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"Aeon" Article Claims Racism and Nationalism Are the Driving Force Behind Good vs. Evil Sci-Fi and Fantasy Stories

1/27/2018

21 Comments

 
​In Aeon magazine, freelance writer Catherine Nichols has an interesting but flawed essay speculating on the reasons that modern pop culture narratives are “obsessed” with the conflict between good and evil, while ancient and medieval myths, legends, and folktales lack a recognizable locus of evil. It’s a question that is good for generating discussion, but Nichols only identifies some of the reasons for the difference between ancient and modern approaches, leaving out one of the largest and most important.
​Her thesis is summed up in two sentences: “Virtually all our mass-culture narratives based on folklore have the same structure: good guys battle bad guys for the moral future of society. These tropes are all over our movies and comic books, in Narnia and at Hogwarts, and yet they don’t exist in any folktales, myths or ancient epics.” That this is untrue can be seen in her very next sentence, where she gives an example comparing the Thor of Marvel comics to the one of Norse mythology: “In Marvel comics, Thor has to be worthy of his hammer, and he proves his worth with moral qualities. But in ancient myth, Thor is a god with powers and motives beyond any such idea as ‘worthiness’.” And yet the Arthurian romances provide a clear counterexample, such as when Arthur could extract the sword from the anvil (or stone) to become king because he is morally worthy (Robert de Boron, Merlin 5), or that the knight who obtained the Holy Grail must similarly be of exceptional moral purity.  (Nichols dismisses this, arguing that Arthur originally battled monsters who had no relationship to “moral weakness.” For her, monsters have no moral dimension, which would be news to the Serpent in Genesis.)
 
The Greeks, too, were deeply concerned about purity and worthiness, but they approached the issue from a different perspective. Nichols rightly notes that in Greek epic, Achaean heroes like Achilles are not absolute forces of good, nor are their enemies absolutely evil. There were no good gods and evil gods, though the gods aligned on different sides of the Trojan War. The Greeks, though, had clear ideas on what made a hero worthy, and that hero had to be ritually pure. In the stories of Jason and the Argonauts, for example, the hero must exculpate the impurity of murder with rituals, and ritual purification was necessary to obtain the Golden Fleece and to demonstrate worthiness for such a task.
 
I think from these examples you have probably already guessed at the major difference between ancient and modern stories: the influence of Christianity and its dichotomous division between God and Satan, Heaven and Hell, good and evil. Nichols, however, ignores this difference in order to make a somewhat strained case that modern narratives are control mechanisms created by elites to justify nationalism and racism and other forms of hatred.
 
“In old folktales, no one fights for values,” Nichols writes, and then immediately conflates folktales with myths and myths with epic poetry. Thus, for her, the entertaining tale of the Three Little Pigs is no different than the Indo-European religious narratives of Loki and Thor. Her claim isn’t true, however. While no one might fight for our values, the characters of ancient literature fought for their values, which were the legitimacy of royal and aristocratic houses, the importance of bravery and loyalty, etc. Nichols dismisses such ideas as mere illustrations of values rather than inherent facets of the narrative, and yet what is Odysseus in the Odyssey if not a man animated by the values of loyalty and family, as the Greeks understood them?
 
“The ostensibly moral face-off between good and evil is a recent invention that evolved in concert with modern nationalism – and, ultimately, it gives voice to a political vision not an ethical one,” Nichols said. She traces the change in literary style of the French Revolution and argues that Romantic writers purposely began to contrast good and evil in order to argue that goodness was an inherent facet of the ethno-nation, contrasted with evil people who lack those values, thus justifying identification with the nation and visiting genocidal cruelty on the Other. “Good guys stand up for what they believe in, and are willing to die for a cause,” she writes. “This trope is so omnipresent in our modern stories, movies, books, even our political metaphors, that it is sometimes difficult to see how new it is, or how bizarre it looks, considered in light of either ethics or storytelling.” Achilles died for the cause of Greece, and Hamlet died for Denmark. Arthur died in service to Camelot, and Prometheus risked the wrath of Zeus in service of knowledge. Going all the way back as far as we can find, Gilgamesh’s quest had a purpose, to seize the boons that belonged properly to the gods because he believed humans were equal to the gods. These were not ideas that emerged in the 1800s, but rather the issue is whether we as modern readers choose to recognize the values embraced by ancient and medieval people or insist on reading their works through a modern lens. Ancient stories seem to lack a fight for “values” to those born into an Abrahamic worldview because pagans, Nichols correctly realizes, did not view the world as a Manichean battle of good and evil.
 
