holocaust, human slavery, and the small-scale acts of horror like rape and murder.

After all, if we say that villains do what they do because they're cold-hearted and evil, or raving sadists, then all we need to do to check our own morality and beliefs is to go 'Does my conscience hurt me at times?' If I tick yes, then I can't be a sociopath or a sadist. I have a conscience, after all. The problem comes because a conscience isn't enough.

One psychological experiment (Milgram's experiment) had an actor convince an unwary volunteer (we'll call her Amy) that they were going to be involved in a memory test. The scientist would ask another 'volunteer' (who was actually an actor, let's call him Stuart) to submit to being strapped in a chair and electrodes were placed on him. Amy was then told to apply the punishment, an electric shock, when commanded. The scientist then asked Stuart questions and every time he got it wrong, Amy was told to shock him. Not only that, Amy was told to increase the voltage. After awhile, Stuart began to beg for freedom, scream in pain and, finally, he stopped responding at all and feigned unconsciousness.

So, in this scenario, would a right-minded person with a conscience stop?

The majority of volunteers brought into this experiment generally didn't.

It wasn't that they didn't care. Sometimes they would plead with the scientist to stop the experiment or even cry as they turned up the dial. They showed distress or reported it later. Yet many of them continued to follow orders. They weren't being paid to do it. The scientist didn't have a gun to their head. They could have left at any time.

There are many reasons why many of the participants continued with the shocks. Here are some interpretations:

Few people ever realize when they are acting according to their own beliefs and when they are meekly submitting to authority. They thus justify their actions.

People who lack either ability or expertise to make decisions often leave decision making to the group and its heirarchy, especially in a crisis.

Once a person views himself as simply an instrument for carrying out another person's wishes, they can dissolve responsibility for their actions, and this helps enforce their obedience.

Perhaps it is due to cumulative experiences where people learn that when an expert says something is right, it probably is, even if it doesn't feel right. i.e. medicine that tastes like poison but helps you.

Then there's learned helplessness. They might feel powerless to control the outcome and thus abdicate their responsibility.

And these are just possibilities for the obedient 'bad guys'.

Of course, not all justifications have to be good excuses for our ears and some might even be subconscious.

A rapist could justify his actions by legitimately thinking women aren't human, women don't have souls, women have an unlimited amount of 'sex' and thus it can't be stolen (Robin Hobb has a villain who thinks that), it's no worse than getting in a fight, it's not worse than scraping your knee, it doesn't hurt anyone, a man can't control his urges (abdicating responsibility), she provoked me out of cruelty so I showed her she can't just do that to me, I deserve to have sex with her, she owes me for all that she's done, or even, she desired it but she just couldn't admit it to herself.

Slavery might be justified by thinking the race will die out anyway now its met a superior race, the race can't take care of itself and we're just providing structure, the race isn't human, it's God's will that some people should take care of other people, the race would do the same to us if the situation was reversed, everyone else is doing it so we'll go bankrupt if we don't join in, or they prefer to be slaves, really.

People might do something without realizing the consequences (i.e. sending a boy up a chimney to sweep it) and then continue doing it. Once those consequences reveal themselves (i.e. sickness, boy dies in your chimney), a person might seek to avoid responsibility and therefore guilt by refusing to acknowledge they did anything wrong. After all, to stop doing something for moral reasons, you have to realize that your prior actions are immoral. That would require facing up to a lot of guilt! And what if your parents used to do it? If you acknowledge that it's a terrible thing, then you have to acknowledge that your parents have done terrible things. Then you have to feel ashamed of both yourself and your family! That's a whole lot of negative feeling and for what 'reward'?

I think the easiest way to take a look at how the bad guys might rationalize something is to take a look at how you or your friends rationalize things. Think of the times you've shop lifted, cheated on someone, hurt someone's feelings for no reason, were negligent, thoughtless, allowed a loved one to struggle rather than help out (even if just with the chores while they were sick) or were hypocritical. Double points if you pick a recent act.

How do you justify that? Is it justified? If it's not, how painful is it to acknowledge that fact?

