Villain = Resistance
[St. Patrick’s is a special day here at Black Irish Books. So to celebrate, we’re giving special pricing on Black Irish JABS. From now through Sunday, you can get a book every month from me with a $50 discount. Click here to get going: https://blackirishbooks.com/jabs.
[And now to today’s post … ]
Every villain is a metaphor for Resistance.
I know this sounds all-inclusive to the point of outrageousness, but it’s true.
Kevin McCarthy beholding evil in “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” 1956
In Jewish mysticism, the negative force (translated by my friend Rabbi Mordechai Finley as “a turning toward evil”) that equates to Resistance is called the “yetzer hara.”
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually … And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.
In Kabbalistic thought, the soul—neshama in Hebrew—is a divine and entirely good force that seeks to communicate with us on the material plane to our benefit. Kabbalists say that above every blade of grass is an angel whispering, “Grow! Grow!”
But there’s a catch.
Between us and the neshama stands an entirely negative force—the yetzer hara, aka Resistance—whose solitary aim is to block the soul from communicating with us and us from communicating with our soul.
That is the “turning toward evil”—the built-into-Creation impulse, even compulsion, to self-obstruction and self-destruction.
Why does the human being need stories? Why do each of us hunger for saga and myth so instinctively?
Because we all feel that “turning toward evil” inside ourselves. We fear it. We hate it. We’re desperate for wisdom and insight into how to combat it.
That’s what stories are for, and that’s why every story has to have a villain.
The antagonist, whether it’s the Alien or the Predator or Dr. No or Dr. Lecter or Dr. Strangelove, is a metaphorical version of the yetzer hara, of Resistance.
Resistance is insidious.
Resistance is implacable.
Resistance is indefatigable.
Resistance is protean. It shape-shifts. It lies. It dissembles. Its aim is to destroy us, body and soul.
Michael Biehn as Kyle Reese tells it like it is to Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton) in “The Terminator,” 1984
KYLE REESE
Listen and understand. That Terminator is out there. It can’t be bargained with. It can’t be reasoned with. It doesn’t feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop, ever, until you are dead.
And, though Reese doesn’t mention this …
The Terminator, i.e. Resistance, i.e. the yetzer hara, does not change and cannot change.
The villain in our stories, yours and mine, must share as many qualities with Resistance as possible.
Resistance is impersonal.
Resistance is a force of nature.
Resistance advances upon us like night, like winter, like death.
I rode a tank, held a general’s rank,
When the blitzkrieg raged and the bodies stank
The villain we write should be like a wildfire on a mountain or a storm at sea. Like racism, like misogyny, like homophobia, like the Thing, like the shark in Jaws or the Tripods in War of the Worlds, our villain must be as unaltering as the stars and as void of mercy as Satan.
Resistance never relents.
Resistance never changes.
Resistance = Villain.
Villain = Resistance.
DO THE WORK
Steve shows you the predictable Resistance points that every writer hits in a work-in-progress and then shows you how to deal with each one of these sticking points. This book shows you how to keep going with your work.
THE AUTHENTIC SWING
A short book about the writing of a first novel: for Steve, The Legend of Bagger Vance. Having failed with three earlier attempts at novels, here's how Steve finally succeeded.
NOBODY WANTS TO READ YOUR SH*T
Steve shares his "lessons learned" from the trenches of the five different writing careers—advertising, screenwriting, fiction, nonfiction, and self-help. This is tradecraft. An MFA in Writing in 197 pages.
TURNING PRO
Amateurs have amateur habits. Pros have pro habits. When we turn pro, we give up the comfortable life but we find our power. Steve answers the question, "How do we overcome Resistance?"
Steven, you da man…
A good one to start a Wednesday, and with a clip from the Rolling Stones, too. Another line from that song that also shines a light on “the villain is a reflection of our own internal battle”:
I shouted out
Who killed the Kennedys?
When after all
It was you and me
The evil must have snatched me because I completely missed the Rolling Stones clip?