Yet Nichols never makes the logical leap to see in the Christian mythos the template for the modern Euro-American storytelling trope of hero vs. villain—not that villainy is really a modern invention. The wicked step-mothers of folklore are clearly villains, for example, as is the vicious Aeëtes of the Argonaut myth, and Grendel’s mother in Beowulf. The difference is that people of the past shaded heroes and villains more subtly and understood that villains are the heroes of their own stories.
 
Modern stories of good and evil succeed because they are simple tales that are easy for mass audiences to understand and consume. Nichols believes that they exist to dehumanize other nations by asking us to identify with the heroes and see them as representatives of the nation they embody:
When we read, watch and tell stories of good guys warring against bad guys, we are essentially persuading ourselves that our opponents would not be fighting us, indeed they would not be on the other team at all, if they had any loyalty or valued human life. In short, we are rehearsing the idea that moral qualities belong to categories of people rather than individuals.
​This point is one of the reasons that so many Anglo-American fantasy and science fiction narratives have a patina of racism, where the villains often seem to be literally or figuratively representatives of other races. There is certainly truth to the notion that the genre fiction of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries served to justify imperialism and colonialism. But I think Nichols overstates the point immensely since this issue is largely limited to a handful of subgenres, notably science fiction and fantasy, and perhaps spy thrillers. Crime narratives complicate this immensely because there are good guys and bad guys, but their morality plays usually occur within the nation and represent, at one level, efforts to cleanse and purge society of its unwelcome or disturbing elements but nevertheless recognize that society is imperfect.
 
Ultimately, Nichols is right that many modern stories draw on colonialist and imperialist tropes that purposely or otherwise demonize non-Euro-American peoples as enemies of “freedom” and apple pie and all the other stories we tell ourselves. But the origins of these tropes are not to be found exclusively in the awakening of nationalism, but in the worldview of good vs. evil that emerged from the dichotomous contrast of God and Satan in Christianity, especially in the wake of the Protestant Reformation, when the question of evil seemed of exceptional importance in demonizing those who believed wrongly. It was in the fires of Reformation that the varieties of Christian faith became territorial and married to states and nations, and transferred to those nations the moral absolutes of faith.
21 Comments
Shane Sullivan
1/27/2018 11:51:01 am

Heh, after reading the first sentence, my first thought was, "only if you don't count Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, Islam and Christianity". You've summed it up nicely.

No, I think that the obsession with good versus evil is just another manifestation of divisive tribalism, which was just as prevalent in classical Greece as it is in modern cartoons.

In fact, I can't help but notice some parallels between Plato's Atlantis and the popular narrative of the American Revolution: A rag-tag nation of underdogs muster a winning defensive against the encroachment of a massive empire, which upon its defeat is punished by God for its transgressions.

Reply
Brady Yoon link
1/27/2018 12:26:31 pm

Think about how judge historical figures, in WW2. We always try to frame them in a narrative of good vs evil. We like to think Hitler was fighting for an evil cause but he wasn’t. He was just trying to make Germany great as he saw it, and harsh to its enemies. Churchill was the same. He wasn’t fighting Germany because he felt it was evil, but because he saw them as the greatest threat to the British Empire. So I think the rulers always know that the real issues that guide their decision making are not based in morality at all, but that morality is just a propaganda device to convince the masses that their actions are justifiable.

Maybe in American society the traditional heroes who transcend good and evil are athletes. Athletes are neither good nor bad. They compete against each other and the best team and the most skilled and determined wins. Nobody pretends like morality, God, or faith has anything to do with it.

Reply
Uncle Ron
1/27/2018 01:11:11 pm

And when something goes wrong we can blame the refs.

Reply
V
1/27/2018 06:48:11 pm

1. Real issues that guide decisions often ARE based in morality. Hitler was not being amoral when he made the decisions he did; he simply had a morality based in hatred and anger.

2. Churchill's own writings indicate that he would probably disagree with you that he only saw them as a threat to the British Empire and not as evil. He seems to have found them to be morally reprehensible (by his own code) from early on.

