The Hero with a Thousand Faces

The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Author: Joseph Campbell
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
Total Pages: 107
Release: 1988
Genre: Folklore
ISBN: 0586085718

A study of heroism in the myths of the world - an exploration of all the elements common to the great stories that have helped people make sense of their lives from the earliest times. It takes in Greek Apollo, Maori and Jewish rites, the Buddha, Wotan, and the bothers Grimm's Frog-King.

Paradox Bound

Paradox Bound
Author: Peter Clines
Publisher: Crown
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2017-09-26
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0553418343

“One cool novel. If the Tardis were a Ford Model A , this might be Doctor Who meets National Treasure.”—F. Paul Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of the Repairman Jack series “GET IN THE CAR, MR. TEAGUE. THE ROAD BECKONS.” The traveler sped through Eli Teague’s life long ago. With her tricorne hat, flintlock rifle, and steampunked Model-A Ford, she was a living anachronism, and an irresistible mystery—and she was gone as soon as she arrived, in a cloud of gunfire and a squeal of tires. So when Eli sees her again, he’s determined that this time, he’s going to get some answers. But his hunt soon yields far more than he bargained for, plunging him headlong into a dizzying world full of competing factions and figures straight out of legend. To make sense of the secret at its heart, he must embark on a breakneck chase across the country and through two centuries of history­—with nothing less than America’s past, present, and future at stake. Praise for Paradox Bound “So good you’ll want to invent time travel and send a copy back to yourself, just so you can read it again for the first time. A tour de force.”—Jason M. Hough, New York Times bestselling author of The Darwin Elevator “A timey-wimey, full-barrel adventure novel that also teaches a nonironic lesson in American civics . . . [featuring] an epithet-wielding, pistol-packing heroine that will capture hearts.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “A fast and resonant time-travel thriller and tour of America, bursting with fun ideas.”—Django Wexler, author of The Shadow Campaigns novels “Lively, likeable, and wonderfully amusing.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

American Heroes: Profiles of Men and Women Who Shaped Early America

American Heroes: Profiles of Men and Women Who Shaped Early America
Author: Edmund S. Morgan
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 296
Release: 2010-05-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 0393074269

"A wise, humane and beautifully written book." —Bret Stephens, Wall Street Journal From the best-selling author of Benjamin Franklin comes this remarkable work that will help redefine our notion of American heroism. Americans have long been obsessed with their heroes, but the men and women dramatically portrayed here are not celebrated for the typical banal reasons contained in Founding Fathers hagiography. Effortlessly challenging those who persist in revering the American history status quo and its tropes and falsehoods, Morgan, now ninety-three, continues to believe that the past is just not the way it seems.

The Never Paradox

The Never Paradox
Author: T. Ellery Hodges
Publisher:
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2017-04-07
Genre: Adventure stories
ISBN: 9780990774648

If you lost a piece of your memory...Would you trust yourself to have made the right choices...In the moments you can't remember.The Ferox assault has been escalating, drawing Jonathan into combat more and more frequently. With each passing day, he's grown stronger. He can't be certain, but his attackers seem to be getting... more dangerous'...and, of course, Heyer is gone, again.Then came the glitch. Unexpectedly pulled from battle, Jonathan finds he cannot recall the final moments of his last confrontation. Convinced that his memory loss was no accident, he must uncover the truth.His only leads are a less than helpful artificial alien intelligence, and Rylee, a mysterious and possibly crazy woman, who seems to think they share a history he doesn't remember.With no means to contact the only being who can give him answers, and knowing he has gaps in his memory, Jonathan must make every move uncertain of the consequences. The blond man better show up soon, because events hidden in Jonathan's lost memories may trigger a war humanity isn't ready to fight.The Never Paradox is book two in The Chronicles of Jonathan Tibbs, readers who have not yet completed book one, The Never Hero, will have difficulty following.Parental Warning: This series attempts to keep swearing to a minimum. However, the sequel has one unavoidable usage of the F-word. This is due to its presence in a direct quote taken from another piece of fiction.

Heroes

Heroes
Author: Stephen Fry
Publisher: Michael Joseph
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2019
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9781405940368

Few mere mortals have ever embarked on such bold and heart-stirring adventures, overcome myriad monstrous perils, or outwitted scheming vengeful gods, quite as stylishly and triumphantly as Greek heroes. In this companion to his bestselling Mythos, Stephen Fry brilliantly retells these dramatic, funny, tragic and timeless tales. Join Jason aboard the Argo as he quests for the Golden Fleece. See Atalanta - who was raised by bears - outrun any man before being tricked with golden apples. Witness wily Oedipus solve the riddle of the Sphinx and discover how Bellerophon captures the winged horse Pegasus to help him slay the monster Chimera. Heroes is the story of what we mortals are truly capable of - at our worst and our very best.

