While doing a reading at Vromer's Books in Pasadena recently, someone asked me about the good and evil characters, the battle between good and bad, between Nephilim and Human, in my book. Although this isn't anything new, I thought I'd ramble on a bit about it here, especially because it is at the heart of
Angelology.
Angelology is a theological study which has existed for hundreds of years. I've taken this idea and, in the world of my novel, posited that famous thinkers, philosophers, and religions have dedicated their lives to the study of angels with the purpose of fighting evil angels called Nephilim. In the library archives at www.angelologist.com, you can consult pages of a directory of some famous angelologists from my novel. Reading about these people made me want to write about them and their fight with the Nephilim — from ancient times to the present.
As I wrote Angelology, I found myself less interested in the classic ‘good vs. evil' concept and was drawn more and more to the ambiguity, the shades of gray between the two extremes. I wanted to show that the Nephilim have a variety of qualities: are more or less human and have more or less angelic qualities, and that nothing is as straightforward as pure good or pure evil. From a writer's point of view, it is nearly impossible to draw believable characters that are at either extreme. For example, my character Percival Grigori is desperately attracted to human women, despite himself. Meanwhile, the angelologists who hope to track the Nephilim down and rid them of their powers are faced with ambiguous feelings, difficult decisions, moral dilemmas. So maybe this book is not so much about good and evil, but all the nuances between.
What are some of your favorite Good vs. Evil stories? Please post below.