Ideas can be Poisonous

How Ideas can Infiltrate Themselves into the Minds of Unsuspecting Readers

Photo by David Clode on Unsplash

Sometimes I wonder if literature changes you, or if you are already drawn to topics that you believe in (sort of like confirmation bias).

I often find myself drawn to ideas that I’ve already had, unable to communicate them.

Can an author poison their audience?

One such idea I’ve encountered is that of poisonous thoughts. An author can produce a bad idea and transfer it to another person, leading that person to produce bad actions as a result.

Socrates is famously against poetry and fiction, as presented in the works of Plato, claiming that it inspires passions in people that aren’t perfect, just, or virtuous. A good example he uses is the tales of the Greek gods. Most people assume that Zeus has extramarital affairs and rapes women. This, in turn, could cause people to justify their own horrid actions and say, “If the Gods do it, surely I can be forgiven”.

But Socrates suggests that it is disgraceful to think of God like this. How can a God who created such beauty and virtue possibly act this way?

Poetry is written by people who are not experts, and while they may convey thoughts beautifully, they possess little to no knowledge and, as a result, are unaware of the emotions they are inspiring in their readers.

Examples of ideas poisoning people in literature

Similarly, Kurt Vonnegut writes about this theme in “Breakfast of Champions” when Dwayne Hoover, a car salesman, goes insane and is influenced by the stupid ideas of Kilgore Trout, a bad science fiction writer.

Dwayne is already suicidal due to “bad chemicals” in his brain when he comes across a novel by Trout that convinces him that everyone is a robot except for himself.

Interestingly enough, Trout is often assumed to be an extension of the author (Vonnegut). Is he suggesting that he is afraid of the ideas he is creating? Their negative impact on the world? Can an author be responsible for the actions of an unstable individual if they write fiction that can be deemed destructive?

Another striking example is Dorian Gray in “The Picture of Dorian Gray” by Oscar Wilde. Dorian is a young, innocent man who quickly runs into a deviant personality with poisonous opinions in the form of Lord Henry.

Lord Henry is a very witty and intelligent nobleman with ideas that challenge tradition and convention. Oftentimes, Lord Henry goads Dorian into bad situations for his own amusement. Lord Henry recognizes that Dorian is a very charismatic individual and wants to test some of his theories on him.

Can you be good and ignorant?

Before he met Lord Henry, Dorian was full of innocence, inexperience, and humility. Henry’s poisonous and nihilistic ideas quickly infiltrate Dorian’s mind.

It is interesting to think about whether Dorian was actually a good person before or if he was just ignorant to vice and evil? Can you be said to be good if you haven’t been tempted to do evil?

Of course, we are all human and are easily tempted and fail to act with virtue. But isn’t the mark of a good person the fact that they were tested and, while others failed, they persevered?

Isn’t that why Jesus is a hero for surviving 40 days in the desert and Satan’s three temptations?

There’s also something to be said about the timing of these temptations. Jesus had studied scriptures and was already a 30-year-old man. Dorian was in his early 20s at the beginning of the novel. Just like a flower plucked too early and not yet blossomed, Dorian wasn’t ready for his moral tests.

Still, the poison of ideas could also affect people like Dwayne, who are mentally ill.

Is it then the job of an author to moderate their ideas for these eventualities? Or should an artist have full creative expression? Does thinking about how words can be taken dampen the creativity of a work?