Well, sounds like is the opposite, the Devil did Not snatch you hahaha, because I think he is talking about the clip of the song The Rolling Stones – Sympathy For the Devil
I dont like because I Was fistly never a fan of Devil analogies nor devil playing even for fun and I had almost a trauma from killing Him myself ( unintentionally, we can say)
so no freaking songs of evil for me, but you have the freewill to listening it…
I prefer from the rolling stones the song I Am Just Waiting On A Friend…
And if you miss the clip because you are used to the wikipedia pointings in the comment (coming from Hacker News to Steves Boat as first trip sailor, arent you? )
( the song I dont usually like listen ) : O
but there…
1- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkUhPV40e20
Ok just for people dont think that someones intelligence was extinguished…I would never allow that to happen…Clear Here!!!
when I say He is dead, Devil is dead…
Its kind of metaphorically because he never really existed, BUT, , , , ,
He was not like a pole of a Bipolar Person…
NO, my friends, that was not the case…
He was fucking Evil, NOt Fucking Disneyland, Not Fucking children play!!!!!!!!!!
Dont Fucking disminish or undersfuckingstimate that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Dont Fucking make fucking jokes with…
dont fucking play with the devil.
He was never existed, yes , similar to Bipolar who was cured ? Not really…
It was like Doctor Jekyll / Mister Hide and mr. Hide, now , is nowhere to be seen and will never come back.
but he was too old too count his age in years or whatever you think about using to count…
His death marks the History of the Universe, Forever!!!
What we have testified these last 50 days…Is unique in the History of the infinite universe!!!!!!!!!! And it happened few weeks ago !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
after millions of years at leat of devil existing…can you imagine…
So , in this sense , he didnt died because he never really exsted…OK
but he is EXtinguished!!!
good day all!!!
…Thanks…
I would like to apologise here , and sorry , it maybe that good self help websites like this of Steven Pressfield attract people with mental problems and in need or looking for some helpful advise like sometimes is my case, I am a big fan of Steven and Shawn for many years, I have subscribed for many years and remember many advices from Steve and Shawn about books, I really thank you and Shawn for the great advices, thank you,
firstly I want to say sorry that I was not reasoning well when I wrote these comments on this page, I have some mental disorder, I am not sure, maybe bipolar, for sure I have some kind of ocd, not the kind of cannot touch something without gloves, a common kind of ocd, in my case it is the kind of having some phisical regular movements when I am worried about something, it is a common knowledge of being the simptom of this mental disorder, it is related to bipolarity too, I have it in some form, for times I am happy and work and for times I am depressed and dont want even to wash clothes, sometimes depression can get so strong, I can consider it a crisis, and that what happened the recent times with me, I was even for a few hours in a mental hospital, but I didnt really got much help there, and I am Sorry, Mr. Sean Crawford, I was unpolite in my comment, I am sorry, I apologize to you, it was the depression crisis, I should and I will try to look for medical help, automedication is not a good advise, sorry for my lack of reasoning when making my comment, I have to try and I am better now, to be more stable and normal in my mental trips, sorry, and I will take some medication for my problem, because I see it is not only the bipolar and ocd , I had some hallutinations, I went really crazy, as you expect a crazy walking barefoot on the streets talking to the trees, that kind of crazy, but I am better now, I had a worring time for my family too, but I am back to normal, no hallucinations, but still some confusion in my mind due to the hallucinations and some few visual blurriness sometimes, once when I was young, in those crazy days, I had a too big dosis from a plant young people take as a drug in south america, and had totally crazy hallucinations for a whole day and still had some even days later, so the simptoms of what I had look similar, but much better now, thanks for the understanding and sorry if I have been unpolite, please, and in my case stay a little away from the computer and spend more time with my family and things like this, having healthier habits overall will help me a lot too, thank you very much, Mr Pressfield, I am really sorry about the unpolite and even stupid line I said that sounded like I could give advice on what Steven Pressfield shoud or not choose as a genre for him to write, he is a working writer , not a dabbler amateur high on drugs like me, and with this drug addiction problem I have, but I am much better now, I sometimes think it is not so serious, but I reason well sometimes and I realize cigarrete and drugs are not good for me, So , Steve, please, seriously, disconsider and disregard what I said in the first comment I wrote in the previous post and the comments I wrote above and in this post, I was stupid and I was in middle of a depression crisis, so please, understand, Steve, and disconsider the unpolite and unreasonable comments, sorry, sincerely, thank you very much 🙂
I guess I’m in the minority here, but I’ll say it: when you ask us to repeat the mantra “villain = resistance,” all I can think of is “But the resistance is a force for good. Resistance is what stops evil.The resistance fought the Nazis. It undermined the forces of evil, it’s the opposite of evil.”
