The Iago Problem<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Reflecting on Daniel Craig's recent performance as Iago, Tamsin Shaw puzzles over the \u201cIago problem\u201d in a secular world:\u201cThe concept of evil has fallen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/01\/the-iago-problem\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Iago Problem\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Reflecting on Daniel Craig's recent performance as Iago, Tamsin Shaw puzzles over the \u201cIago problem\u201d in a secular world:\u201cThe concept of evil has fallen\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/01\/the-iago-problem\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" 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{"id":18595,"date":"2017-01-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-01-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=318"},"modified":"2017-01-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-01-06T00:00:00","slug":"the-iago-problem","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2017\/01\/the-iago-problem\/","title":{"rendered":"The Iago Problem"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

R<\/span>eflecting on Daniel Craig\u2019s recent performance as Iago, Tamsin Shaw puzzles over<\/a> the \u201cIago problem\u201d in a secular world:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe concept of evil has fallen out of favor in our disenchanted world. Its religious and superstitious connotations are permissible in horror movies, but otherwise often deemed embarrassing. Without some religious metaphysics it is hard to make sense of the idea that there are people who are intrinsically evil; it no longer seems plausible to many of us that people can be motivated by something that can be described as pure evil. Sustained cruelty is therefore often explained as sociopathy (the slick, psychopathic killers beloved of Hollywood), or a personality disorder stemming from some deep personal or social injury, or as some horribly warped conception of what is good.\u201d<\/p>\n

One option is to modernize villainy, make Iago a victim of social forces or his own uncontrollable passions: \u201cBob Peck has portrayed him as \u2018a hate machine created by the slow, dehumanizing process of professional warfare\u2019; David Suchet as a repressed homosexual, \u2018deeply in love with Othello and manically jealous of Desdemona\u2019; Anthony Sher as a man with \u2018a severe sexual hang-up,\u2019 whose uncontrollable, morbid jealousy is aroused by the belief that Othello has slept with his wife.\u201d<\/p>\n

Craig solves the problem by cutting through excuses. His Iago \u201cchooses moral insensibility and viciousness.\u201d His \u201cloves and hates seem shallow. When Craig delivers the lines about hating the Moor, he conveys that Iago is quite serious, but that it is a willed hate, not an overwhelming passion.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/span>Shaw thinks it works, terrifyingly well: \u201cCraig\u2019s commanding performance, his combination of charm, sexual charisma, and menacing masculinity, his ability to make the audience dread his actions and yet giggle childishly along with his sadistic delight, makes his choice seem not like one that is psychologically inexplicable but rather one that does not need any deeper psychological explanation.\u201d<\/p>\n

His choice is a choice not to give a shit: \u201cThis is a choice, this not giving a shit. It is the voluptuous enjoyment that Nietzsche described. It is the freedom and exhilaration of moral insensibility.\u201d<\/p>\n

There\u2019s no evil like good old enchanted evil.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"