by origami_itto on Fri Sep 22, 2023 7:58 am
I have a basic humanities education, I get the antihero. As a culture we grew tired of morally perfect and invulnerable heroes and find it easier to identify with protagonists with feet of clay. We've even seen the huge success of stories that humanize traditional villains like Wicked and Maleficent (and the Grinch!) by exploring how society failed them to cultivate the antagonistic relationship.
Otis is endearing, but at the end of the day he's an absolute savage psychopath who struggles to relate to other human beings and again, doesn't have much in his toolbox to solve problems beyond violence.
So again, it gets to a place where we're sort of romanticizing this absolute moral code that enables this character to navigate this "grey area" with some stability and we are on their side when they commit these acts of savagery so long as they are acting within the bounds of that established ethic.
It's a trope as well-trodden as The Hooker With a Heart of Gold.
But in reality, that Hooker will smile in your face and steal your wallet if she thinks she can get away with it. The noble criminal with his absolute code about the use of violence will break your nose as quick as look at you if you look at them wrong in the right setting.
Let's not beat around the bush, though, right, all power is ultimately violence. What is power if there is no ability to enforce one's will. Robert Heinlein made that observation.
“When you vote, you are exercising political authority, you're using force. And force, my friends, is violence. The supreme authority from which all other authorities are derived.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, Starship Troopers
But I believe that as we progress as a civilization, hopefully to a more perfect state, that if we're enlightened enough to be capable of making the choice to abstain from violence where possible and avoid glorifying the use of violence at all costs, we can distance ourselves from violence as a means of enforcing our will on each other in the day to day trenches of society. Which then helps us to establish community where those other than the most capable of committing violence are steering the culture.
I mean, some people don't understand anything but a smack in the mouth, and we have that available for them, but, like feeding the family at Taco Bell, just because it works doesn't mean it isn't a failure.
I've been toying with the idea of a story, working title "Mom Wick", basic idea an older woman looses her son to some criminals and she takes out the whole organization primarily through subterfuge and sabotage with a minimum of direct violence. Guaranteeed hit which I'm going to get started on as soon as this damn strike is over.
Last edited by
origami_itto on Fri Sep 22, 2023 8:02 am, edited 1 time in total.