On Wed, Aug 24, 2011 at 6:41 PM, Matt Kundert <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hey Dan, > > Dan said: > The character of Dexter is not a psychopath in the strict sense of the > definition: A social predator who charms, manipulates and ruthlessly > plows their way through life...completely lacking in feelings for others, > they selfishly take what they want and do as they please, violating > social norms and expectations without the slightest sense of guilt or > regret. > > The fact that Dexter is a serial killer immediately brings to mind the > likes of Ted Bundy, Richard Speck, John Gacy, and other notorious > psychopaths. But Dexter isn't that kind of serial killer... he is more a > vigilante like the character Charles Bronson played in Death Wish. > Dexter is a normal, every day person... he is a loving father, he > cares deeply for his wife and sister. > > Matt: > It's funny, but we have completely different perspectives on these > shows. I see Dexter as exactly fulfilling the definition you just > supplied (though I care much less about strictness in fittingness). > The problem of Dexter, and why he's interesting, is exactly > because he is _not_ Bronson: a vigilante who cares. It is because > his mode of being a predator doesn't fit our notions of what > patterns usually do fulfill that type. I don't have time to accumulate > textual evidence, but it seems to me that a mountain of it is on my > side. Without a doubt, Dexter is evolving through the seasons (and > I haven't seen the last season, so no spoilers) and is having more > and more existential crises, but at the beginning of Season 1, there > seems to be several internal monologues that spell out that the only > reason he _behaves like_ a loving boyfriend (eventually father) and > brother is because it's what he needs to do to fit in, not because he > feels the emotions. (As I believe Arlo also articulated.)
Steve: I am a big fan of Dexter. The premise is certainly that the character is a psychopath/sociopath. Now I think they frequently cheat on that score in the same ways and probably for the same reasons that such cheating was done on Spock and Data on Star Trek. If you don't humanize these characters the audience will lose interest and emotions and empathy are essential human characteristics. That is to say, we probably won't be able to recognize ourselves in these characters without them. Moq_Discuss mailing list Listinfo, Unsubscribing etc. http://lists.moqtalk.org/listinfo.cgi/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org Archives: http://lists.moqtalk.org/pipermail/moq_discuss-moqtalk.org/ http://moq.org/md/archives.html
