Gummed-Up Works or Got Lives?

David Stockhoff · 16 Dec 2011, 17:32 · from 2011-December.txt.gz

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From: dstockhoff at verizon.net (David Stockhoff)
Date: Fri, 16 Dec 2011 12:32:07 -0500
Subject: (urth) Gummed-Up Works or Got Lives?
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On 12/16/2011 11:59 AM, Gerry Quinn wrote:
> *From:* David Stockhoff <mailto:dstockhoff at verizon.net>
> > Dead on. Much of our Western myths, and as they are perpetuated 
> today by
> >
> Hollywood, involve the brave and capable few who are besieged by the
> >
> weak and cowardly many. This has little basis in reality, of course, and
> >
> it has always struck me as a bit pathological.
> It does form a good basis for a thrilling story, with unequivocally 
> virtuous characters for the audience to identify with, and villains 
> who may be despatched in interesting ways without invoking feelings of 
> guilt, or decreasing the villain supply.  I suspect such stories have 
> been popular in most cultures.
> Even the Ascians can enjoy the story of a lone hero who wins out by 
> his persistence in the face of vicissitudes from the multitude.
> - Gerry Quinn

Absolutely. However, I don't share your suspicion in the slightest.

I'm no expert but I've never seen this convention figure so strongly 
anywhere in any non-European literature in all of history. It may as 
well not exist outside Europe.

I should have said that the oldest such stories are Greek, and some of 
them are true. Tolkien's generation knew them well.

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