Putting the Villain into Villanelle

by Ashley Lister

I often find it hard
Trying to find the words
Perhaps I am a ‘tard

I know I’m not a bard
My prose can look like turds
I often find it hard

I sit in my back yard
And idly watch the birds
Perhaps I am a ‘tard…

Because I’m caught off guard:
Ideas come in herds
I often find it hard

To write them down unmarred
I seldom catch two thirds
Perhaps I am a ‘tard

The process leaves me scarred
My words are herds of turds
I often find it hard
Perhaps I am a ‘tard?

There’s nothing particularly villainous about the villanelle. The villanelle is a French form of poetry with two simple end rhymes including a pair of repetitive refrains over the nineteen lines of the poem. The etymology is indistinct although it’s pretty much agreed by the experts that the word ‘villanelle’ harkens back to medieval references for rustic songs.

And, the reason there’s a villanelle at the top of this blog entry is because I can’t see the word ‘villain’ without trying to compose another villanelle. I often find it hard. Perhaps I am a ‘tard?

It’s not a word I associate with fiction because I don’t believe there are any villains in good fiction. When it’s written properly, good fiction mirrors real life and there aren’t many villains there: only people who royally piss us off as their diabolical plans get in the way of our own existence.

In fiction for example, at the start of Indiana Jones and The Raiders of the Lost Ark, the eponymous hero begins the story trying to retrieve a golden idol from a Peruvian jungle. Jones is thwarted by a rival archaeologist, Rene Belloq.

Jones is clearly the hero. He’s played by Harrison Ford, his name is in the movie’s title and he’s looking well-cool with a bullwhip and a jaunty hat.

As an audience we’re supposed to believe that Belloq is the villain. Belloq is played by Paul Freeman (the same guy who went on to play Ivan Ooze in Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: The Movie). Belloq is also in league with the Nazis and, worst of all, Belloq is French (just like a villanelle).

But is Belloq really villainous? Admittedly, he’s trying to steal a golden idol from the Hovitos people. But Indiana Jones is trying to do the same thing too. The only difference between these two thieves is that Jones spends the first fifteen minutes of the movie running from giant boulders whilst Belloq has established a less exhausting method of collecting the idol: stealing it from Jones. To this end, Belloq is actually more resourceful than Jones and employs greater foresight. Heroic attributes for someone who is supposedly a villain.

It’s true that Belloq is acquiring artefacts for the Nazis – but that doesn’t make him evil, does it? In this movie the Nazis are little more than a force of comic-book bad guys: labelled villainous through their association with a skewed political ideology. Their ideals of racial purity and the divine rights of a master race run counter to the contemporary western belief in capitalism, democracy and equality. But, in fiction and in reality, just because someone has different beliefs and values: that doesn’t mean they’re a villain. Personally, I think the Nazi ideals are deplorable. But I also think the same about religions that subjugate women, daytime TV soaps and health foods.

Perhaps this brief excerpt from Robert McKee’s Story (1999) better illustrates what I’m trying to say:

An interviewer once remarked to Lee Marvin that he’d played villains for thirty years and how awful it must be always playing bad people. Marvin smiled. ‘Me? I don’t play bad people. I play people struggling to get through their day, doing the best they can with what life’s given them. Others may think they’re bad, but no, I never play bad people.’

This is not to say that I’m right. I believe that villains (in fiction and reality) are only characters with viewpoints and opinions that are different to mine. Perhaps you have a different opinion?