Emily
asked
Cornelia Funke:
Hello! As the author/creator of Capricorn, what inspired you to present his character as you did? Thank you!
Cornelia Funke
Hi Emily,
I didn't meet many truly evil men in my life, Emily, but we all saw traces of evil in ourselves and others. As a German I have been thinking about good and evil since I heard about the deeds of my ancestors as a child. I think it is far too often in our culture glorified and glamorized - we all know the quote ' evil characters are so much more fun to write' - and I always try to resist that temptation when I write my villains. Because it is not true. Evil means crippled, twisted, broken, frozen emotions, no compassion...With Capricorn I tried to create a character who represents evil that way. Many oppressors use what we cherish most: friendship, love, family against us - for me that has always been the most scary part of dictatorships. Capricorn is very good at it. He is a fascist. As a model I used a movie villain - the one James Cromwell plays in LA Confidential:)
I didn't meet many truly evil men in my life, Emily, but we all saw traces of evil in ourselves and others. As a German I have been thinking about good and evil since I heard about the deeds of my ancestors as a child. I think it is far too often in our culture glorified and glamorized - we all know the quote ' evil characters are so much more fun to write' - and I always try to resist that temptation when I write my villains. Because it is not true. Evil means crippled, twisted, broken, frozen emotions, no compassion...With Capricorn I tried to create a character who represents evil that way. Many oppressors use what we cherish most: friendship, love, family against us - for me that has always been the most scary part of dictatorships. Capricorn is very good at it. He is a fascist. As a model I used a movie villain - the one James Cromwell plays in LA Confidential:)
More Answered Questions
Amanda
asked
Cornelia Funke:
Inkworld trilogy will always stay in my heart for it's the one and only series that I finished in a single sitting reading a book a day, and Reckless is one of my all time favorite series. As I'm also an avid fan of languages (with German as my 1st foreign language<3) so I'm curious: do you prefer writing everything primarily in German or do you also like to write directly in English?
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