Re: More on Superheroes -- Mimetic Theory and Literary Study

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Date Posted: 13:36:05 02/11/08 Mon
Author: Shannon
Subject: Re: More on Superheroes
In reply to: Shannon 's message, "Re: More on Superheroes" on 16:48:55 02/07/08 Thu

So, after reading chapter 7 in The Scapegoat, I noticed that Girard explains this seeming division of the pharmakon (splitting the poison and the cure into the monster and the hero) as part of the "cleaning up" of myth:

"It is inevitable that this division will take place as a result of all the different pressures brought to bear on the original mythical collection. From the moment of division the balance in myths is broken, sometimes in favor of evil, sometimes in favor of the good, sometimes in both directions at once. In this case the ambiguous primitive god is split into a perfectly good hero and a perfectly bad monster who ravages the community: Oedipus and the shinx, Saint George and the dragon, the water snake of the Arawak myth and the liberator who kills him."

Girard continues to explain that such a division only occurs late in the history of a myth, which would be why it is so prevelent in the myths and legends of the modern era, especially as man has demanded more and more a clear distinction between good and evil.

The later point, I suppose, begs the question of what myths are or will become in the post-modern era of the present, when both good and evil are claimed to be false or even negative catagories.

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