I've read several "antihero" stories where the character does bad stuff, and doesn't get punished for it. But I think you have to be very careful when writing that sort of stuff that you don't come across as approving of their behaviour. Ideally, you should describe the character's mental processes in quite a bit of detail, to tell the reader why they did the things they did, even if they weren't the "right" thing.
Both the authors you described seemed to take it to the opposite extreme; not only implicitly approving, but even bringing in an authority character to say "this is the morally correct action, honest!"... in one case a teacher, in the other God (?!). That's cheap moralism even at the best of times.
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Date: 2006-03-01 01:42 am (UTC)I've read several "antihero" stories where the character does bad stuff, and doesn't get punished for it. But I think you have to be very careful when writing that sort of stuff that you don't come across as approving of their behaviour. Ideally, you should describe the character's mental processes in quite a bit of detail, to tell the reader why they did the things they did, even if they weren't the "right" thing.
Both the authors you described seemed to take it to the opposite extreme; not only implicitly approving, but even bringing in an authority character to say "this is the morally correct action, honest!"... in one case a teacher, in the other God (?!). That's cheap moralism even at the best of times.
P.S. Hello!