So my pledge to you, as a writer, is this. I will not shy away from the bad people and diminish the cruelty in this world by presuming that only evil people do evil things. I will be brave enough to think 'but for the grace of God, there goes I' and imagine how I (or someone else) might come to be in their shoes.

Who will pledge with me?

P.S. Robin Hobb is really, really good at giving no-barred accounts of how mean people might actually see the world. It's painful...

When blogs help characters 'click'

There I am, absent-mindedly scrolling through the archives of The Character Therapist when I found an article on Balanced Parenting. I'm reading along and thinking about some of the other books and topics on the subject that I've read during my psychology degree, as I often do while reading her blog, when I suddenly have a minor epiphany.

The main character in one of my novels has two fathers. One is stern and distant; the other is moody and irritable. Neither of them are good fathers ... in fact, they've only been trying to be fathers for the past few months. For years they had both ignored the opportunity for one reason or another. So I got to thinking, why not give them distinctive parenting styles? One can be an authoritarian task-master while the other is the permissive diplomat. Badda bing! Genuine conflict.

Of course, originally I thought my stern accountant would be the authoritarian one. He fits the profile. He's very self-restrained and finds it difficult to express himself. Naturally he'd be over-controlling as he overly controls himself. The moody and irritable artist is used to a chaotic existence so he'd be permissive. I mean, he already lets the boy talk about whatever it is he wants to talk about.

But then I thought: why not go against the obvious? And the moment I did that, the idea made more sense. Why would a moody artist who's used to getting his own way, who's never had anyone to watch over him, and who manages to form some meaning out of his day-to-day life by clinging to certain structures around him, be permissive? Why would someone like that trust that an individual can grow into a wonderful young man just by being allowed to thrive in a safe environment? He's seen the debauchery and the excesses. He's also seen how much the lad is like him. Why wouldn't he over-controlling?

On the other hand, the self-restrained account knows that a person can find the strength they need within themselves to do what needs to be done. He also knows that he finds it difficult to be emotionally available and is wracked by guilt for it. Surely he should want to do anything he can to help the boy bloom without crippling the child with his own issues?

So there you have it. Sometimes turning norms and expectations on their head actually makes more sense. Perhaps the reason why so many stereotypes seem shallow in novels is that the author forces certain expectations onto characters in ways that just don't many any sense.

Voyeuristic Explorers Unite!

Reading this article on QueryTracker about branding, I've started thinking about who I write for. Namely, myself, and people like me. In other words, Reader Me. But who is Reader Me? Being bored, ill, and trying to find justifications to get out of packing up in time for our big move, I decided to take a look at the various Media Mes that are out there.

First up is Videogame Me. The Bartle Test would label me an Explorer! Survival horrors are my favorite due to their surreal use of horror affecting their landscapes but I'm also partial to an RPG or a Shooter in a nice locale as I just love to take a look around. When gaming, I'm cautiously creeping forward, sniping, avoiding, or ambushing enemies where possible, and saving often, just so I can see the next bit. I often explore just about every part of the map just to see if there's anything interesting in that dead end. I like a strong sense of place - a sense of being someplace real (even a virtual version) because I'd never be allowed to go there in person. I think another part of Videogame Me is the voyeur. Its why I'll never interrupt an NPC conversation if I can eavesdrop.

I'd like to say that the other Reader Me and Movie Me are more mature than Videogame Me. That's not true, though. They're just more voyeuristic. Movie Me, at least, can be distracted by glitz 'n graphics, with cutting edge explosions and fast movement to distract me. Still, Movie Me likes to get a look inside places I'd never see just to see what they'd look like - whether out in space or even in the past. Same can be said for TV Me, though TV Me is quite weak and underfed, since there's only a rare few television series that can hold my attention (Robin Hood, Supernaturals, Heroes, Green Wings, Scrubs).

Reader Me is the most voyeuristic of all. Reader Me isn't just happy with seeing places I shouldn't see or pretending to do things I shouldn't be doing. No, Reader Me also wants to get inside people's heads and hear their thoughts and know their back stories. Reader Me likes to watch people's internal struggles up close and personal. I also like to know multiple perspectives at times so that I can know precisely what triggered that misunderstanding. What makes it even better is that I can couple voyeurism into people's minds with exploring other places - so I can even see how certain places react to people and vice versa!

