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
Results 1-3 of 3
... minute . She could have killed me . GILES : No , she couldn't , never , and sooner or later Glory will re - emerge and make Buffy pay for that mercy and the world with her . Buffy even knows that and still she couldn't take a human life ...
... minutes at the end of Season One . Unlike Buffy , Faith appears supremely confident , self - assured and self - contained , invulnerable in her own emotional armour . She revels in her powers and , on the face of it at least , in her ...
... minutes , to save the cat . There is an existential immediacy about the way in which the hero engages with the world . While concerns about humanity and the fate of nations and worlds as a whole are indeed an issue , this rarely seems ...
Contents
Myth and Imagination | 1 |
Heroes and Otherness | 23 |
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility | 63 |
Copyright | |
2 other sections not shown