The Hero Reloaded

What was a hero in Classical Antiquity? Why is it that their characteristics have transcended chronological and cultural barriers while they are still role models in our days? How have their features changed to be embodied by comic superheroes and film? How is their essence vulgarized and turned into a mass consumption product? What has happened with their literary and artistic representation along centuries of elitist Western culture? This book aims at posing these and other questions about heroes, allowing us to open a cultural reflection over the role of the classical world in the present, its meaning in mass media, and the capacity of the Greek and Roman civilizations to dialogue with the modern world. This dialogue offers a glimpse into modern cultural necessities and tendencies which can be seen in several aspects, such as the hero’s vulnerability, the archetype’s banalization, the possibility to extend the heroic essence to individuals in search of identities – vital as well as gender or class identities. In some products (videogames, heavy metal music) our research enables a deeper understanding of the hero’s more obvious characteristics, such as their physical and moral strength. All these tendencies – contemporary and consumable, contradictory with one another, yet vigorous above all – acquire visibility by means of a polyhedral vehicle which is rich in possibilities of rereading and reworking: the Greco-Roman hero. In such a virtual and postmodern world as the one we inhabit, it comes not without surprise that we still resort to an idea like the hero, which is as old as the West.

In a time of acute crisis when our societies face a complex series of challenges (race, gender, inclusivity, changing pedagogical needs and a global pandemic) we urgently need to re-access the nature of our engagement with the Classical World. This edited collection argues that we need to discover new ways to draw on our discipline and the material it studies to engage in meaningful ways with these new academic and societal challenges. The chapters included in the collection interrogate the very processes of reception and continue the work of destabilising the concept of a pure source text or point of origin. Our aim is to break through the boundaries that still divide our ancient texts and material culture from their reception, and interpretive communities. Our contributors engage with these questions theoretically and/or through the close examination of cultural artefacts. They problematise the concept of a Western, elitist canon and actively push the geographical boundaries of reception as both a local and a global phenomenon. Individually and cumulatively, they actively engage with the question of how to marshal the classical past in our efforts to respond to the challenges of our mutable contemporary world.

The words of this book are deftly written from the unique perspective of an airborne infantry soldier who dropped out of engineering school to enlist as an 18X special forces recruit. The values, candor, and passion of this philosophically, morally, and ethically-grounded paratrooper reach through the murky relativism of our time and beckon the reader to think and to act.

The math is clear and simple. We have, at most, forty more years of living this self-serving lie before the combined forces of overpopulation and resource depletion expose Global Civilization for what it really is-an unsustainable mirage. We, the over-40, have timed it perfectly. The planet will run out of fresh, unpolluted water and nutrient-rich topsoil just as we are finishing our extended lives of abundance, greed, and gluttony. We have been waging a resource war against the generations behind us. And the good news is-we are winning! So far. But what if they learn the Truth? What if they find out that we have been stealing from them and deceiving them? What if Internet communication unifies them? And what if they live in a country where weapons are accessible and violence is glorified? History, too, is clear and simple. When conditions warrant, when the situation is sufficiently extreme, human beings are capable of-whatever it takes. They will not go quietly. Brace yourselves for the most deterministic generation since the Conquerors of World War II. The Heroes of the Seventh Crisis are coming. And they're pissed off.

This is the story of Eighth Air Force bombing missions leaving England to blast targets in Hitler's Third Reich in 1944–45. Each clear day, the skies filled with hundreds of B17 Flying Fortress bombers and their escorts crossing the English Channel toward enemy targets protected by anti-aircraft batteries and German fighters waiting to attack the heavy bombers. The skies over the target were filled with black flak appearing to be so thick you could walk on it! The exploding shells filled the space with flying chunks of iron as bombers started their bomb run on the target. We often could hear the flak pelting our plance like a "buckshot" on a tin roof. This flak would often strike a vital part of the plane or wound a member of the crew! Our waist gunner was wounded on our tenth mission!Some missions we could count hundreds of holes in our plane after we landed safely in England! Bombers receiving a direct hit were blown out of the sky and another ten man aircrew was lost. Planes severely damaged had to drop out of formation and face enemy fighters alone unless some of our P-51 or P-47 escort fighters protected them. Bombers disabled or on fire had no choice but to order the crews to bail out. Airmen who survived the parachute jump were captured and placed into German prisoner of war camps (POW). They were classified as "missing in action". Forty-eight photos, some sixty years old are included in this 350 page book to illustrate the story of the author's childhood in the Great Depression through the great air war of World War II. A description of each mission from a sixty year old diary is included. I think you will enjoy the story of a teenage Radio-Gunner's experiences in the Mighty Eighth Air Force.

This is indeed an eclectic mix: 13 stories with different tones, hues, purposes and characters. A bildungsroman in which a young man confronts some monumental truths about himself, a re-imagined history in which an Aboriginal youth with a gift for clairvoyance makes the ultimate sacrifice, a series of linked tales where questions are asked about just what makes someone crazy, and a sci -fi'ish piece where the camera narrates an account of a future reality show hosting an execution of mass murderer that goes wrong. There's even a semi-autobiographical tale of a fisherman who risks freezing to retrieve a lure (it's a matter of principle). Something for everyone, we hope.

Since its beginnings over fifty years ago, metal music has grown in popularity worldwide, not only as a musical culture but as a recognised field of study. This Companion, grounded in recent research, explores the various musical styles and cultures of metal, providing a reliable resource for students and researchers.

Traces the life and career of the comic book artist who, along with his writing partners Joe Simon and Stan Lee, developed such superheroes as Captain America, the Fantastic Four, the Incredible Hulk, the X-Men, and Thor.