Now you tell me that isn't awesome!

So ... I guess that means my personal brand is to attract voyeurs and explorers. People who have always wanted to see what's over that hill, who are attracted to the graffitti-strewn rubble of a partially wrecked building, and who have always wanted to back pack around the country because you never quite notice enough when its blurring by you in a car. People who want to know what makes people tick, who've always wondered WHY a person would do that, or HOW they could justify their actions. Throw in a sense of the tragic and a morbid fascination with BAD things like wars and plagues and human cruelty, and you have my Media Me and thus my brand of fantasy writing.

Now all I need is a logo...

The Character Therapist Blog

Now this is a very interesting idea. A blog based around psychological theory. The blogger is Jeannie Campbell and she talks about character psychology, the impact of disorders, traumas, and many a wonderful thing. As a psychology honours graduate, this site interests me a great deal, and I fully expect to spend many hours procrastinating, err ... learning from this blog.

So if you're curious as to how alcoholism or abuse might affect your character, what treatment plans might be used, and various other assorted gems, go to The Character's Therapist. If you ask real nicely, Jeannie Campbell might even take a look at your particular character. I sure will be there!

A Sense of Place

I think one of the most interesting parts of fantasy is to really get a sense of being somewhere else. It all boils down to evoking a sense of place and that made me consider doing something that I haven't done since my Communications course at university: participant observation. What is it, you ask? Well, it's great that you asked (you being my one silent lurker, *sigh*). Wikipedia describes ethnographies as a tool used for gathering empirical data on human societies/cultures. Sound exciting? It sure is!

Now, for authors of contemporary fiction to do a participation observation, all you've got to do is get permission to visit a location of interest and then quietly sit and observe the place/people as they go about their daily life. A person might just take a seat in a bar, shopping center, or any other place, and just pay attention to how people interact around you. Then you go home and write what you observed in a way that evokes that sense of place while attempting to stick to what you literally observed rather than making inferences about what your observation meant.

As a fantasy author, participant observations are still useful because a greater understanding of group dynamics is always beneficial. Sure the context and specifics may change, but the behaviors found in the quiet misery of a doctor's office might also apply to members of a particularly miserable religious congregation.

The other option for fantasy writers is to do a participant observation in your mind. This is good for visual daydreamers. Just close your eyes, mentally take a seat, and simply watch the various people wander around. Pay attention to what you can see, smell, hear. Watch how they interact. Normally when we're writing we're so busy juggling a dozen different thoughts in our heads that we never get to simply immerse ourselves in the imagery. Here is an opportunity.

Ahem, so while this might be yet another example of me inventing peculiarly high-brow forms of procrastination instead of either doing my writing or editing, I still think that it would be helpful.

The Bookshelf Muse blog

Well, I'm a chatty monkey this week. I guess I can blame the influenza for that. My poor volunteers are going to have to co-ordinate themselves for now... Anywho, the purpose of this post is to draw your eye to a really nice blog's idea. Angela Ackerman, of The Bookshelf Muse, who has the really good idea of doing up a Setting Description Thesaurus. What she has done is taken a location, such as an Emergency Room, and listed a few dozen different descriptions that can fall into each one of the five sense categories, making it easier for folk to paint a picture - even if they've never been there!

I think it's a wonderful idea. In future, when I'm not so darn sick, I'll probably do a few myself to add to my bulging folder of Curse of the Rose world-building stuff. If it works for real life, why not fantasy as well?

She also has Emotion Thesaurus, Symbol Thesaurus, and other interesting stuff. So take a look.

Seeing is Believing: Describing the Character

People communicate in symbols. The words we use. The metaphors we refer toward. We portray images of ourselves using expectations and wear our hair and clothing according to certain standards that can reflect the kind of person we want to be seen as (which isn't necessarily the same as who we are). Yet when it comes to describing our characters, many of us consider this a simple and prosaic process of simply recording basic details. At best we do it from the perspective and biases of the protagonist. Very rarely do we give thought to how much we can explore about the character themselves in so few words.

