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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... regarded as the sole preserve of the expert academic . While someone untrained in the fields of philosophy or theology , for example , may balk at commenting upon deontological versus teleological ethics they may have plenty to say ...
... regarded as value neutral – even the knowledge of how to make a nuclear weapon could be said to be harmless scientific information until utilised in a specific way , although I realise that this is a debatable point . How we use the ...
... regarded as so villainous is that they understand themselves as unrelated to anything other than themselves . Thus everything that they encounter is to be regarded as a resource , something that can be consumed and used . The villain is ...
Contents
Myth and Imagination | 1 |
Heroes and Otherness | 23 |
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility | 63 |
Copyright | |
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