Heroes

The discussion that arose today from the Sci-Fi and Fantasy elective I conduct set me thinking again:

The topic was the concept of heroism and villany. In a forum that grew in magnitude and engagement, I tried to anchor firm concepts of what heroism and and villany are in Science Fiction and Fantasy only to realise, as one of the students pointed out, there aren't any heroes in this day and age. So why define what heroism and villany are; why talk about good and evil?

Heroes are born from adversity - they represent an 'everyman', the innate possibility within all of us to become more, a "will to power" as Nietzsche would put it (though not exactly in this context).

But what adversities to we have today? Who embodies the qualities that characterises heroes in Fantasy stories today? Aren't we driven by self-centredness, conceit, and ambition? Or as Foucault says, power?

We are merely fallen beings, waddling through life in a post-lapsarian condition. We all have our darker sides and we recognise that we can as easily be evil as we can become heroic; perhaps so much easier to be the former - to follow unquestioningly and uncritically the values the world 'upholds'.

But I'd still like to believe that there are heroes and that they'd be appreciated. I'd like to believe that I have the capacity to rise in adversity.

Yet heroes die young ...

It is a solitary journey ...

Perhaps I should live in another time and space.