tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3501444543696395573.post7219516571440441011..comments2023-08-22T04:52:21.984-05:00Comments on An Arrow Through The Air: Still Thinking About Literary VillainsDavid A. Toddhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16825539283421597579noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3501444543696395573.post-18321537233442192752010-12-21T11:23:00.641-06:002010-12-21T11:23:00.641-06:00If what you say is true, Gary (and I'm not say...If what you say is true, Gary (and I'm not saying it's not), then the writing classes I've attended are feeding wannabe writers a lot of huey concerning the villain's role, or rather how to craft the villain's character. This is worth some discussion. I may post again.David A. Toddhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16825539283421597579noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3501444543696395573.post-34810826994913065512010-12-18T13:34:41.653-06:002010-12-18T13:34:41.653-06:00Yes, Dave; that summary of my comment is about rig...Yes, Dave; that summary of my comment is about right. My Kate, a beginning fiction writer herself, thinks that villains don't need (and probably shouldn't have) real virtues to gain audience sympathy. All they need are realistic bad characteristics that readers can identify with. The villain's traits are exaggerated, of course, but readers will recognize their own small-mindedness in odious bigotry, their covetiousness in monstrous jealousy, their nastiness in stark cruelty, and their pridefullness in megalomania. The trick is not in finding a virtue that humanizes the villain; it's in making the villain's bad characteristics merely congruent with our own real faults. Thus we see the villain as more than a flat plot device and maybe even deserving of sympathy.Garynoreply@blogger.com