(urth) choices
Jeff Wilson
jwilson at clueland.com
Sat Aug 6 12:35:06 PDT 2011
On 8/5/2011 11:01 AM, Gerry Quinn wrote:
>
> From: "António Pedro Marques" <entonio at gmail.com>
>
>> It was written:
>>
>>> villains
>>
>> Time for another query. Who are your favourite arch-villains? I mean,
>> those who really rejoice in their villainy? Almost cartoonishly?
>> (cartoon villains don't count)
>
> Is rejoicing in one's villainy really a necessary characteristic of a
> good villain? It seems hard to avoid cartoonishness in such - the
> example that springs to mind is the Archimandrite in Iain M. Banks' _The
> Algebraist_.
>
> My favourite villian is Casmir in Jack Vance's _Lyonesse_, but he
> doesn't really rejoice in his villainy, and would probably find
> arguments to justify all his actions.
This.
Mohammed Vance in Daniel Keys Moran's THE LONG RUN and other Continuing
Time Books is in fact a mostly decent, honorable person who sincerely
believes in his democratically elected world government is the only hope
for long-term peace and the ultimate survival of humanity, and pursues
his job to put down the ungrateful rebellious Americans without mercy.
Babylon 5's Mr Bester, on the other hand, is a vicious brainwashing
weasel pack leader who is too damaged to really enjoy himself but he
does display a sort of consolation prize of amusement that he is so
often able to use crime, politics, and war as a pretext to further his
power to take away the freedoms and families of everyone who crosses
him, in repayment for the way their democratically elected world
government did to him, twice.
--
Jeff Wilson - jwilson at clueland.com
Computational Intelligence Laboratory - Texas A&M Texarkana
< http://www.tamut.edu/CIL >
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