The Paradox of Tragedy

The Paradox of Tragedy
Author: D.D. Raphael
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 94
Release: 2021-12-24
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 1000543765

First published in 1960, The Paradox of Tragedy raises the fundamental question, why do we enjoy tragic drama with its themes of death and disaster? Aristotle’s theory of catharsis is still widely accepted as a satisfactory explanation of this paradox. In the first of its two connected essays, D.D. Raphael argues that Aristotle’s account of tragic emotions is distorted by a faulty psychology and fails to solve the problem. Raphael offers instead a new theory of Tragedy, as a conflict between two forms of the sublime, in which the sublimity of human heroism is exalted above the sublimity of overwhelming power. The spirit of the Tragedy is liable to conflict with doctrines of Biblical theology, and the difficulties of fusing the two are explored with illustrations from Greek, Biblical, English, and French literature. The second essay discusses the wider topic of philosophical drama, considering in what sense tragic and other forms of serious drama may be called philosophical, and also pointing out the dramatic shape of much of Plato’s philosophy. In this discussion, the question of religious Tragedy reappears in a different perspective. This book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of philosophy in general and political philosophy in particular.

Hesitant Heroes

Hesitant Heroes
Author: Theodore Ziolkowski
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 180
Release: 2018-05-31
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 150171127X

Why, Theodore Ziolkowski wonders, does Western literature abound with figures who experience a crucial moment of uncertainty in their actions? In this highly original and engaging work, he explores the significance of these unlikely heroes for literature and history.From Aeneas—who wavered momentarily before plunging his sword into Turnus's chest—to Hamlet, Orestes, Parzival, Wallenstein, and others, including Kafka's Josef K., Ziolkowski demonstrates that characters' private uncertainty reveals a classic opposition of binary forces. He describes how Aeneas, for example, was forced to choose between the ancient code of blood vengeance and the new civic virtues of law and justice. Ziolkowski asserts that the indecision of the characters reflects the tensions that authors observed in their own societies. Drawing on the insights of Hegel and Freud, he analyzes the ways in which these tensions represent turning points in cultural history. In stark contrast to Aeneas, Josef K. temporized for a year before his executioners thrust a knife into his heart. For Ziolkowski, the centuries separating Virgil and Kafka are ones in which the notion of the hero was transformed almost to the point of total inversion. He sheds light on this transformation and a corresponding change in literary form.

The Never Hero

The Never Hero
Author: T. Ellery Hodges
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2014-09-12
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 9780990774600

What if when you died, no one would ever know you were all that stood between man and the enemy?When Jonathan Tibbs awakes in a puddle of his own blood, there isn't a scratch on him to explain it. In the weeks to follow, he comes to find he's been drafted for a war with a violent otherworldly species. A war that only he can remember. Now, the man Jonathan imagined himself becoming is no longer the man who can endure his future. The first installment in this science fiction action adventure series, The Never Hero is a gritty and honest look at the psychological journey of a man forced to forge himself into a weapon. Abandoned with little guidance, and at the mercy of a bargain struck far outside his reach, Jonathan races to unlock the means to surmount the odds, and understand the mystery behind a conflict raging outside of time and memory.In the end, the real question is what Jonathan is willing to become to save a planet that will never see his sacrifice.

Heroes:What They Do and Why We Need Them

Heroes:What They Do and Why We Need Them
Author: Scott T. Allison
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 240
Release: 2010-10-29
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0199739749

Abraham Lincoln, Princess Diana, Rick in Casablanca--why do we perceive certain people as heroes? What qualities do we see in them? What must they do to win our admiration? In Heroes, Scott T. Allison and George R. Goethals offer a stimulating tour of the psychology of heroism, shedding light on what heroism and villainy mean to most people and why heroes--both real people and fictional characters--are so vital to our lives. The book discusses a broad range of heroes, including Eleanor Roosevelt, Walt Kowalski in Gran Torino, Senator Ted Kennedy, and explorer Ernest Shackleton, plus villains such as Shakespeare's Iago. The authors highlight the Great Eight traits of heroes (smart, strong, selfless, caring, charismatic, resilient, reliable, and inspiring) and outline the mental models that we have of how people become heroes, from the underdog who defies great odds (David vs. Goliath) to the heroes who redeem themselves or who overcome adversity. Brimming with psychological insight, Heroes provides an illuminating look at heroes--and into our own minds as well.