While today’s reading landscape is majorly taken over by romance readers, a considerable statistic of 34% of the fiction market, we shouldn’t undermine the emerging subgenre of crime/thriller with a brilliant 29% percent, estimated to reach 10.48$ billion by 2025. Now why is this trope so appealing? Why is this setting of often times existentially constipated men put into moral dilemmas involving the masses so well loved by the reading community? Where did the idea of this trope truly originate?

Like all things literature, we can trace these nuances back to the Greeks. One story particularly from the later Homeric Gods, is the base foundation for the concept of ‘justice no matter the means.’ Nemesis, the Goddess of Retribution and Equilibrium in the stories told about her stood for the bringing about balance by direction of human affairs through conscience i.e. she represented natural law and maintains the such. She was known to, in the stories, measure one’s happiness and unhappiness and likewise impart boons or curses to restore balance in one’s life.

This is also similar to Ma’at, found in Ancient Egyptian Mythology. Ma’at was known to be the symbol of justice and order and was created when Ra the Sun God rose from Chaos. But to the Egyptians Ma’at was the way of life, she was the ultimate justice. At the end of life, when you passed over, you were measured and only Ma’at’s feather of truth was seen as absolute yardstick to measure one’s soul in the afterlife.

Now, what does this have to do with crime/thriller fiction? The concept of justice is very central and pivotal to the genre itself. How each book takes on the justice system might differ but there is a rising theme these days of what we might call “The Vigilantes of The Oppressed” or “The Robin Hood.” Pick up any book from a thriller section, it will include some individual that will be involved in risky activities to save masses through means that are beyond the justice system in that world.

So, what are the implications of this trope? It necessarily puts the character at a position of final justice. It translates that no matter what the official justice system might say, one can always appeal to the vigilante for justice to be done. This is very reminiscent of stories of Nemesis and Ma’at. For the Ancient Greeks, justice was truly done only through the idea of Nemesis’ equilibrium, irrelevant of what the authorities might inflict. It was a more about her final judgement which brought about the idea of “retribution does not have to be lawful, it must simply be just” that many of these thriller fiction ‘vigilantes’ embody.

Same is the case for Ma’at, while it was a story, it became a story that changed people’s day of life. The Feather of Truth stood for the ultimate appeal of innocence for a person no matter what the Pharaoh says about his deeds. This bleeds through with the message that famous action vigilantes like Batman stand for, that even if the system falls short, if it fails you, you have a chance at vengeance, at justice through them.

Vigilantes are oftentimes surrounded by gore but they are so well-perceived because they stand for hope. They stand at the balance, they make the judgement, even if the authorities have said otherwise due to restrictions. Because they go where the law can’t, they are the beyond, the bloody, the gruesome. They may not guarantee you righteousness but they guarantee the satisfaction of justice, of a wrong being punished. It is that balance that makes the reader come back to those pages.

Author: Shagufta A K