I suppose you’ve chosen the word ‘resistance’ for a good reason, and after all it may only be semantics, but I have a hard time explaining it or using it the way you wish me to, because I have only ever thought of “resistance” as being something to embrace, encourage, and root for. Resistance is the underdog in any story I’ve ever read. David is the resistance, Goliath is the evil.
I hope I can still be in the club!
I see your point definitely. I think he is just referring to resistance as he writes about in The War of Art. Resistance is the force that works to stop your best work from coming through you. Your job as an artist is to dismantle resistance with in yourself to your creative flow.
You’re in the club, JL!
I was going to read your email message later, but accidentally swiped and WOW! If I’d been shown this analogy 60 years ago, I might have embraced the power of stories and started my writing efforts back then. The yetzer hata connection made me shudder, and I will keep it in mind as I refine the villain in my story.
Nice idea to rewrite your story like if you had read this analogy 60 years ago then in your story you do the old school writing, always securing your bread of everyday old school style, the good and old times without internet when books were a thing and internet was another…Then you first do some reporter journalism , write a colunm on a newspaper or somethin then you start writing your books(in the story) the in the story you can tell the names a the delineagtion and silhouette of your books and the overall story and the names of your books in your story…and you can read the analogies and try to guessread the analogies that your readers will, in their minds, do, about the stories of books you write 60 years ago in your story of your book that you are writing now…
Just to add an augmenting point:
Remember Steves Advice: You have to embellish it a little,
“Quem conta um cONTO , Aumenta um pONTO“
Translated from coloquial Brazilian, it means: The one who tells a tale, augments one point“
It means by Steves Wise Old Advice, you have to mix some creativity and telling licenses, if you know what I mean, the poetical license to see a little couple of butterflyes yellow more then the 1000 that you really see and tell 3002 butterflies in you book when you write what you see 60 years ago…
THis is related to secure the bread of everyday…
Also see: Nobody wants to read your shit, by Steve too, but only watch trough the glasses of: You have to tell alittle point more , right , to make your story more fun and interesting…
thanks…
“Go raibh tu i mbois De.
Agus go raibh tu i bhfad sna bhFlaithis
I nganfhios don Diabhal go bhfuil tu imithe.”
“May God hold you in the palm of His hand.
And may you be a long time in heaven before
the Devil knows you’re gone.”
An old Gaelic benediction
INtersting and must be really old…I didnt hear of similar secret securing to take souls to safe harbour before devil notices like The Comète Line in Belgium help to save the lifes of the allied pilots whose planes landed in Naziccupied Territory(!) +++…
And in France and other places of Europe where The Resistance was fighting Naziccupation…
And The Comète Line saving lives,,,
The rest…
must be just a metaphor , for the info I Have about gods and godesses things, ok!
before devil was extinguished, a simple human could not hide from him…
even small gods had a hard time securing their minds from mindReading of verbalized thoughts…
And I am really talking about thoughts verbalized only inside the mind, no fcking metaphor or analogy here!
Its fckng telepathy style mind fucking reading, ok!!!
So that gaelic is not only old and not even obsolete, is outright wrong…
then of course there are more powerful gods who knows more…
there is probably Only One, and is not me, clear here, lets say the truth, who can communicate with Speed of Thinking Telepathy inside the Speed of Thinking State of Mind…
and is the one who extinguished devil, obviously…
but these are stories for after I read these posts here…
thanks…
Because resistance is defined by its environment it can be singled out of the story and judged. To me resistance can be utilized for good or evil. It all depends of its environment.
I am restructuring my story’s villain to reflect what you suggest: “…as unaltering as the stars and as void of mercy as Satan.”
