The murderer within us all

February 23, 2013 6:05 PM

[novel filter] I'm searching the recesses of my mind to locate a half-remembered passage from a fictional novel which provides a beautiful meditation on the fact that all humans are essentially the same; and not getting very far. What I can remember is that one of the characters is projecting themselves into the shoes of others (or one particular 'bad' person? I can't recall) - murderers, rapists, etc - and noting that there is little that separates him or her personally, or good people in general, from those we deem the evil. Any ideas?

I would have thought Dostoyevsky would take the cake on this one, but I don't think it's the case here. The closet to the sentiment I've found is in this quote of Solzhenitsyn's:

“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”

It's close in meaning, but the passage I'm looking for is much more personal and detailed than this. I know it's a long shot, but any further ideas? Much appreciated as always, hive :)

posted by mrme to Society & Culture (7 answers total)

from Denis Johnson's Jesus' Son:

"Dundun tortured Jack Hotel at the lake outside of Denver. He did this to get information about a stolen item, a stereo belonging to Dundun's girlfriend, or perhaps to his sister. Later, Dundun beat a man almost to death with a tire iron right on the street in Austin, Texas, for which he'll also someday have to answer, but now he is, I think, in the state prison in Colorado.

Will you believe me when I tell you there was kindness in his heart? His left hand didn’t know what his right hand was doing. It was only that certain important connections had been burned through. If I opened up your head and ran a hot soldering iron around in your brain, I might turn you into someone like that."
posted by in a dark glassly at 6:15 PM on February 23, 2013 [1 favorite]

Sounds like Camus. Perhaps "L'Étranger".
posted by PickeringPete at 7:29 PM on February 23, 2013

Musil's The Man Without Qualities has numerous bits about something like this. Skimming the first page, this seems like a decent article about it, and this blog has several relevant quotes from early on, but I recall there being even more reminiscent of what you're saying.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 7:59 PM on February 23, 2013

You say no Dostoevsky, but it sounds like it could come right out of Notes from Underground. But there's so many people it could have come from.
posted by outlandishmarxist at 11:25 PM on February 23, 2013

Some of your description sounds like Flight by Sherman Alexie.
posted by salvia at 11:58 PM on February 23, 2013

There are passages to this effect in Thomas Harris' books Red Dragon and Silence of the Lambs, famously made into movies.
posted by davemessina at 2:23 PM on February 24, 2013

There's an interesting speech in Cormac McCarthy's 'Blood Meridian', where The Judge explains the nature of games and competition to The Kid. He concludes that warfare is the ultimate game.

(Also, that Solzhenitsyn quote is one of my favourites.)
posted by ovvl at 2:33 PM on February 24, 2013