Juho Pohjalainen's Blog: Pankarp - Posts Tagged "good-and-evil"
Evil
Virtually every human since the dawn of time has had their own definition for "Evil". Personally I like to pull the scope back a little - focus on the entire forest rather than individual trees, onto the label itself and those that would throw the word around.
The way I define "Evil" is a splash of vomit on your carpet.
You can argue about what exactly it smells like, and just what all those chunks in it are made out of. You can debate over the best way to scrub the carpet clean, and whether the carpet itself can be salvaged afterwards. You'll be reminded of the times before someone threw up, and you won't take those times for granted again if or when they come back. You might raise the question of who threw up to begin with, and whether they're seriously ill or just hungover. Indeed, some of the wiser of us may point out that each of us might barf out like this, under the right circumstances: none of us is free of stink.
All these things are what people like to talk about, but the more pertinent truth remains: it has to go. It has no value whatsoever, no redeeming qualities, no reason anyone should endure its presence. It stinks up the entire house. Somebody throws up, the whole house will go to emergency mode to clean it up and to make sure no more comes out.
So by labeling something as "evil" you make an objective, inarguable, unambiguous statement that they're the absolute scum of the earth with zero redeeming qualities, and have to be disposed of immediately. There can be no "balance between good and evil": any evil at all is too much. There can be no redemption or salvation: all you can do is wipe it away. This is very strong language and, needless to say, not to be used lightly.
One thing I'm glad of with modern fantasy literature is that it indeed uses this sort of terminology much less casually than it used to. I myself prefer the much more morally-grey Order and Chaos. But there are still places where the word can be worth throwing around. Sometimes you really just need to get rid of something.
Sometimes you really are just fighting a great big pile of puke.
The way I define "Evil" is a splash of vomit on your carpet.
You can argue about what exactly it smells like, and just what all those chunks in it are made out of. You can debate over the best way to scrub the carpet clean, and whether the carpet itself can be salvaged afterwards. You'll be reminded of the times before someone threw up, and you won't take those times for granted again if or when they come back. You might raise the question of who threw up to begin with, and whether they're seriously ill or just hungover. Indeed, some of the wiser of us may point out that each of us might barf out like this, under the right circumstances: none of us is free of stink.
All these things are what people like to talk about, but the more pertinent truth remains: it has to go. It has no value whatsoever, no redeeming qualities, no reason anyone should endure its presence. It stinks up the entire house. Somebody throws up, the whole house will go to emergency mode to clean it up and to make sure no more comes out.
So by labeling something as "evil" you make an objective, inarguable, unambiguous statement that they're the absolute scum of the earth with zero redeeming qualities, and have to be disposed of immediately. There can be no "balance between good and evil": any evil at all is too much. There can be no redemption or salvation: all you can do is wipe it away. This is very strong language and, needless to say, not to be used lightly.
One thing I'm glad of with modern fantasy literature is that it indeed uses this sort of terminology much less casually than it used to. I myself prefer the much more morally-grey Order and Chaos. But there are still places where the word can be worth throwing around. Sometimes you really just need to get rid of something.
Sometimes you really are just fighting a great big pile of puke.
Pankarp
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