As always, you continue to inspire. Thank you, sir.
void of mercy
I never wanted to learn the meaning of void, I dont like the word, and is an Irony,
Because I am a C# programmer and we write a lot of times the word void before a sequence of commands we call a function or a method…
so everytime I saw the word, I just dont give a damn and ignore in the programming…
I am crazy, you didnt notice…
Then I learn the meaning of the shit in its context, it means you write this magical word before a function that doenst spit anything or anyinfo out of its digestion paths…
The function only executes and nothing more…
like a thought you have in your mind that doesnt trigger or ignite or induce you or makes you have the instant unconcious reflex of doing something taking some action in this case, yeah…
a void sequence of thoughts…
A void C# method…
I dont know if you say that this you mention donnot deserves mercy or if you are saying that he had no mercy before he was extinguished…anyway…
See Masters of the Universe…(forbidden word, but some gods, more powerful then others, can use it…And I , the One , I write I am The One Who Writes, so, I can use it)
She-Ra cried for Hordak and Evil was EXtinguished…
I , me , The One who doesnt cry…
I Have Cried…
And Evil Is Extinguished!!!
THANKS!!!
Just to add a light point in your navigation:
Stars are fun to read…
Not fun to write on them at all, I assure you…
But fun to read…who, on principle…doesnt try to guess what is wrtitten in the Stars…
But writing on the Stars is only for Gods…
And is no fun, I tell you…
Every little thing you do has (brace for the most Forbidden of All the Forbidden words impact!!!)))…
(dont read the next word) infinite (you didnt read this word) consequences…
Be careful , if you will to use forbidden words, and you are not the directly adopted son of a god, or God of a Son yourselv…
To see the Light and stop circunmnavigating around the island on topic: The Stars are useful to navigate, but dont use them to guide you, because you get used to the beauty and easiness and wonderful and nice and what a ride! and you get used and when there are clouds in the Sky you are fucked…
See the Sun!!!
See the Moon!!!
See the Sun!!!
take sun light 🙂 🙂 🙂
thanks…
Think of One Flew Over The Cukoos Nest. Where did resistance exist? McMurphy, Nurse Ratchett, the residents, the institution, The Chief?
It was woven into all but in different ways based on circumstance, purpose and motivation.
Also, St. Patrick is an example of good resistance against evil darkness.
Happy St. Paddy’s Week.
He cut down way too many sacred oaks for my taste. And he wasn’t Irish.
Got chills reading this blog.
Timely.
Thanks, Steve.
I’m trying to figure out if that’s true, that the villain never changes. Because we need a humanized, richly drawn villain, right? The villain moves the story.
But I think you are right. The villain can certainly have the opportunity to change for the good, can dabble with changing, but ultimately will reject any change for the good. The only way the villain can change is for the worse. Otherwise, the villain becomes the protagonist.
I’m thinking about Hannibal Lecter in the movie version of Silence (my favorite villain). The good in him–the ability to empathize, show compassion and connection with Starling, to value things–it feels like all of that was already there, rather than Starling caused him to change in any appreciable way. In other words, though he has a “human” side, he remains the implacable monster to the end.
I’m wrestling with this in my story at the moment. I want my villain to have a breakthrough at the end and reconnect with her son, the protagonist. But this feels like a letdown, somehow (even if I ultimately kill her off). I think I see why it would be unsatisfying–because if the villain turns “good,” evil can’t really be defeated. It just wafts away like smoke.
wow, i appreciate your point of view, and i appreciate the concept that even the villain can have some redeeming traits.
i’m having issues with the whole good guy bad guy formula, seems very convenient and very old school. I prefer stories where the good guy and the bad guy are two sides of the same coin. The movie Heat for example, or Clint Eastwood’s Iwa Jima…
As an audience it’s convenient when the good is all good and the bad is all bad. The Old Testament was like that. The New Testament was an evolution of that. I think we are evolving as a species, and the lines get blurred more and more.
Thanks for the inspiration. i have to re consider my tendency to want to make the bad guy more 3 dimensional. From the Hindu perspective, Shiva destroys so there’s room for the new.
