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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... simply a good example to follow , is nothing less than God in human form . The Christian notion of incarnation speaks of a God who takes on the human condition - as John's gospel would have it , the Word of God , the creator of all ...
... simply choose to get up and go out into the world to encounter what it has to offer . For every hero who wields an ... simply a resource to be used for work or pleasure . The hero may simply be the person who stops to help a stranger ...
... simply be the individual who uses others for sexual gratification . Every day , and throughout our entire lives we wake , we confront the world and we must ask ourselves : Today , am I hero or villain ? 23 This is of course not to say ...
Contents
Myth and Imagination | 1 |
Heroes and Otherness | 23 |
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility | 63 |
Copyright | |
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