People who are preoccupied with heroes and heroism

It's an understandable phase of child development

I don't know that I was ever interested in heroism, I just liked the spectacle and that's mostly still the appeal.

Recently I was particularly excited by the monk in the film Iron Fisted Monk, because he says a quick prayer for each person he murders. I don't know what that says about me that I thought that was so cool. It's my fantasy of being amazingly even-tempered.

I was sarkily suggesting it's an infantile frame of mind.

It's made me think tho, yes there are behaviours or aspects of character that we admire as adults, even in fictional characters. And I'm not really interested in monodimensional characters in fiction but I can think of a bunch of exceptions to that.

I'm knackered this evening, can't put my thoughts together at the moment. Good thread tho, gonna chime in when my brain works. Thinking about how the belief in heroism plays out in people's engagement with politics too.

yes good thread idea and I'll have more thoughts later. seems to tie in to ideas of romanticism and notions ones gets from storytelling that don't necessarily reflect the real life. values we hope to hold and are partly expected to behold that aren't feasible in most real contexts

There was a story about Straczynski running after and tackling a thief to the ground at a convention, people asked him why he did that and then he asked why a Superman writer wouldn't chase a thief.

I don't know if it would be telling whether people prefer stories of lifelong do-gooders or flawed people who manage to do good things despite pressure all around to compromise.

I blame Joseph Campbell - especially when Star Wars fans grafted his writing on it.

Thomas Carlyle to thread! He wrote the book on this.

I wonder if this is even more important in china because it's constantly discussed in wuxia and "cultivation novels"

…make up the entirety of Jordan Peterson's readership.

Another thing I don't get at all: people who love stories about friendship