It’s a common belief — or at least a very common, unquestioned association — that goodness is boring, and evil is fun. This is especially the case when we think about fictional characters, but it also extends to life. I’d rather go to hell because people in hell are more interesting, I’ve heard.
This has always deeply disturbed me, but I couldn’t pinpoint exactly why until today.*
I was making coffee and idly ruminating about how my favorite female comic book characters are often villains. Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn. Especially Poison Ivy! In fact, I like DC villains in general. Why?
Well, first of all, because they’re designed to be colorful and interesting. Otherwise, they’d be awfully boring villains and we wouldn’t care so much about the story. But that’s the thing … “Evil” characters in stories are so often colorful, full of life, defying convention. Their aims are objectionable, but their style is delightful.
On the other hand, Good characters are so often portrayed as conventional, even straight-laced and fuddy-duddy. Nothing’s particularly exciting about them except they have altruistic or at least unobjectionable aims. BORING. I realize we want to see an everyman hero, but at the same time, this constant typing of good characters as following societal conventions and being “normal” leads to associations of goodness with dullness.
In life, unfortunately, we also frequently type people who follow conventions as Good Girls and Boys, while the nonconformists are considered, if not Bad, then at least Suspect.
What’s so wrong about this, and what bothers me so much, is that reality often shows the opposite. People who do evil or allow evil very often operate under rules, conventions, appearances. They are not particularly interesting or exciting as individuals. On the other hand, the most interesting and unique people I know are often the kindest at heart, the most willing to help others and stand up for justice.
While that pattern is also not by any means a rule, it gets to the heart of why the belief that “goodness is boring” is so disturbing. A radically good person is far more interesting (or, okay, equally interesting, at least?) than a radically evil one. We just need to stop equating goodness with convention, mediocrity, and moral neutrality. That’s boring.
*Originally written June 26, 2021.
