Hi all, I'm busy sticking it to the bad guy in my book. Reagan - he's the better of the bad guys, maybe even a good guy - says death is a mercy, there are better ways to punish a man.
Death is so final. In my first book, the "punishment" was life long solitude, to be held guilty for a crime he didn't commit against his girlfriend, and to be considered crazy. See? Much more depressing than "He died, the end," wouldn't you say?
Anyway. I was wondering what others' thoughts on the "death scene" are. What is your favorite way to sorta seek justice with your main characters bad guy? Has anyone ever read a really great "death scene", (actualy dying optional)?
Posted by Brad R Torgersen (Member # 8211) on :
Sometimes, less is more.
Graphically killing the bad guy sometimes takes all the fun out of it.
Instead, set it up so that the bad guy is in a position where he or she can choose death, or something worse. Then let the reader guess or imagine what actually happens in the end.
JMHO.
Posted by Reagansgame (Member # 8149) on :
I'd have to agree. Besides, depending on the variety of wrongs you're avenging, killing could be overkill. It would vary, I'm sure, but death would seem the least creative finality.
I loved the way the movie Very Bad Things ended. Death would have been too easy an out.
Posted by extrinsic (Member # 8019) on :
If the goal is to have the nemesis experience a just retribution for wrongdoing, death is the ultimate shunning, life imprisonment only slightly less so. Shunning takes many forms, humiliation is one of the more subtle and deeply painful forms. Literal as well as figurative turning of the back is the more common form. De-humanizing, demonizing, objectifying--as in the depersonalizing pronoun it, vilifying, the list of possibilities for noncapital retribution is lengthy. Corporal punishment is another avenue worth exploring. Not long ago, much of the Western world was outraged by the caning of a miscreant in the Orient.
Posted by AWSullivan (Member # 8059) on :
quote:I loved the way the movie Very Bad Things ended. Death would have been too easy an out.
Definitely one of my Top 20 favorite movies of all time.
~Anthony
[This message has been edited by AWSullivan (edited September 18, 2008).]
Posted by Corky (Member # 2714) on :
What about a death or burial that has post-death repercussions?
I seem to recall someone saying that if the remains of the terrorists who flew the planes into the Twin Towers and the Pentagon and that field in Pennsylvania could have been separated out of the ruins and buried with pigs, those men would not be able to, according to their religion, go to paradise and be surrounded by virgins.