07-28-2010, 12:11 PM
(07-28-2010, 11:43 AM)Charybdis Wrote: I prefer human evil. Totally clever, wicked evil.
Gothic is a lot about the interaction between persons, IMHO, so to give the evilness to something not human feels like cheating.
I agree with this, within the genre. I don't mind supernatural or fantastic elements in a novel so long as I begin with that in mind. I have to know what sort of story I'm getting into; it helps me adjust how far I must suspend belief.
But you're right -- in Gothic Romance, it seems there's an unspoken fair-play system that requires the villain to be of this earth and motivated by common human vices like greed, power-lust, revenge, cruelty . . .
This is also one of the few fiction genres in which it's acceptable for the main love interest to also be the villain, though this isn't always the case. But it makes for a complex, fascinating, psychologically intricate and fully-dimensioned antagonist if he also happens to be romantically involved with the heroine. (She may course-correct later in the story, and transfer her affections to a nicer man who turns out to be the real hero, but this too isn't always the case.)
