)(( hannah mello ))(

The Anti-Hero.

"They're not the bad guy, I'm the bad guy."
"My life is a gift, I'm just the bad guy that refuses to embrace it."

Those two statements came from my own mouth twice this week.
= Once about a person-- how I'm the reactionary person,
they're the gentleman.
= Once about a circumstance-- how I'm the one that can't see what's good in front of me, what phantoms my fears create.

= Wikipedia says that a villain fights against the hero.
I feel like at times I fight against my best self or my own values at times.
= Wikipedia says that the villain's disposition towards evil distinguishes them from the antagonist.
I feel like I have a disposition towards the bad just as I have towards the good.
= BUT_---- I am really a villain?
Can one be the antagonist and protagonist both?

Wikipedia breaks down art prototypes further,
talking about the different types of heroes/villains.
One of them being the Anti-Hero.

Maybe it's not about the black & white of hero/villain --
but maybe I am just, quite simply an Anti-Hero.


In my spur-of-the-moment "research" alongside writing this post,
I discovered:

1. A skateboard company, put out ironically by "Outlook Skateboards" called "Anti-Hero"
2. This expose on the history & evolution of Western film genre, which said: " The Man with No Name, an often cited example of an anti-hero, played by Clint Eastwood"
3. The definition: "Antihero = a central character in a story or drama who noticeably lacks heroic attributes.
4. A review of "Blood Diamond" saying DiCaprio's Danny character is an anti-hero as well.
5. This great write up on Anti-heroes.
6. This list of traditional, fictional Anti-heroes in literature, film, TV, and videogames.
7. This BBC article about DiNero's anti-hero role, saying an antihero is "the guy you hate to love"


Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean.
George Costanza from Seinfeld.
Homer & Bart from The Simpsons.
Tony from The Sopranos.
Batman from comic book + the new Batman Begins film.
Ally McBeal from the series.
The Man with No Name (Clint Eastwood's character) from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly + For a Few Dollars More
Danny from The Blood Diamond


Wikipedia thought-provokingly pens:
"In modern times, heroes have enjoyed an increased moral complexity. From this, one could say that the popularity of the anti-hero has seemingly boomed but this is part of the continual evolution and redefinition of the hero. ... It has been argued that the continuing popularity of the anti-hero in modern literature and popular culture may be based on the recognition that a person is fraught with human frailties, unlike the archetypes of the white-hatted cowboy and the noble warrior, and is therefore more accessible to readers and viewers. ... In the postmodern era, traditionally defined heroic qualities, akin to the classic "knight in shining armor" type, have given way to the "gritty truth" of life, and authority in general is being questioned. The brooding vigilante or "noble criminal" archetype seen in characters like Batman is slowly becoming part of the popular conception of heroic valor rather than being characteristics that are deemed un-heroic."

The AntiHero is:
- a marketed brand
- the new Hero persona in film/literature
- a personification of postmodern accepted moral complexity in humanity in general
- me?

Philosophers and theologians for all of history, and more recently-- psychologists & sociologists, have been wrestling with what is human nature.

The truth is that I see both good and bad in myself.
The Yin and the Yang.
The dark side and the hero both/and. Good/Evil. Positivity/Negativity. Wholeness/Depravity.
I am grateful to be living in a day and age where culture as a whole is recognizing the dissonances and stuttering that we feel as humans.

I am grateful to be in a cultural age where the art is not only recognizing that, but painting redemptively what the Anti-Hero can be and accomplish in spite of their "flawed" nature.

I am reminded of a certain Starbucks quote:
"A person's pursuit of goodness leads to greatness, but the pursuit of greatness leads to ruin. Pursue goodness and you will achieve great things."

So, maybe the now-recognized goal
(for our culture, and for me in my personal, human growth)--
is not towards HEROISM-- towards perfect GREATNESS,
towards being the ROLE-MODEL.
Maybe, the now goal is for the GOOD.
The now-goal is maybe towards goodness being sought by Anti-Heroes that are committed to the good in the end.

A toast. A toast to the hope that even Anti-Heroes are HEROES.
Anti-Heroes can be full of so much complexity and wrestling but can be full of so much potential and can act out so much action on behalf of the good.
A toast to you, and a toast to me-- the Anti-Heroes of the here and now.

posted by )(( hannah mello ))( @ 9:16 AM