Philosophy vs. Frivolity

[rebcake]

This just came across my dash:

“It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.”
--Lord Darlington from "Lady Windermere's Fan" by Oscar Wilde

So I've been having thoughts, as one does, about the nature of good and evil as seen through the lens of BtVS. Especially, you know: Spike. There are always posts and discussion about it, this one being most recent, and it's all really interesting. I keep waiting for people to convince me that Spike is capital "E" evil, rather than thoughtlessly destructive (among other things). It comes down to how a person defines evil, which is surprisingly difficult to define. It's sort of like love that way.

But now I'm thinking that maybe the quote above is closer to my philosophy of Spike than anything particularly deep. Tsk.

Comments

[frayadjacent]

Haha, you and many many other fans. ;)

I'm more or less of the view that evil is as evil does -- which, along with the charm factor, is why Spike's story works so much better for me than Angel's. But that view doesn't mesh super well with the metaphysics of the Buffyverse. (Though, again, it works far more for Spike.)

[rebcake]

I tried not to bring Angel into it, but of course I agree with you.

I'm always more likely to define something as "evil" if it's got cruel intentions behind it. The outcome of thoughtless destruction can be just as bad, but without that malice aforethought, it just doesn't have that extra something that turns "bad" into "evil" for me.

With Angel, you have cruelty plus a lack of charm, so....