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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... hope to be deploying examples that are familiar to the widest possible audience and that have a broad popular appeal . Throughout the course of this book we shall be considering the importance of the imagination as a source of insight ...
... hope left in Elves or dying Numenor . This then is one choice before you , before us . We may join with that Power . It would be wise , Gandalf . There is hope that way . Its victory is at hand ; and there will be rich reward for those ...
... hope that such a resource will be available to us when we need it . This hope is , however always just that - hope , never a claim or demand , the true hero makes no demands on the other . The existentialist thinker Søren Kierkegaard ...
Contents
Myth and Imagination | 1 |
Heroes and Otherness | 23 |
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility | 63 |
Copyright | |
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