Hello, Everyone!
Springtime is great for ridding ourselves of winter doldrums and letting in the sunshine. With nice weather, I’m throwing open the windows, airing out the house and sorting through closets. My house is small and when I start collecting too many things I feel claustrophobic and fill boxes for the rummage and the dump.
Recently, I was a guest on a blog that wanted to know about my villains. Of course, my favorite villains are the least suspected. We’ve seen so many hunched men wearing capes and twirling a mustache that we’re conditioned to know that no matter how pure, this man is the villain. Writers have tried to be more creative by making the least suspicious character the villain, but I believe audiences are becoming conditioned and aren’t surprised when the police officer or the minister is the villain.
One of my favorite villains is the character that always gets away with a crime. The headlines are filled with well-known people who have skated through life and because of wealth or notoriety, they manage to escape conviction. But their not guilty verdict, never an innocent verdict, doesn’t seem to surprise us. They have the money and/or the prestige to pay the high price for their freedom. Too often we’ve seen these perpetrators commit another crime, commit another heinous act against another innocent victim. When their past catches up with them, how satisfying is it to know that there is justice in this world! Maybe not in the legal system, but even if someone can skirt our legal system, they won’t go unpunished. Maybe not in the timeframe we’ve set for justice, but at some point justice will prevail.
As someone once said, what is legal isn’t always fair.
That’s why fiction is so satisfying. We can give a promise to the reader or the viewer that some sort of justice will prevail. I haven’t read the book The Lovely Bones, but I saw the movie and that had a satisfying ending for the viewer, though I was sad that the characters were never aware of the verdict. I don’t know if the movie followed the book. As long as I know the villain received his just reward, I can live with that.
Now to a topic that’s much more joyful—springtime! Hope yours is starting out lovely and that you’re enjoying fresh air and blossoming trees. Have a fabuous week!
Love,
Laura
