Week 454: The Sensitive Side of Evil and One, No, Make That Three Special Announcements

Sensitive Side

I believe that there should never be violence of any kind directed at a child. But that presents a problem. There’s neither intelligent discourse nor diplomatic give and take with a two-year-old individual who considers it perfectly reasonable to shit her pants rather than heading to the bathroom while something she wants to watch is on TV. You cannot spank this person (not that you’d want to) nor can you take any disciplinary action that someone out there somewhere won’t find objectionable.

The deck is stacked against the folks and difficult parent/child relations is certainly one of those things that appears a great deal in submissions. I’ve done it myself, but I made myself play fair and not take shots at someone who probably did a better job under the circumstances than I would have done.

I’m not at all suggesting that the topic is wrong, and we do get many well measured pieces, like a recent one by Katya Lee, in which there is a level of fairness and reality are presented. But usually we see lots of Evil One Dimensional Fathers (almost always alcoholic, violent racists) married to Sainted Moms and who sire thoughtful, sensitive children. But what’s missing is how the bad guy got like that. Must be something acceptable in his DNA. Too many writers go for the t-shirt philosophy: INSTANT ASSHOLE: JUST ADD BEER. Although there is some truth in that, I can’t get past why the good woman chose the biggest asshole in the world to marry–some people are conditioned to “marry” a parent, but these guys are too far over the top to believe. The guy must have been all right at one time, and if not certainly warning sirens should have been easily detected. Bad mothers, however, are usually much more intricately presented, but we do get the occasional senseless, insanely soulless harpy incapable of the smallest act of kindness.

This sort of thing is all right in melodrama, but as a serious story it can be seen as a bit lazy–more as a cheap device to move stuff along, to build off a ready-made explanation, a stereotype. Character development does not require lots of pages. But the more extravagant or one sided the character is, the clearer the reason for that should be.

Although it’s certainly not my objective to tell anyone how to write, and I certainly have a long track record of failure, I think that there is something valid in needing even a villain to be human. We sure see a lot of the equivalent of mustache twirling Simon LeGree’s types tying girls to the tracks and foreclosing on orphanages in realistic fiction–and it just fails to add up.

Now that I find myself lacking anything intelligent to add, at the end of this post I present my favorite all time melodramatic Evil Man clip. From the silent era–the great Eric Von Stroheim. Bu-wa-ha-ha!!!

Special Announcements

We invite one and all to next week’s ninth anniversary post. It seems impossible that I was typing a similar notice a year ago for year eight–feels like a month, but that’s time for you. My first forty years felt like what I figured forty years passing should feel like–but ever since I have breakfast and discover it is Christmas Day again. Anyway, the usual yearly features will be presented along with a new “confessional” that delves into the awesome majesty of the LS Editors’ minds.

And this week, random chance has resulted in Wednesday’s story (by our own Hugh Cron) to be the site’s three-thousandth post. It was not planned that way–I happened to be on the scheduling page and noticed we were nearing the three-thousand mark, and counted ahead to those pending publication and Hugh was sitting on the milestone mark. This includes all the stories, wrap ups and Sunday features over the years. And it seems fitting that the gods selected Hugh to appear on the Big 3000 since all totaled, with stories, wraps and features combined, he has posted most often.

In closing the announcement section, I also want to wish all Veterans out there and among us (especially Tom Sheehan who served in battle seventy years ago) a Happy Veteran’s Day. Even if 11 November isn’t marked that way on the calendar of your nation, I extend the same to one and all.

This Week in November

We had a wonderful group of stories this week. We always do, but since I was stuck there for a moment and have never said that before, well, there it is.

You have heard of possessive mothers, but how about a possessed one? Such is the case in Warren Benedetto’s Something’s Wrong With Mom. This is a highly entertaining piece and it is also one of those fine ideas that I wish I had.

Scott C Thompson well presented an inventive idea on Tuesday, one part the Truman Show one part Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea with What You See Is What You Get. The use of another’s suffering for gain and calling it art and/or entertainment is yet another item that we as a race have yet to rise above. I can just see this sort of thing happening and hope to hell it will not. Scott captured the parasitic rationales of the broadcast industry perfectly.

By coincidence, our beloved Hugh Cron was the 3,000th customer on Wednesday. No one has appeared more in the site, so it stands to reason. Bonus is yet another one of Hugh’s pathologically honest and clear look at things. A world in just another dead junkie promotes the sort of reality that leads to dead junkies. The content flies off the page at you, just begging to be read.

Funeral and wake tales often appear in submissions, but few have been done as well as Joe Harrington’s Wake by JD Clapp. In this situation the author must be both cutting and sensitive to the situation, and JD scored well here on both accounts as witnessed by the positive ending to the tale. As someone who has spent a lot of her life in such places, I can testify to the work’s authenticity.

Site friend and frequent commenter, Paul Kimm closed this fine week (the last of our eight year) with The Circle Route. It is a gentle and moving little thing. People can get attached to the simplest things due to repetition and a place in the heart. Even a bus route can rise to the level of a meaningful song. This is elegant and understated.

Well, there they are. Please share your comments for each author. Hugh and Paul comment on every tale. And although that level of consistency is hardly necessary, a kind word now and then to a stranger does improve the day.

One Last Look at Evildoers

Often we find ourselves so smothered by the constant flow of product entertainment, the paint by numbers stuff, that it gets into our writing. It happens to me, and I go back later and take a long look at people to make certain that I thought them up or have added another echo to a cliche. Whenever I notice any of the following standard evildoers appearing in my fiction, I show them the trapdoor.

1.Violent, Strappy-Tee Alcoholic, Racist, Misogynistic, Homo- and Xenophobic Bad Dad. (Often named “Earl”)

2. Yeah, I Killed Mom, But At Least I ‘m Not a Racist ( This take on the anti hero is fairly new, but you see him everywhere nowadays. In the otherwise fine Sons of Anarchy, the murderous, mom killing, criminal biker “Jax” petitions the powers in his organization to allow Black gang members. That makes up for everything)

3. Southern Sheriff (“Whatcha’ boyz doin’ in Dixie County?” “Buford T. Justice” was a comic character for a good reason; serious versions tend to be as one dimensional as sweaty and meaty allow)

4. 1970’s “Syndicate” Chieftain (You saw him all over shows like Mannix and Cannon, especially after The Godfather hit–often portrayed by Cameron Mitchell. Pretty much gone today except overnight on the MeTV network)

5. Conflicted Wussy Vampire (somebody please put a stake in this guy)

6. Bar Room Bully (Blowhard who inexplicably flips the Silent Stranger shit in a small town tavern and inevitably gets his ass kicked by the Silent Stranger, often portrayed by Chuck Bronson)

7. Erudite Sociopath Genius (Since the deaths of Alan Rickman and Diana Rigg only guys like Donald Sutherland and Gary Oldman can pull this off–class dominated by high end UK actors–and when someone misses here, they miss badly)

8. Giggling Psychopath (These guys trace back to Richard Wydmark in 1947’s Kiss of Death)

9. Intelligent Women Must Be Bitches

10. Up to youse…

Leila (And welcome home, Elliot the Pigeon, he tends to wander)

https://youtu.be/QZa-A3reVL8?si=OLUzoQ6yuZG3BL-2&t=265