"He Loved Big Brother"

[poliphilo]

In Peter Mullan's terrific movie about institutionalised abuse, The Magdalene Sisters, an archbishop treats the imprisoned girls to a Christmas showing of The Bells of St Mary's and the sadistic, power-mad sister in charge stands up and gives a cooing and ingratiating little speech about how she used to go to the movies with her father and how she liked the westerns best.

And the realisation dawns that not only does this terrible woman believe that God is on her side, she also, God help us, believes that she's cute.

Monsters never think of themselves as monstrous. Stalin loved drinking games. Hitler was fond of children and dogs. Mao went among his people with a great big silly grin on his face.

I won't (because I'm a bit of a fraidy cat) mention the names of any grinners, smirkers and jokers who are still alive and in power.

Sister makes her twee little jokes and the girls laugh at them.

The self-delusion of the ruler is perfectly matched to the self-abasement of the ruled.

Comments

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

I think this is also something to remember when doing anything creative that involves the portrayal of "villains"; (and yes, I actually checked last year and the semi-colon really does belong outside the quotation marks, unlick the comma and the period. Too bizarre) the more "real" the villain in a book or movie, the scarier they are. Real villains don't know that they are bad/evil/villainous; to them, everything they do makes perfect sense and is logical and good. That is what makes them so scary...that their minds can be so twisted that they see their actions as good.

I'm going to strive for this in my work, but I'm not sure I'm going to succeed.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

One of the greatest of all fictional villains is Long John Silver. He's so glamorous and attractive and entertaining that he practically becomes the hero of the book.

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

He's a villain?!?! Just kidding, of course. He certainly does dominate any scene he is in, without a doubt.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Stevenson was very good at moral ambiguity. In Kidnapped you've got Alan Breck Stuart- who's a hero that's only a whisker away from being a villain.