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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... knowledge became inextricably intertwined with the notion of precision . In the wake of the Cartesian epistemology there followed a succession of philosophers who sought to develop and refine our understanding of what truth is and how ...
... knowledge is dominating knowledge . We know something to the extent in which we can dominate it . We understand something if we can ' grasp ' it ... But belief in creation only arrives at the understanding of creation when it recollects ...
... knowledge is power has never been more relevant than it is today . While Bacon had in mind knowledge of the natural world providing us with increased technological mastery over our environment , the free flow of information via the ...
Contents
Myth and Imagination | 1 |
Heroes and Otherness | 23 |
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility | 63 |
Copyright | |
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