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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... present us with the challenge to transformation , possibly enabling us to see ourselves and others in a new light . The heroes and villains continually thrown up by human imagination can be seen as powerful prototypes representing the ...
... present only an image , a simulacra of a person . In many respects this creation of a social image acts as an isolating armour in much the same ways as does Doctor Doom's and Iron Man's referred to earlier . Bearing in mind what we have ...
... present war - the cost of making use of such a resource is considered , by most , to be far too great . This is made quite clear when Boromir of the beleaguered city of Gondor sug- gests that the ring ought to be used in its defence ...
Contents
Myth and Imagination | 1 |
Heroes and Otherness | 23 |
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility | 63 |
Copyright | |
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