The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose. An evil soul producing
holy witness Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, A goodly apple
rotten at the heart. O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath! -- The Merchant of Venice, Act I, Scene 3.
I object to the subversion of good and evil. It has become popular to retell old tales and make the evil villain a misunderstood hero or heroine. Likewise, symbols of good are subverted to malicious ends. It's one thing for a character to to attempt to make use of such symbology and association for his malevolent purposes--that's exactly what we expect from a great villain, as in Richard III, Act I, Scene 3:
But then I sigh; and, with a piece of scripture,
Tell them that God bids us do good for evil:
And thus I clothe my naked villany
With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ;
And seem a saint, when most I play the devil.
It's quite another to twist the story to make the villain the sympathetic hero of the story - which in turn, requires giving evil motives, self-serving aims, and other vices to the representatives of good.
We see this in the movies and stories which subvert fairy tales or other beloved stories to cast the traditional villain in the role of misunderstood and sympathetic hero. Witches, orcs, goblins, trolls, and other monsters were created specifically as representatives of profound evil. The trope is often said to "humanize" the characters. Do we really need to have evil humanized? Good must then also be "humanized." In other words, good becomes evil and evil becomes good. The proponents may call it "making things real" or mention something about bringing out the gray realism as opposed to the stark lines of black and white. Good and evil become less than opposites in favor of blended shades of gray.
Alexander Pope described that in his Essay on Man, Epistle II, and also wrote:
Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As, to be hated, needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.
We've been in the embrace for years.
Even Christmas horror movies and Christmas themed haunted houses rise from the polluted hues of the subversion swamp to upend traditional symbols associated with joy and the love of mankind in favor of fear, terror, and horror. Must Halloween's hand grasp to restrain the glad tidings of great joy?
I object to the subversion of good and evil and the pollution of our happiest of holidays. Perhaps the subversive movement will soon run its course, but the taint will remain. It's easy to blend the colors to form the gray; it's not so easy to return the shades to their places. The classic tales had a purpose. They taught morality and virtue through simple, easily understood stories; that's why they've endured. If today's storytellers want to deal in shades of gray, let them create their own stories and characters instead of attaching themselves like debilitating parasites to enduring tales of the past.
