How Are Authors Supposed To Describe Evil?

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this came outta Dan's Books You Can't Finish thread. Dan quite reasonably could not finish Thomas Pynchon's V., because of the depiction of the torture/subjugation of black Africans by white South Africans, shown through the eyes of the latter.

So this objection to V. brought up interesting questions for me, and what the hell, why not post 'em? How can a writer describe the evil from an inside POV without being offensive? Or should a writer describe evil from an inside POV if it's likely to offend? Is a writer like Pynchon ultimately racist for describing something from a racist POV? What is the difference between, say, Pynchon and the guy who wrote The Turner Diaries (forget his name), who actually was a Nazi/racist guy? And what does it mean for a reader, say like me, who reads any of this stuff?

― hstencil, Wednesday, 14 May 2003 12:57 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm of the thinking that authors dictate their own moral responsibility. The line crossed all depends on what we, as readers, bring to a book, and the relationship that we subsequently form with it.

― Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 13:24 (twenty-two years ago)

Is there a bigger theme in lit?
What is Evil, and is it Absolute?
Who can speak to atrocities?
I mean, to a certain degree, you have to be able to step back and realize that this is fiction dammit. Sure it may be a telling of actual events placed within a fictional context, but these are essentially the workings of someone's imagination. I don't think that answers anything.
Is fictional father who rapes his preteen daughter more evil than a fictional slavetrader who abuses Africans in the bottom of a leaky boat? Isn't Evil (if we are to consider ourselves Good, or at the very least Not-Evil) necessarily offensive?
I don't have any answers, but I think this is a very important thing to discuss.

― Horace Mann (Horace Mann), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:09 (twenty-two years ago)

I haven't read it, but my mom has and quite liked it I think:

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/0880014083.01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg

― g--ff c-nn-n (gcannon), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:13 (twenty-two years ago)

The Swamp Thing "American Gothic" arc was a good effort to comment on evil.

― Alan (Alan), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:18 (twenty-two years ago)

William Faulkner to thread!

― Matt DC (Matt DC), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:27 (twenty-two years ago)

I don't think they should describe it so much as put you in the presence of evil itself. Cf. for instance:
http://pithuit.free.fr/FAITHFULL/IMAGES/collbus.jpg

― Prude (Prude), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:33 (twenty-two years ago)

can y'all elaborate more than just posting pictures? I don't know those books so I don't really know how they fit into the context of the questions...

― hstencil, Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:37 (twenty-two years ago)

The Collector's about a man who kidnaps a woman and keeps her locked in his basement. It's absolutely brutal, not the least because you hear the story from the perspective of the man and the woman, putting you through this agonizing, heartbreaking experience twice. In a sense, you the reader are rendered just as helpless and frustrated as the woman. Fowles doesn't just describe evil but performs it, puts you yourself through it.
It's an amazing book, but I don't think I'll be able to read it again.

― Prude (Prude), Wednesday, 14 May 2003 14:44 (twenty-two years ago)

twelve years pass...

Good question due further attn imo- unless the "death of the author" kerfuffle covered some element of it?

― MONKEY had been BUMMED by the GHOST of the late prancing paedophile (darraghmac), Saturday, 21 November 2015 00:17 (ten years ago)

from my forthcoming novel:

"This man was not good. He was a bad man. Very bad. Very bad indeed. A right bad bastard."

― Karl Rove Knausgård (jim in glasgow), Saturday, 21 November 2015 00:28 (ten years ago)

Getting near the core of it there at the end perhaps

― MONKEY had been BUMMED by the GHOST of the late prancing paedophile (darraghmac), Saturday, 21 November 2015 00:30 (ten years ago)

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