Conversation with Helena Puumala, author
of the Kati of Terra and Witches’ Stones Series
October
1, 2015 Garneau Pub, Edmonton, Alberta
Part
Twenty-One – How Evil Should Your Villain Be?
Question
– Today, we are going to discuss that great necessity in fiction,
the antagonist, or source of conflict, and how that relates to story.
First off, let me just say that I am going to use terms like
“villain” instead of “antagonist”, and “evil” instead of
“antagonist’s motivation”. I know that’s not the jargon
taught in English classes, but for much genre writing, especially
Science Fiction and Fantasy it is generally appropriate and usually
very descriptive.
Answer
– I am comfortable with that language, preferring to write genre
fiction over literary fiction, anyway.
Question
- Ok. So, talking to one of your beta readers this week, I noted
that she thought that your villains, especially in the Kati of Terra
series, were scary and evil, and ultimately got what was coming to
them. I was a bit surprised, because sometimes I thought that your
villains could stand to be a little more flat-out evil. What do you
make of that?
Answer
– Well, I guess it shows how differently readers interpret story
and character. A writer has to write character as truthfully as she
can, and accept that the reader will always have the final say.
Question
- That seems right - the reader is the co-creator of any story, as
he or she experiences it. What are your main considerations, when
you come up with your villains?
Answer
– One thing that I try to do, is to keep my villains “human-sized”.
I don’t usually care for psychotic super-beings that have the
irrational desire to destroy the universe, or things of that nature,
though that can make for a pretty engaging Doctor Who episode. I
think that keeping my villains within the realm of human
understanding makes my villains more frightening. When I was
creating my villains, I wanted to bring something to life that was
possible, though perhaps pushed to some logical extreme.
Question
- Well, that’s interesting. Some might say that keeping your
villains in the realm of the possible, makes them less frightening.
Answer
– True. People respond to “scale of evil” differently. For
some, the really heavy evil that destroys universes can seem almost
comical, because they can’t take the notion seriously. Others
measure evil by the scale of the damage it can do, so the greatest
evil is the one that creates the greatest damage.
Question
- In history that would seem true. I think that most people would
agree that Hitler was a bigger villain than Jack the Ripper.
Answer
– True, but I think fiction plays by a different set of rules than
reality. It’s a more private realm. A villain, whether human or
alien, that is motivated by greed or lust, or similar understandable
motivations, is a being that we can relate to, since we meet people
like that in real life. Indeed, there are times we share those
feelings of the villain, if only for fleeting moments. Fortunately
most people don’t have much capacity to act on their bad urges,
though.
Question
- Lucky for us. That seems to
raise another central point about the villain. The very “humanity”
of a villain like Gorsh (a sometimes hen-pecked husband, who is also
a greedy and violent slaver) or Krush (a frightened old man, who is
also a life-sucker) can make them oddly sympathetic. At the same
time, though, it makes us recoil from them. The very fact that we
can understand some aspects of their character, magnifies their evil
it in our eyes.
Answer
– I should note that I didn’t set out to emphasize some kind of
moral paradox, when I created my villains. I just wanted to ensure
that Kati and Mikal had worthy adversaries. They are foils, if you
like, because all good adventurers need an evil opponent that can
really test them.
Question
- Ah, so we did drag in some English lit jargon,
Answer
– You can’t always help yourself.
Question
- The other thing about villains, is that in the vast majority of
stories, at least of the genre variety, the villain kicks off the
action. The decent hero would just go about his or her normal life,
if it wasn’t for the villain doing something villainous.
Answer
– In the Kati books, everything begins with Gorsh’s abduction of
Kati, in his quest to exploit human beings for the furtherance of his
private gain. It is the sin of greed that is the initiating force,
and in a sense the driving force, behind the narrative. Similarly,
in the Witches’ Stones books, it is the lust for galactic political
power on the part of The Organization that threatens Sarah, and her
society in general.
Question
- Do you think that the initiating event, the evil that kicks things
off, defines the level of evil that the story will include overall?
Or can little evils lead to great evils?
Answer
– I think that the early choices, especially the unconscious early
choices, do set the tone of a story. But, it’s not that simple or
linear; when I started Kati 1 with the evil men do for greed, I
didn’t know that it would culminate with Krush, with the evil that
men can do in their desire to extend their life indefinitely, to
cheat death.
Question
- Which allows me to segue into the notion of natural evil versus
supernatural evil, although you may want to phrase it differently.
Answer
– I might use the term “non-natural” rather than supernatural.
Question
- It’s a less loaded term. In any case, Gorsh simply desires
money and power, which you might say is the essence of natural evil.
Answer
– It’s also the essence of our economic system, which is
interesting to think about.
Question
- Yes, Gorsh is capitalism writ large and unconstrained, until he
meets up with Kati, Mikal and friends.
Answer
– And Star Federation justice.
Question
- Just so. But Krush represents something deeper and more
frightening. He wants the unattainable and the twisted: unending
physical life. He wants to cheat death. Any evil is excusable in
his eyes, as it is in the service of defying death, humanity’s
greatest evil.
Answer
– It is the very epitome of what can go wrong when you let the ends
justify the means.
Question
- And yet, deep down, we have a twinge of sympathy for both Gorsh
and Krush. We understand their motives, even as we recoil from their
actions.
Answer
– And that is probably what makes them so disturbing, even though I
didn’t consciously set out to explore some sort of moral lesson.
What was in my conscious mind, was simply to keep the evil on a human
scale, in the service of a good story.
Question
- And by humanizing evil, you make it more monstrous.
Answer
– As Pogo said, “we have met the enemy and he is us.”
====================================================================
In
Part 2, we will discuss the villain further, and the notion of evil
in Science Fiction and Fantasy. We will also compare and contrast
the SFF genre and the Gothic or horror genre, and talk about some
examples that crossover, between those genres, whether fully or
partially. With Halloween approaching, that seems fitting.
===================================================================
Here are links to some of Helena's books, with evil villains:
Kati of Terra, Book 1, Escape from the Drowned Planet (where we meet the evil slaver Gorsh and his associates):
Kati of Terra, Book 2, On Assignment to the Planet of the Exalted (wherein a whole planet's elite has become corrupt and evil, with the help of Gorsh):
Kati of Terra, Book 3, Showdown on the Planet of the Slavers (Gorsh, and his yet more evil ally Chrush):
U.S. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00KHBN8FGU.K. http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00KHBN8FG
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