3. You...don't watch sports movies very often, do you? Yes, absolutely "American traditional (athlete) heroes" are all about "morally righteous/faithful/God is on the Side of the Good" in their stories.

Basically, nothing you've said approaches reality, other than the fact that yes, we frame things in a narrative of good vs. evil. Which, honestly? In no way contradicts ANYTHING Jason wrote. At all. Even in the slightest.

Please come back another day and try again.

Reply
Brady Yoon
1/27/2018 08:52:22 pm

1 and 2. Okay, I agree with you on this
3. Umm, no? Sports are most definitely not about that. They may be about the underdog vs. the favorite, the overcoming obstacles and injuries, the miracle on ice, but in the end it's all about performance and who wins. Look at how Tim Tebow was ridiculed for his attempt to bring God and Christianity onto the football field. What are these sports movies you are talking about in which one team believes itself to be seriously morally superior to the other team? Maybe one team hates the other team because there's a long-standing rivalry, because they play dirty, or because they bend the rules, but to equate such sentiments with moral superiority is questionable. The only morality in sports is do everything you can to win within the rules.

Joe Scales
1/28/2018 08:43:37 pm

"Think about how judge historical figures, in WW2. We always try to frame them in a narrative of good vs evil. We like to think Hitler was fighting for an evil cause but he wasn’t. He was just trying to make Germany great as he saw it, and harsh to its enemies."

The systematic annihilation of Jewish people and the theft of their property in not only Germany, but those in conquered nations, goes a bit further than trying to make Germany great. I do get the whole moral equivalency thing, but if you can't see evil in that... it's probably because you condone it within your own personal ideology.

Reply
Brady Yoon
1/29/2018 02:41:37 pm

It’s just an example of what human beings and societies do when they feel like they have nothing left to lose. Think about what the policy of many nuclear states today is if it is invaded and is about to be conquered and forced into an unconditional surrender. It will launch nuclear weapons and kill millions of people in retaliation. That’s human nature. Is it evil for people to strike out and seek vengeance of whatever kind they can have when they feel like they have nothing to lose? Maybe it is. Maybe people should just accept their fate quietly, but that’s not how human nature works and I don’t think it can be called evil.

Joe Scales
1/29/2018 02:46:50 pm

Forgive me for giving you the impression that I would entertain any sort of discourse with you.

Jim
1/29/2018 03:38:16 pm

Brady, your argument makes no sense. what does one have to do with the other ? The Nazis murdering people in concentration camps had nothing to do with winning or losing the war, or feeling like they have nothing left to lose. The people they murdered were for the most part not even their enemies, and were often their own countrymen.
This started long before Germany was losing the war.
STOP TRYING TO JUSTIFY THE HOLOCAUST !!

E.P. Grondine
1/27/2018 12:37:09 pm

Well let's see. Extend the analysis to today's video games, and the functions become easier to understand.

You need conflict to justify the action.
It helps if you portray the victim of your protagonist (in a video game yourself ) as evil, deserving of the pain which will befall them.

The "problems" start when one person's "terrorist" is another person's "freedom fighter".

Reply
Americanegro
1/27/2018 01:58:43 pm

No, the problems start when the UN decides to carve out a new country in the Middle East and Sinn Fein gets called the political wing of the IRA when the IRA is really the military arm of Sinn Fein. Also when the U.S. has a we-don't-ask-for-permission military presence in Syria. The problem starts when a disagreeable harridan thinks "We came, we saw, he died" is an appropriate thing to say. Ironically it also applies to the Ambassador,

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V
1/27/2018 06:42:49 pm

*snorts* I see your 20th century history and raise you "the problems start when Europeans make a massive land grab and genocide entire peoples completely in their own lands, for the sole sake of those lands being turned over to greedy foreigners."

E.P. Grondine
1/28/2018 10:39:22 am

Hi AN -

It is both surprising and heartening to see you actually making a comment that pertains to the topic instead of one aimed at the individual.

Somehow, it seems very "European" to make the Palestinians pay for the crimes of the Germans.

In a hard factual way, it looks to me like we have a situation where about 3 million Israelis and 3 million Palestinians are taking the rest of us 7 billion people along on a ride we really do not want to go on.

