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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... give my love to my friends . You have to take care of them now . You have to take care of each other . You have to be strong . Dawn , the hardest thing in this world ... is to live in it . Be brave . Live . For me . In this Buffy ...
... give knowledge of one self to another is to give power over one- self to the other.32 Into the vacuum that is the stranger we empty our fears and mistrusts , casting the other in the image of the predator who is out to consume us if ...
... gives way to free communion . At this point the careful attention to the balance of power which characteris- es our ... give of ourselves without the assurance of a secure power - base from which we are unassailable . We communicate ...
Contents
Myth and Imagination | 1 |
Heroes and Otherness | 23 |
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility | 63 |
Copyright | |
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