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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... understand something if we can ' grasp ' it ... But belief in creation only arrives at the understanding of creation when it recollects the alternative forms of meditative knowledge . ' We know to the extent to which we love ' , said ...
... understand about the workings of the world and the people who inhabit it provides us with ability to control , to manipulate and to coerce as well as to enlighten and liberate . We all possess knowledge , at sometime or another , that ...
... understanding , as found in List , with the positive German ideal which spoke of the individual as free in matters of morals and epistemology – a view that would find a more enduring and influential voice in the philosopher Nietzsche ...
Contents
Myth and Imagination | 1 |
Heroes and Otherness | 23 |
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility | 63 |
Copyright | |
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