Why Has The West Embrace The Anti-Hero Story?
Why has this become so popular: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I0tobM9b_9I ? The renewed interest in the anti-hero has taken a somewhat novel context, an article from Shadi Neinmeh at the University of Manitoba:
“…consider anti-heroism as a response to modern man's uncertainties about traditional values and as a feature of modernity's Zeitgeist. Modern anti-heroism captures the sensibility associated with modernism, with its attempts at cultural renewal, and it ranges between the low mimetic and the ironic mode.”
https://www.jstor.org/stable/44030709
Let's explore why as we watch our culture stray Further. Every. Day.
Name some common anti-heros, I know you can do it if you've been watching popular cinema in the last decade or two: Walter White, Deadpool, Punisher, Tony Soprano, Joker, Judge Dredd, Catwoman, and the list goes on forever. Some of these story types are tragedies, think Tony Soprano and Walter White. In the Sopranos a gangster becomes more human to the eyes of the viewer before the show is over, but in the end, Tony is killed by a long time friend. The villain's story ends in tragedy, as we know it should be based upon our learned experiences.
In Breaking Bad, we see a family man beset with difficult decisions. Walter's descent from broke teacher and loving family man into heartless mobster with all of the wealth in the world, but at the cost of his family is a Greek Tragedy in modern form. In fact, the perspective of the Anti-Hero has, until recently, always been a story of warning. The Anti-Hero narrative is generally only satisfying in the moral culture, when it ends in tragedy.
This brings us to today, where truth is relative and the respect for the valuable traits of the Anti-Hero, can be taken as bonafides in the Anti-Hero's virtue. Take the Hazbin Hotel, for instance, the whole narrative is focused on the virtue of Lucifer's “creativity” that sounds great! However, what happens when fiction like Hazbin Hotel slips in assumptive truth claims about God? What does that do to the psyche of the human being? Why do you think we see a pivot towards this type of artistic expression?
Theology: We see the Bible document men and women of terrible standing, some of these men and women could easily fit the role of Anti-Hero if their story was written as a Hollywood Script. Who are these people, and what does God show us through History concerning the accomplishments of wicked people?
Philosophy: Humans are naturally sponges intellectually. Christ spoke on the issue of the heart when He said: “It is not what goes into the man, but what comes out that makes him unclean.” The Proverbs are full of verses about avoiding people who's tendencies are towards sin. How should we as Christians go about consuming media?
Culture: When the culture sees us consuming the same media as them, with no reservations for the content, what does that do to our witness? How should we live our lives in the culture?
Politics: Many people have tried to fix the culture in the political sphere. The problem with this is that this issue is one of the heart. How is this not an issue for Politics, but one for the family?
Economics: What should we do when it comes to Hollywood as media consumers? How has the family failed to protect children via cheap babysitting through TV?
Last Question: Favorite Villain and why?