I hope it will end well, but another way of looking at this situation is that we have a thoroughly traumatized people armed with nuclear weapons.

In it all, you end up with a lot of dead five year olds.

V
1/27/2018 06:41:26 pm

But "conflict" doesn't have to BE "good" vs. "evil." It's very possible to have it be "them" vs. "us" with both sides having their own good AND evil to them. Heck, the stupid little PC game I'm playing now is "heroes vs. the quest" and "heroes vs. the harsh environment" and there IS no evil, just hardship.

Black and white "good vs. evil" is just lazy writing, which is unfortunately all too common in video games, but that doesn't make it less a reflection of the society that informs the writer.

Reply
JaredMithrandir link
2/2/2018 08:40:28 am

Which is why it bugs me that The Last Jedi was part written to be a "Take that" to people who wanted a less simple conflict then simple evil empire versus righteousness rebels.

V
1/27/2018 06:55:44 pm

Nichols obviously never read much of non-European folktales or mythology, either; Indian and Japanese mythology are rife with stories of nobly dying for beliefs, of virtue being more important than success, etc. She undermines her own entire premise with such obvious bigotry--a very nationalistic style of viewpoint, to insist that your values are the only "true" values.

Reply
Graham
1/29/2018 08:01:38 am

I wonder what Nichols would say after they'd read the Water Margin, one of the classics of Chinese literature...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_Margin

Reply
Brian
1/29/2018 08:57:50 am

This sounds like a case of ideology dictating comprehension. But it is certainly true that much of our popular fiction/drama has been impoverished by this simplistic reduction of all conflict to massive battles of good v. evil. Look at Disney's egregious "Little Mermaid" (or just about anything by Disney), which took a nuanced fairy tale and added a massive tempest of good v. evil at the end.

And they have taken on a decidedly racist tinge; Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" is a dreadful example of this: everybody who is (absolutely) good is white or pasty pale, everybody (absolutely) evil is either dark-skinned or "betrays" his whiteness (Saruman). The book, while still pretty simplistic, is a bit more nuanced. The fact that this stuff is hugely popular and successful (because our impoverished culture likes simple tales with lots of violence) probably blinded the author to the real history.

One horrible effect of this reductionism is the lack of historical education among the masses, which naturally leads to parochialism and tribal prejudice. The author of this article should certainly read the Chinese classic novels, not to mention Homer, or even the Arabian Nights, to realize her thesis doesn't quite hold up.

Reply
Machala
1/29/2018 01:46:16 pm

" The Greeks, too, were deeply concerned about purity and worthiness, but they approached the issue from a different perspective.....There were no good gods and evil gods, though the gods aligned on different sides of the Trojan War...."

I was immediately reminded of the farce "Lysistrata" by Aristophanes and wondered how Ms.Nichols would view the heroine of this famous Greek anti-war play. This "different perspective" that Jason writes about, is certainly evident in Lysistrata's novel and effective idea, of how to end the Peloponnesian War. The ancient Greek comedy certainly puts a proof to Jason's argument.

Reply
Tony Marino
2/1/2018 02:19:19 am

There are those who think me ridiculous but,let's be honest here. These tales didn't spring from nowhere. People like Idi Amin,Adolf Hitler,Jeffrey Dahmer,and others like them have ALWAYS existed on this planet. To try to claim otherwise,is unbelievably stupid. In the ancient world,there have been people like Attila the Hun,Nero,and Caligula and they've done things that would rightfully put them in the villain column.
Would Catherine Nichols feel the same way she does in this article someone did something terrible to someone she cared about? It may seem quaint or old-fashioned to say this but to say that racism and nationalism are behind the modern day good vs evil stories is to me,flawed at best and/or morally repugnant at worst.

Bad people exist. That can't be denied and to say otherwise is reprehensible. These sort of tales have existed in every culture since the beginning of time and while that they may be different from our viewpoint,there are also similarities that can't be denied. And,that's why we still read them,even centuries later.

Reply
JaredMithrandir link
2/1/2018 11:17:03 pm

It's interesting to look at how Good and Evil are treated in modern Japanese Media. Where Christianity has been an influence, but is the one nation where old school Polytheism still thrives.

Mobile Suit Gundam is like the Iliad in that while it kinda narrative takes a side in the War, it is not so simple.

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