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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... complex , thus defying reduction to a single explanatory story , or grand narrative , provides us with an insight into the context of the truly heroic . - ― The hero is the one who accepts , however unpalatable this might be , that ...
... complex world constructed out of the interplay of diverse forces and opinions , Rather , the villain seeks to simplify the world , to recast it in to a single image where the only law is the law of their own individual , autonomous will ...
... complex social web . In short , they lack the necessary sense of responsibility towards the other . It is no surprise that for many villains the possession of a godlike status is their ultimate goal . To be as a god inevitably marks one ...
Contents
Myth and Imagination | 1 |
Heroes and Otherness | 23 |
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility | 63 |
Copyright | |
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