Which'd be the difference between 'The tall, slender, blonde woman wore a red evening gown', 'The woman I wanted was the tall, slim blond in the red evening gown', and 'The dazzling red evening gown hugged the blonde woman's lovely curves in all the right places'.

Other than the fact that the third one is just better written (in my opinion), it also packs a lot more information within it. The first, bleh. Just the facts, ma'am. It's honestly neither here nor there. The second one is good enough. Tells us a lot about what's on the protagonist's mind and, depending on the context, a bit about his personality. Whether it's a professionally detached line from a business-like cop or a sleazy line from a bachelor on the prowl, it says something about him. Says little about her. In the last example, we know the evening gown is a dazzling red and is sculpted to her features just right suggests a woman who both wants to be noticed in a particular way and has the money to pay for a tailored dress. The image also invokes a woman with confidence and class - the assets are revealed by tight clothing but skin hugging clothing doesn't necessarily suggest a lot of bare skin.

On another note, every one of those lines would also fit in a hard-boiled private detective novel. The third one most of all. So I guess you can even put across genre in your character descriptions.

These are all good reasons to avoid super purple-prose in your character descriptions. At the very least, the reader will presume that the point of view character thinks like that, and how many people can empathize with someone who describes themselves as:

'Jacinta's azure eyes flashed like the sun off the ocean as she brushed several stands of hair as glossy black as a raven wing back from a porcelain cheek'.

It just comes off as hopelessly narcissistic!

So yes, in the design phase of your characters, think about why they look how they do. What are they trying to prove about themselves? What are they trying to hide? It isn't necessarily the style of the clothes that tell the most about them. Someone with ironed on creases suggests a very different personality to someone with grass stains on their knees or dirt on their back. In the editing phase, just try to make sure each one of the character descriptions are as evocative of as many things as they can be with as few words as possible.

There ... that isn't so hard, is it?

World Building Link

One of the best world building set of questions out there is on the Science Fiction / Fantasy Writer's Association web-site. It's pretty substantial, will take you awhile to get through, and there are doubtless questions that either don't need answering at this time, or are simply irrelevant to your tale, but its comprehensive take on world-building will still be helpful.

At some point soon, I promise, I'll put up some of my compendium of world building. That way you guys can have a laugh, I mean, take a look.

Limyaeels' Fantasy Rant Livejournal Link

A must-see set of rants against certain irritating aspects of fantasy novels. Limyael makes it not only entertaining but informative too as she gives the fantasy genre the dressing down it sometimes so justly deserves.

Click here to take a look.

I think what I like about Limyael the most is the frequent pleas for authors to shake things up a bit in the genre. The blogger doesn't just talk about what was done wrong but also mentions a dozen different directions that could be taken. Thus the livejournal is really good for authors who are looking for inspiration, plot seeds, or just a new perspective.

People Symbols

Much of how humans communicate with one another are with symbols. Words are symbols. Gestures are symbols. Body language is wrapped in symbols. Actions as well. Many of these symbols are encoded. Few of them are ever described to anyone else. The symbolic meanings behind such things are simply assumed to be shared by everyone. Unfortunately, they rarely are.

I might use neglecting-the-dishes or wearing-no-hat as coded behavior for disrespect. You might see it as too insignificant to symbolically represent anything. Or you might simply see that it means I'm a busy person. This is why so many misunderstandings happen so often. We use an encoded language of behavior, tone, and body language where everything is wrapped in meaning and where little checking is ever done to see if the message you've sent and the one I've received is one and the same.

One interesting cause for conflict is when these misunderstandings happen. Culture clashes, gendered expectations, and romantic misunderstandings are all the most obvious conflicts that can come from this. However, such conflicts can also be more subtle and long-lasting. Such as when two romantically interested individuals consistently misinterpret or ignore the other person's flirtations. Passive aggressive acts and things that are never actually said but assumed on the part of one or more people can also lend a heavier weight to your character interactions.