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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... man at best , responds to his accident by turning in on himself and shunning the rest of humanity : My face ... no other eyes must ever gaze upon it !! I'll hide from the sight of mankind ... somewhere ... somehow.29 The armour he ...
... rest of humanity is a dangerous and potentially bloody thing indeed , yet to see oneself as different from the rest of humanity is , I believe , the basis for true villainy . One of the reasons that the likes of the cannibalistic ...
... rest of humanity , as having no kinship with others . For every villain who seeks to enslave the human race or transform it into mindless puppets there is the individual who sees others as simply a resource to be used for work or ...
Contents
Myth and Imagination | 1 |
Heroes and Otherness | 23 |
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility | 63 |
Copyright | |
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