If all things good...
I've just started BaneWreaker by Jacqueline Carey. It's interesting so far. The characters aren't developed as much as I'd prefer but I suspect that it would be overly dense with as much character development that I would want. On the back of the cover, it starts out asking the question:If all that is Good thinks you're Evil… Are you?
I thought about that a bit and had at least two feelings/thoughts about this.
If "All that is Good" is declaring that I'm Evil, then it bringing about some of that evil by defining me so. Names have power. The pygmalion effect is pretty well accepted. To say that I am evil will at the very least change your behaviours and interactions towards me. Whether my behaviours would change or not likely depends on too many factors to determine. My feelings about "All that is Good" are that if you are truly such that you would treat me as someone to help rather than condemn. To me, no one is beyond "redemption"1. It's just a question of being able to invest enough time and effort. Yes, I am the eternal optimist.
The second that this brought up was a question of definitions. "Good" from who's standpoint? "Evil" from who's standpoint. Does "All that is Good" really only have one opinion on the question of whether I am "Evil" or not?
Lastly, the first point brought up the question in my mind of whether Evil is necessary for Good to exist. The assertion is easy. I haven't been able to english what I want to say about refuting this hypothesis. I'll thik about it and forget to post it later.
I could also be lending this more weight than necessary because it's rather early and I didn't get overly much sleep...
1. Redemption is in quotes because you might not want any of my "redemption". You might consider that evil yourself. If there is some way to determine absolute good/evil, we have no way of perceiving it.
I thought about that a bit and had at least two feelings/thoughts about this.
If "All that is Good" is declaring that I'm Evil, then it bringing about some of that evil by defining me so. Names have power. The pygmalion effect is pretty well accepted. To say that I am evil will at the very least change your behaviours and interactions towards me. Whether my behaviours would change or not likely depends on too many factors to determine. My feelings about "All that is Good" are that if you are truly such that you would treat me as someone to help rather than condemn. To me, no one is beyond "redemption"1. It's just a question of being able to invest enough time and effort. Yes, I am the eternal optimist.
The second that this brought up was a question of definitions. "Good" from who's standpoint? "Evil" from who's standpoint. Does "All that is Good" really only have one opinion on the question of whether I am "Evil" or not?
Lastly, the first point brought up the question in my mind of whether Evil is necessary for Good to exist. The assertion is easy. I haven't been able to english what I want to say about refuting this hypothesis. I'll thik about it and forget to post it later.
I could also be lending this more weight than necessary because it's rather early and I didn't get overly much sleep...
1. Redemption is in quotes because you might not want any of my "redemption". You might consider that evil yourself. If there is some way to determine absolute good/evil, we have no way of perceiving it.