And i too found the word Resistance a tough word to accept in this context since without Resistance evil would win every time.
I understand Steve as saying that the villain doesn’t change. I agree.
This might sound a little childlike, but, in my opinion, the villain doesn’t change through out the story because he honestly thinks he is the hero, the good guy, the only one in the right. (If you subjected him to a lie detector test he would pass.) He thinks he is smarter or stronger than everyone else and if he can make others see it his way, through whatever means necessary, they will understand and honor him by joining his side. How can you change in a story if you TRULY believe you are the only one with the right answer? He thinks in black and white and does not listen or see others. He digs himself deeper and deeper into his own beliefs.
He has drunk his own kool-aid. He doesn’t see that there might be an alternate path. (Like the hero does.) There is no choice with this guy, it is his way or the highway. Which accidentally takes away others autonomy and makes this guy a controlling person. Or, a villain. ‘As unaltering as the stars and void of mercy’.
Try this one, K: https://stevenpressfield.com/2017/06/the-villain-doesnt-think-hes-the-villain/
Exactly! ???? Couldn’t have said it better, wonderful post with great examples!
“He doesn’t see that there might be an alternate path”
seeing another way
True story here OK!!!!!!!!!!
when I was a kid, my Auntie (earthian auntie, ok, human auntie sister of my human mother, ok) she (Auntie Evelyn Joy Raywood , yes) Said to me that I was Dragon in the Chinese constellation you know…
Because I am birth on the year 1976!!!
I am Dragon!
I Birth on The Year of The Dragon…
I am 10……….
when The Comet came……….
I am The One……….
So Auntie Joy told me, marquinho, you are THE ONE WHO ALWAYS HAVE ANOTHER WAY!!!!!!!!!!
I asked, hmmm???
Because you are the Dragon, marquinho , you always have another way……….
And my mother Beryl Mary Eclair , whose name is Enclared from Clarity because the day she was born by the hands of a surgeon doctor who went to fight the nazi in east and west Europe and was her father and my granpa, the second the surgeon doctor took her to this world…A lightining flares and Clares the Sky…
My mother told me I was dragon of Water…
She maybe was reading something about these things, the four elements and shit, so she, I was a little kid, she say to me, marquinho, you are the Water Dragon…
This is all truth and Truth and True!!!!!!!!!!
And I am unknown by the unknown on the unknown by the humble title…
The Dragon Water The One Who Always Have Another Way!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
just for you to know 🙂
…Thanks…
Resistance on the page. Resistance off the page.
If only we could appease Resistance by telling him he’s got a starring role in our writing.
“Grow! Grow!”
Before I even go on reading I have stoped a moment in this part of the post, I have to comment on the old chinese saying about the man who was trying to make the grass blades of the just birth young rice plants little grass…
the man was tryng to make the grass grow faster, and he was pulling the grass up…
didnt help too much…
but I read the rest of the post that is probably equally enjoyable 🙂
thanks…
Oh! The chinese saying is ba miao zhang zhu ( maybe literal more or less like: take / little plant/ grow / help )
She-Ra: Princess of Power1985
She-Ra: Princess of Power is an American animated series produced in 1985 by Filmation. A spin-off of Filmation’s He-Man and the Masters of the Universe series, She-Ra was aimed primarily at a young female audience to complement He-Man’s popularity … more »
Skeletor:
You’re crying for Hordak? I don’t believe it!
Noah:
How can you cry for someone like him?
She-Ra:
I’m not just crying for Hordak, I’m crying for the saddest thing I know: a wasted life. To be given that most precious gift, the gift of living, to do with as we choose. I’m crying, because this man has chosen to throw it away. And when he goes, nobody will care.
thats how Evil was extinguished and Is EXtinguished.
some tears…
and smile at the same time maybe…
and 99 smiles…(no metaphor with the ship here, this was much before the ship even exist…)
And 99 smiles to the loved sailors ; ) : ) : )
thanks…
I am really glad I read this late in the day instead of early, as usual. Reading all the comments was very entertaining. I can’t tell if you are becoming a philosophy prof or a rabbi as your next act, Steven. This post is so deep on many levels. I love it MORE than usual!
