JKR on Evil

[Margaret Dean]

No: HPFGUIDX 34996

ssk7882 wrote:
> 
> Porphyria, in response to my "Where are the Weaklings and Patsies?"
> query, wrote:

> > Did JKR ever say something in an interview about trying to paint
> > some characters in shades of gray, or depict degress of evil, or
> > words to that effect?
> 
> Not that I recall.  There was an interview in which she responded to
> the suggestion that GoF might have been a tad too dark for her
> audience with the response that she saw no point in writing about
> Evil unless one were willing to portray it as truly *bad,* which is
> where that "JKR has said that she wants to show Evil as bad" line
> that gets cited so often around here comes from.  But I'm damned if I
> can remember the source -- probably someone else will know.
> 
> I do remember that in its original context, it came across as a
> considerably less trite statement than it usually does when cited
> here.  ("No!  You mean to say that evil is...is *bad?*  But surely
> you can't really *mean* that!  Say it isn't SO!")

I remember the line as something more on the order of, "If you're
going to write about evil, you really do have an obligation to
show what that means."  I take that to mean, "Yes, there IS such
a thing as evil, folks, it isn't just all some kind of a mistake,
or that these guys had unhappy childhoods or are just Terribly
Misunderstood.  Evil does exist, and this is what it looks like."


--Margaret Dean
  <margdean at erols.com>