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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... villain . - God hath died : now do we desire the Superman to live ... The Superman , I have at heart ; that is the first and only thing to me - and not man ; not the neighbour , not the poorest , not the sorriest , not the bes t ... For ...
... villain the hero makes themselves available to the other while the villain merely makes use of the other as a resource . The power of the hero , in this regard , resides in their ability to stand in the way of evil , to make of ...
... villain has to do with the withholding of oneself from that world . We have spoken of the villain as armouring themselves against the world , seeking to distance themselves from a world that in many ways they seem to fear due to its ...
Contents
Myth and Imagination | 1 |
Heroes and Otherness | 23 |
With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility | 63 |
Copyright | |
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