Madam Mia, your homepage first page sequence of images with the senteces you write with your name written on the beautiful images on the beautiful sentences is the best , the best , the best …
think I have read on a long , long , long , time . . .
…thanks…
Don’t resist just respond to the moment! It’s all we have a life built moment by moment.
good!
so good…
yes…
I was beating around the bush and I cannot even mention what I think about this metaphor of beating and bush even for me who is the one who writes is a bit too pineappleish, to use a rough but natural from mothers natures analogy, yes…so… well …
I was going deviating a litttle from the main point: Resistance
Mister Steven Pressfield, OLD WISE WRITER by conquered Name and Title of Great Respect!!!!!!!!!!
also taxi driver, screenplayer writer, from the trunk of the car wanderer, maybe even kind of bagger at a certain point in the night or the day, maybe even golf caddie sometimes or golf player who knows…
Its Steven Pressfield
Steve, for the friends and some others too, yeah…so…
Steve has Answered this question about Resistance in a simple beautiful way , It is…
The Intentional Avoidance of Success and Fame and Wealth
Steve writes his own words, he calls Fear of Success, he use his words with his freewill and free will Always to use it as he is A One who writes…
I write my own dream because I Am The One!!!!!!!!!!
So see resistance as something like confidence…is a tool of two vegetables…without some confidence, things are hard, with too much confidence, you are fucked…so , a conservatory aproach is always the most advised in any situation, in my opinion…
Unless you have balls to fly like the Messia in the story…
All the people of good people beautiful little humans like these in the animation movie Little People made by the Son of Master Hayao Miyazaki, but naked, of course, completely naked because they live in the clearwater little clear and beautiful stream cristal water stream river…
And they live in the ground floor near by the beautiful white orangish colorful rainbow iris=descen like the Moon Stone who is white like an white opal but with the ever changing outer fluctuating on the empty air Blue Brightness coloured Sand and grains of sand like grains of moonstone and opal( zhao, anyone?) so…
They live happily there, hanging holding the grass in the ground that grows in the opal sand and the grass is soft and green and it feels safe and feels good and feels you know how good and they would like to let the grass and fly but are afraid of hit in the rocks pulled by the stream and there are rocks downstream everyone can see them, thats why anyone loosen his hand always keep one hand holding a grass leave, and dont want to leave the grass, yes…
But the Messia, not too much analogies with me in this one, please ; )
well…the messia just fly and goes and See that:::
The Stream Pull One Up!!!!!!!!!!
And One Fly Over The Rocks!!!!!!!!!!
And fly over and learn to control one flying direction and speed yes…
one dont want to be a Sky God…one wants to be flying in the water, not in the gods space…
barenaked , always naked , one learns to walk on the ground sand of the clear cristal water river with his hands free…thats the best way…and one fly when one is happy and wants to fly or mother nature makes one fly to See…
…Thanks…
yes…
easy like this…
…Thanks…
Interesting piece. Thank you. But I saw something completely different.
The term yetzer hara comes from the phrase “the imagination of the heart of man [is] evil.” And that “imagination” is the story people conjure about themselves.
Yes, stories are a powerful form of communication, because they map onto our storytelling brains. However, the message most great stories are trying to get across is that the root of one’s suffering is his or her own delusional personal narrative.
Let that go, become as an innocent child again, and evil will leave your heart.
what brand of soda pop terminator 1 drink just after leaving the spaceship on what he came to the present?
(G)ood people are rarely suspicious: They cannot imagine others doing the things they themselves are incapable of doing; usually they accept the undramatic solution as the correct one, and let matters rest there. Then too, the normal are inclined to visualise the (psychopath) as one who’s as monstrous in appearance as he is in mind, which is about as far from the truth as one could well get…These monsters of real life usually looked and behaved in a more normal manner than their actually normal brothers and sisters; they presented a more convincing picture of virtue than virtue presented of itself – just as the wax rosebud or the plastic peach seemed more perfect to the eye, more what the mind thought a rosebud or a peach should be, than the imperfect original from which it had been modelled. – William March, The Bad Seed