Tarnished Heroes, Charming Villains, and Modern Monsters: Science Fiction in Shades of Gray on 21st Century Television
2012; Liverpool University Press; Volume: 53; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
2047-7708
Autores Tópico(s)Gothic Literature and Media Analysis
ResumoNoise. Lynnette Porter. Tarnished Heroes, Charming Villains, and Modern Monsters: Science Fiction in Shades of on 21st Century Television. London: McFarland, 2011. 308 pp. ISBN 9780786448586. $35 pbk.Reviewed by Kate S. KelleyLynnette Porter's Tarnished Heroes, Charming Villains, and Modern Monsters: Science Fiction in Shades of on 21st Century Television is divided in two sections. first section identifies modern hero as a key component in analysis of contemporary sf and fantasy television. construction of modern hero is caused, Porter suggests, by TV creators and writers [...] reflecting pragmatic made by real-world leaders [and] also those who are comfortable working in areas (16). For Porter, it is not only idea of traditional hero that has been renegotiated; villains and monsters who engage her modern hero have also undergone a transition from absolute moral blackness they once symbolized to vague shades of gray. Porter's study includes analyses of The World of Joss Whedon, Heroes (2006-10), Lost (2004-10), Battlestar Galactica (2003-09) and its spinoff Caprica (2010), Doctor Who (2005-12), and Torchwood (2006-11). These recent television shows, she states, have presented audiences with new gray heroes and villains [who] [...] seem just as helpless as rest of us (4). heroes Porter presents are now more recognizable as fellow humans even when they have superhuman qualities.Porter maps characteristics of traditional and modern heroes, villains, and monsters in first chapter. She identifies traditional hero with Joseph Campbell's Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949) and Lord Raglan's pattern of heroic characteristics. For curious reader, she supplies websites that have distilled Campbell and Raglan's theories for popular consumption. Campbell's traditional hero, she explains, has been presented to audiences as an exclusively character while Porter's modern hero falls somewhere between the good guys and the bad guys in scheme of Judeo-Christian morality. She also points out that a trend has developed in contemporary sf television wherein modern hero is no longer isolated in his or her quest but frequently supported by a cadre of fellow do-gooders. Consistently Porter supplies examples from programs she more meticulously analyzes in second part of book to support her overall argument for emergence of hero.In second chapter, Villains and Monsters, she argues that in landscape of contemporary sf hero can seem at times to be a villain and villain a hero. most effective way for audience to distinguish a hero from a villain in contemporary sf is to consider character's motivation behind an act (35). In this way, heroes can do villainous things but maintain their place on side of the good guys even when morally ambiguous decisions must be made (35). Porter moves on to figure of monster, which has been distinguished by its incapacity for rational thought. In this new paradigm, monster is a more malleable concept. Monster can be an accusation or a self-claimed identity, and it is often a transient quality allowing for temporary embodiment of moral ambiguity. Finally, regardless of which side they turn out to be on, we need villains and monsters, because they society's deepest fears about people or situations we can't control (48).Shades of Gray is third chapter. Porter presents a variety of ways in which idea of can be applied to highlight moral ambiguity of contemporary sf heroes. She discusses characters whose names are and how they reflect that moniker in their actions, including sexuality. …
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