Booking Through Thursday

(Link at left)

Who’s the worst fictional villain you can think of? As in, the one you hate the most, find the most evil, are happiest to see defeated? Not the cardboard, two-dimensional variety, but the most deliciously-written, most entertaining, best villain? Not necessarily the most "evil," so much as the best-conceived on the part of the author…

Well, there's Heathcliff (Wuthering Heights--but he's rather pathetic, in the older sense of that word). There's the whale (Moby Dick--but I never finished the book, so I'm not sure it counts). There's, Bill Sykes (Oliver Twist--oh-so-very creepy-evil...but a little over the top?). There's Scarlett O'Hara (Gone With the Wind--and yes I know she's actually the 'heroine,' but I loathe the bitch). There's Raskolnikov (Crime and Punishment--but he really was boring). There's Grendel (Beowulf--scary, veryvery scary, because not really described clearly so imagination comes into play...).

But I'm electing the devil/Satan (The Bible), because there are so many roles played by this character, because there is no greater fight that the ultimate one, and because I'm no longer convinced the devil exists as a single ... being. On the other hand, evil just keeps getting defeated and then standing up again for yet another round of battle. The only issue here is that I'm not sure about the whole "authorship" thing; I'd tentatively argue that the devil itself is its own author. So then...then it all gets very murky, metaphysical, and confusing. At 10:30 p.m. after a day like I had today, I'm not going to work it all out

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