concertigrossi (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
concertigrossi) wrote2012-02-01 08:15 pm
concertigrossi) wrote2012-02-01 08:15 pm
Question...
I could bore you with the details of my trials and travails of the last three months, but I can't stomach the rehash. I can't even make the oft-broken promise that I'll post more often. Let's just say it's been a growth opportunity and leave it at that.
But I've got a question:
What are some good literary examples of a three-dimensional racist/sexist/homophobic/anti-semitic character?
Because that's quite a trick, these days, right? I just read "The Help," and the main antagonist is an almost cartoonish caricature. All she lacks is a Snidely Whiplash mustache. But, while there certainly are Snidely Whiplashes in the world, they couldn't have driven the Holocaust or the Jim Crow laws without the support of the majority of ordinary people.
How do you accurately portray the banality of evil?
But I've got a question:
What are some good literary examples of a three-dimensional racist/sexist/homophobic/anti-semitic character?
Because that's quite a trick, these days, right? I just read "The Help," and the main antagonist is an almost cartoonish caricature. All she lacks is a Snidely Whiplash mustache. But, while there certainly are Snidely Whiplashes in the world, they couldn't have driven the Holocaust or the Jim Crow laws without the support of the majority of ordinary people.
How do you accurately portray the banality of evil?
no subject
Faulkner is full of horrible people. But his books seem to actively resist sympathy in all of its forms. I think you can only write horrible characters well if you're not invested in the kind of reading experience that involves sympathizing and identifying. Or...I dunno. Maybe that's wrong. The guy in _L'Etranger_ is a pretty big jerk and people still seem to identify with him, even if I can't.
no subject
Good point. No, I think you're right - and I definitely read to sympathize and identify. One thing that Faulkner, _Lolita_ and most of Camus have in common is that I can't stand any of them.
And you do get misaimed fandoms everywhere. Lolita, for example, or those guys who thank Roger Waters for telling the truth about women in "The Wall."