Them Badasses (was Re: Blicero's sexuality

[Eric Rosenbloom]

jbor wrote:
> ----------
> >From: Eric Rosenbloom <ericr at sadlier.com>
> > Yes, except that, like Pointsman, he serves the System as well as
> > himself. The Badass is a folk hero, like John Dillinger (or see the fun
> > portrayal of George (Babyface) Nelson in the movie O Brother Where Art Thou?).
> 
> Well, yes and no. As well as Ned Ludd, Pynchon exemplifies the Badass in
> Frankenstein's monster, Alfonso the Good from Walpole's _The Castle of
> Otranto_, and King Kong. It's not so much a question of serving "the System"
> as having been created by it (literally and/or metaphorically), and then,
> monstrous, turning upon whatever or whomever created them in order to wreak
> total annihilation. Blicero would certainly fit that bill to an extent, as
> also perhaps would Dillinger.

I would agree with that, because it is our own dependence on The System
that makes us respond to those who confound It. The Badass provides a
wish fulfillment normally accessible only in dreams. And it's the rare
fold hero whose story is not appropriated by, whose sacrifice is not
retold to favor The System.

In the day that The System tells us that sacrifice is unnecessary, that
we are all happy, all Elect, no child left behind, that The Badass Is
The Spirit Of The System, only riot remains -- in which people create a
collective hero out of their own action, their assertion of another
story against the official line.

Or a vital fiction can create the folk heros that we need . . .

--
Eric R



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