pure evil is not fun

In books, movies, or TV series, pure evil is a snoozefest.

I’ve been on an audiobook bender lately because I started listening while playing poker – if you haven’t played cash games, imagine a baseball game where only one out of ten hitters makes it to first base, that’s about the same level of excitement – and I noticed something that bothers me.

I don’t like villains that are pure evil and heroes that are perfect white knights. And when I say white knights, I include heroes with some trauma in their past that is supposed to make them more relatable.

Ask yourself:

• does anyone like Luke Skywalker more than Han Solo?
• who is truly the scariest: Darth Vader or Emperor Palpatine?

I think that’s why I like the Parker novels so much. They’re the literary equivalent of The Wire; a hopeless world with flawed heroes and complex villains.

Unfortunately it’s very hard to find this level of nuance. That’s probably why I re-read the Parker series and the Phillip Marlowe series every year.