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. |
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... fear : fear of , or at the very least anxiety over , the sin of Cain , fear of the potential for violence and animosity inherent in the mysterious stranger . It is this which represents the tragedy and paradox of relational brokenness ...
... fears and mistrusts , casting the other in the image of the predator who is out to consume us if once given advantage over us . It is this fear which establishes estrangement as our primary experience of the other ; as much as anything ...
... fear making ourselves too available to the other and thus opening ourselves up to abuse , we cannot stop being ourselves no matter how adept we might be at rendering ourselves unavailable to the stranger . We will generally dress in a ...
Contents
Myth and Imagination | 1 |
Heroes and Otherness | 23 |
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility | 63 |
Copyright | |
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