Heroes and VillainsHercules, Jesus, James Bond, Luke Skywalker, Gandalf, Frodo, Harry Potter, Buffy Summers, Spiderman, Batman, Captain Kirk, Dr. Who, Darth Vader, Sauron, Voldemort, Lex Luthor, Dr. Doom, the Daleks, the Borg. Almost anybody living in the developed West would be able to group these individuals into two camps: the heroes and the villains. However, what criteria they may use to do this is less clear. Mike Alsford introduces us to a range of heroic and villainous archetypes on a journey through film, television, comic books, and literature. On the way, he addresses questions such as: What is a true hero? What is a true villain? Have we misunderstood these terms? What kind of societal values do our mythical heroes and villains represent? In trying to understand the extremes of hero and villain we are made more aware of our own ethical standards and given a space in which to explore contemporary concerns over notions of right and wrong, good and bad. |
From inside the book
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... choose to live in a world which assails us constantly with choic- es and options and ill - defined complexities is ... chooses to risk this possible fate for the sake of others . Xander , who has his most obvious heroic moment when he ...
... choose to make myself as I navigated my way through it.31 While it may indeed be the case that no man is an island it is equally the case that we can do a pretty good job of shutting down our borders . We can choose to armour ourselves ...
... choose to embrace difference and otherness giving ourselves over to the other in the knowledge that only through heroic self- giving do we truly discover ourselves or we can choose to armour ourselves against the world . As I write ...
Contents
Myth and Imagination | 1 |
Heroes and Otherness | 23 |
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility | 63 |
Copyright | |
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