The Devil Made Me Do It
Cate Blanchett is in a new movie in which she plays a woman who sleeps with her 15-year-old art student. Interviewed about Notes on a Scandal, Cate said that she wasn't sure why her character ruins her life--feels compelled, inexplicably drawn, to ruin.
In the Exorcist, the priest says, "The power of Christ compels you" to drive the devil from Regan. Certainly one theory. You go down the path to ruin, it's Satan in the driver's seat. On toward grace, the power of Christ.
But then we have that tricky thing of free will.
And none of it yet explains why someone will look at two choices and choose the one of ruin. The obsession. The one thing he or she should not have. Lolita. Asylum. Anna Karenina. So many great works explore that descent. You read and it is like watching a train wreck.
In my own work, Tom in The Roofer consistently chooses to descend to hell. In my new work in progress, I have a man who casts his lot in with a woman he barely knows because of how she makes him feel--she is his drug . . . and he loses all.
Why? What makes some of us choose ruin? I am listening to Nine-Inch Nails "Closer" right now. The words include the line, "I want to f*** you like an animal." Are there some choices we're compelled almost like animals to choose? I don't know. Animals choose to RUN from danger, but some of us walk right into the fire, as if wanting to be burned.
Anyway, it is that path to ruin that consistently fascinates me. More than the character blindsided by deception when a bad choice is made . . . I look at the ones who see it all clearly but then saysgive me that needle of heroin anyway.
Ruin? Why do some of us choose it? And what is your favorite novel of ruin?
In the Exorcist, the priest says, "The power of Christ compels you" to drive the devil from Regan. Certainly one theory. You go down the path to ruin, it's Satan in the driver's seat. On toward grace, the power of Christ.
But then we have that tricky thing of free will.
And none of it yet explains why someone will look at two choices and choose the one of ruin. The obsession. The one thing he or she should not have. Lolita. Asylum. Anna Karenina. So many great works explore that descent. You read and it is like watching a train wreck.
In my own work, Tom in The Roofer consistently chooses to descend to hell. In my new work in progress, I have a man who casts his lot in with a woman he barely knows because of how she makes him feel--she is his drug . . . and he loses all.
Why? What makes some of us choose ruin? I am listening to Nine-Inch Nails "Closer" right now. The words include the line, "I want to f*** you like an animal." Are there some choices we're compelled almost like animals to choose? I don't know. Animals choose to RUN from danger, but some of us walk right into the fire, as if wanting to be burned.
Anyway, it is that path to ruin that consistently fascinates me. More than the character blindsided by deception when a bad choice is made . . . I look at the ones who see it all clearly but then saysgive me that needle of heroin anyway.
Ruin? Why do some of us choose it? And what is your favorite novel of ruin?
posted by Erica Orloff at 5:35 PM
16 Comments:
Donald Sutherland's professor character in ANIMAL HOUSE: "Was Milton trying to tell us that being bad is more fun than being good?"
Billy Joel: "I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints. The sinners have much more fun. Only the good die young."
Beaver Cleaver: "Gee, Dad. All the other kids are huffin' paint thinner."
I think what usually brings a person to ruin is something that starts out being very pleasurable. The reptile portion of our brains seek it again and again, overriding logic and prudence. Sex, alcohol, gambling...it's all okay until it starts controlling you instead of you it...
I have more to say about this subject but I'm off to the casino boat now to throw down the house payment on a blackjack game, drink tequila till I can't see straight, and smoke five packs of Luckys.
With a little luck, I might even get laid. :)
Hmm . . . as my friend puts it though--I'm going to ruin a life/a marriage/my world . . . for a 25-second orgasm? Because that's what some of that reptillian brain would have us belive. I guess it boils down to why the id outweighs the superego in some instances.
E
We are a nation of id-iots, Erica, seekers of instant gratification.
Your friend sounds very prudent about choices, but a very high percentage of people are not.
Think about it.
Why is the drive-thru at McDonald's jammed with cars every day at lunch time, when everybody knows that crap is deadly? Because it requires less effort than preparing a meal from home, and there is very little thought involved.
Why do the vast majority of our kids choose playing a video game or watching TV over reading a book? Because it requires less effort and there is very little thought involved.
Why do people play the lottery?
Why is the divorce rate so high?
Why do people pay for the internet and cable TV, in essence PAYING to have advertising piped into their homes?
Why did Rome, once the most powerful force on the planet, crumble?
When instant gratification is available, it's hard to not take the path of least resistance.
For most people, it's really hard.
We can call it the Devil, but that too is a passive response to ruin.
I think Jimmy Buffet was closer to the truth: "Some people claim that there's a woman to blame, but I know...It's my own damn fault.
