The+Antihero

=__**ANTI-HERO MANIFESTO**__ =  The [|anti-hero] is akin to the prevailing household garden-variety superhero in the sense that both set a precedent at the fall of the curtain though they do harden the hea rt and alienate one another with the apple of discord. This is all on behalf of the anti-hero, a chub faced driveling gringo with no a llusions of romanticism t o his name but a //nauseate the cutie-patootie, then save the world// persona because he’s got no perception of what it means to be a Casanova. He falls short of being a moral example when he trembles in nightmares and doesn’t amass unshorn high impact aerobics and has no such thing as composure. He’s a self-indulg ent, ill-informed, bigoted sourpuss with no fire of genius caught tripping as he puts a straight razor to the villain’s eyebrows. He discredits conventional values due to his lack of said principles and is incompetent when it comes to pledging his heart and soul to any sort of ethics. He bears the cross of the universe and in turn suffers its hand on his shoulder…so all of this fronts the query as to “**Why is he a hero?**” Now, though he is in awe of the tragic flaws, which have been seared into his ghost like the Union Jack…he’s still a human being and has a consciousness, which provides him with a noble tour de force equivalent to that of [|Buzz Light-Year's].  =__**OEDIPUS**__ =

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 A model of the Anti-Hero archetype is at hand in Greek Mythology with the King of Thebes, [|Oedipus]. So it begins with the biological parents of Oedipus thrusting their confidence into the Mystic where it’s prophesied that he will kill his dad and marry hi s mom. Now, Mom and Dad wanna steer clear of this strange arrangement so they knot Oedipus’ feet, skewer ‘em with a stake, give him to a herdsman who gives him to anther herdsman (after not wanting to taint the virtues of a minor) who in turn pawns the kid off on his King who makes his mind up and decides the timing is just right so he’s gonna go ahead and adopt schnooky lumps. This is King Polybus by the way and he’s the jack in office at Cornith. Years pass and in due course Oedipus finds out that Polybus ain’t his dad, that he’s gonna take out his Real Dad, and while we're on the subject, get it on with his Mom. So Oedipus makes the rational decision of running away and goes to Thebes. But on his way there he turns up at these crossroads where he meets a dude named Laios who’s sporting a chariot. A heated dispute proceeds as to which is the right of way and Laios is slain by Oedipus in some ill-mannered fashion. He moves on and meets a Sphinx who asks him a riddle. If he answers it correctly, then he can be on his merry wa y but if not…then the Sphinx will eat him. Plain and simple! He gets the riddle right and the Sphinx kills herself so the Thebans then sign Oedipus up as their king and studly-do-right’s given the recent widow queen Jocasta who’s a knockout and unto whom he has 4 kids with. Time carries on cordially until a plague hits Thebes where it hurts. Oedipus gives his word to ending it and gets counsel from an oracle in Delphi who tells him he has to find the killer of Laios, the former king of Thebes and the guy he killed at the crossroads. Now probing to the four winds for a cause of death that is himself, Oedipus gets a blind prophet who tells him he should seriously stop looking for this man. An angry exchange then leads to the prophet telling him that he’s in fact the killer. Impervious, Oedipus doggedly continues his hu nt and is told that Polybus is dead who he still regarded as his real father after being told on more than one occasion that he wasn’t. He then starts in on getting anxious about that other part of the prophecy pertaining to sleeping with his mom he was informed of earlier in his life…then he finds out that he’s adopted. Jocasta then grasps who Oedipus is, her son, and goes into the palace where she subsequently kills herself. Meanwhile, Oedipus goes to that herdsman he had been given to at the inauguration who tells him of his birth parents and that’s when he gets hip to the Truth, which is that he killed his dad at those crossroads and has been going steady with his mom ever since. So he goes to look for Jocasta and when stumbling upon her body, blinds himself with brooches from her dress and strolls along aimlessly for what's left of his days as a visually impaired drifter. ====== =__**JACOB**__ =  Another model is [|Jacob] from the Book of Genesis who is known for his deception, which got going when love was in the air and childbirth crept up on his mother, Rebekah, who fashioned his bro, Esau, and himself in the same afternoon. During this divine conception, Jacob gripped Esau’s heal and soon after persuaded him to sell him his birthright and swindled his dad, Isaac, into blessing him instead of Esau. Now in panic of his brother’s fury, he went to live with his uncle. While on the road to safety in valor, he had a reverie in which he saw a ladder extending into the Heavens with angels ascending and descending upon it with ever-flowing conduct. Jacob then married two sisters, had a little something-something on the side, and was rolling in the wampum’s while working under his aforementioned uncle. But resentment amid this uncle’s sons grew up to be gruesome indeed so Jacob was forced to go back to Canaan in spite of his fear of Esau. But as he coming 'round the bend, he had to inexplicably wrestle an angel all night long who in the morning changed his name to Israel 'cause that’s what angels do after they manhandle you. Following this, he became the father of the nation, which currently bears his name. =__**THE DUDE**__ =  [|The Dude] sets the fashion for the anti-hero archetype in the film the Big Lebowski, becoming the protagonist of the overall seedy ups and downs of life when two banditos, in ties with the Malibu lodging pornographer and loan shark Jackie Treehorn, piss on his rug (which really tied the room together) and direct his head into a toilet. All of this due to a n ill-devised case of mistaken identity after he was speculated to be the wheel chair bound multi-millionaire Jeffrey Lebowski who lost the application of his legs back in Korea and unto whom those banditos wer      e striving to collect a debt from on account of his promiscuous wife, Bunny. The Dude then goes to see Lebowski in order to get some compensation for his rug and from there on, the hilarity ensues with musical dream sequences and suitcases full of dirty underwear and three German nihilists and hijacking trophy wives and Vietnam flashbacks and avant-garde love interests and a heartthrob of a soundtrack. But during all of this the Dude presents himself as a hero even though he’s a bowling loving, Creedence loving, W    hite Russian loving stoner with a happy-go lucky approach to life and no job or delicate concerns with funds or assets. He’s a sloth…but he’s admirable and gets the job done. =__WHY ARE WE DIGGING ON THE ANTI-HERO? __= <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif">      Everybody wants to be the Cool Guy. We all wanna kick Eric Clapton’s LAYLA in “Guitar Hero”. No one wakes up in the morning and says to themselves,” Well I’m just gonna follow the rules today!” And then frolics about the boroughs with senseless acts of beauty firing off from their fingertips out the yin-yang. We don’t wanna be your by the book, walking stiff, cardboard, prize-fighting triumphal arch of static unalloyed happiness because its just not our style. We’ve absolutely redefined what it means to be the Hero and incorporated personality traits into his consciousness that we can identify with. I’ve never met a Superman but Lord knows I’ve met a million Holden Caulfield’s. Its just more plausible to us when they bear the marks of a genuine human race. When they bleed like us, walk like us, talk like us, die like us, lust like us, and so on. We’re more similar in temperament with the anti-hero on account of this and feel its more sensible because they embody that precise realism we’re looking for. Our origin of heroics has deteriorated and been reinstated with a further morbid distortion of whatever that exactly means. We’ve put a spin on it and made it sinister in texture as opposed to the unshakable, smoldering embers of sunshine from the days of yore.