Jude:
All true. But I also think there's something darker . . . What you describe is the path of least resistance. But why, for instance, does a woman (Stella in Patrick McGrath's Asylum) look at a killer--a man who beheaded his wife--and think she would end up differently, that their love will be better . . . and then go down a very dark road?
E
I agree that an element of 'least resistance' comes in to play--somewhat, but I more strongly believe that choosing that path isn't so much a deliberate step to ruination, but an innate need to prove you're 'special' Better.
The criminal is not viewing jail time. He's got his eye on the prize because he's too smart, sneaky, skilled, to get caught.
The heroin user isn't going to become a junkie. They're stronger, have more willpower, they're going to control their drug of choice.
The woman who hooks up with a known cheater/abuser? He's not going to hurt her--because she's special. She can make him love her like he's loved no other woman.
No one wants to believe they are merely average. That they'll get caught/beaten/addicted like those other weak people.
Favorite tale of ruination? Hmm. Haven't read it in eons, but obviously it made an impact on me b/c it was the first thing that sprang to mind: Sydney Sheldon's 'Rage of Angels' Good girl lawyer makes one mis-step that catapults her into bad choice after bad choice.
I haven't read that book.
There are true cases of insanity, of course, but that aside...
I would have to say that evil is often inexplicably seductive.
Why did Eve take the fruit from the serpent?
Why did a miserable and painful-to-read little novel called The Bridges of Madison County sell millions of copies?
Could it be that stability and comfort (and even paradise) become boring after a while? That people inately crave what they cannot (or should not) have?
It's a good question. Why does a seemingly rational person sometimes make very irrational choices that could possibly (and often quite probably) lead to ruin?
I guess we're back to your original question. :)
I don't know.
lainey:
Yes! I have seen that "logic" from a few girlfriends who got involved with real creeps--but these women were certain that they were special--theat they were enough to make a rotten person change. It just doesn't work that way.
E
Jude:
Great comment. Inexplicably seductive. Being as in Freudian Slip, one of my wips, the devil makes an acyual appearance . . . I am definitely thinking a lot about evil's seductive quality.
E
You might be on to something there, Lainey. Perhaps arrogance is often at the root of it.
But, even if people THINK they're in control, why do they choose crime, infidelity, substance abuse, etc., in the first place?
I think it might have something to do with self-loathing sometimes, thrill-seeking others. And sometimes it starts in the teen years, when we're naturally rebellious and choose to do just the opposite of what we've been taught is right.
Very thought-provoking post, Erica.
Jude:
Each of those things, if you don't get caught/addicted, etc., is seductively pleasurable--sex, a heroin high, wealth.
E
Exactly!
Being bad is more fun than being good. :)
But inherently riskier. :(
And nobody has yet mentioned morality, cultural expectations, physical and emotional trauma from childhood, etc. I think it all plays a part in the choices we make, consciously and subconsciously.
Jude:
I believe in karma, so it impacts EVERYTHING I do. Like yesterday, I saw these boots--silly thing really . . . I just need winter boots. But then I read they had rabbit fur in them. I just can't.
Everyone is different. Then, you're right . . . post-trauma stress from abusive childhoods--playing out the SAME drama over and over hoping for a different outcome, maybe.
All plays into it.
E
Erica, isn't repeating the same behavior and expecting a different outcome supposedly the definition of insanity?
My husband's stepson hasn't seen his dad in over a year and a half, didn't reply to letters regarding his college situation or health insurance continuation, and then rumor has it continues to whine and belabor the fact that his health insurance was canceled.
Is this sense of being untouchable or perhaps possessing an overall sense of entitlement despite ones actions part of some people's fundamental makeup? Is it genetic? Environment? or Both?
Wish I'd gotten that psych degree.
Hi Kathy:
I know a lot of people who keep repeating mistakes. Sometimes I think it's because a lot of us won't change UNTIL NOT CHANGING hurts more. I.e., don't lose weight until your first heart attack; don't quit drinking until the DUI that lands you in jail. PAIN motivates change for them.
E
I agree that pain can be the agent of change, but a sheer lack of pain can also be the agent for change. The obvious example would be a drug addict who had a horrible childhood and ended up hooked beause the pain stopped when they were high. Another example might be a woman who had suffered with a specific illness that made sex painful for her. When that pain was removed, she might rush out and do a great many things that are unwise, even though she knows better. The absence of pain feels so -good- that she ends up hurting herself in the long run.
I also think that it is easy to fall into evil as the path of least reistance and in personal arrogance. We didn't talk about morality or societal interference much, though. There are a great many people that feel society does not have anything good to say, so flout convention simply because they feel the need. As for morality, many people have a different moral makeup than what most consider "normal." I think that sort of hero or villain would be difficult to write since they would have to have a very definite sense of right and wrong that was counter to the popular, but was a morality to them...Hmmm...maybe I should do that with one of my characters.
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