Anna in the Dark

The Anti-Hero

I'm sitting here listening to Dexter in the Dark and considering the implication of vigilantism. If you guys know me you know how much I love Dexter and anything that deals with the anti-hero. I think that is why I love the Watchman and Rorschach.

"The accumulated filth of all their sex and murder will foam up about their waists and all the whores and politicians will look up and shout "Save us!"...and I'll look down, and whisper "No."

Consider, a world where we let those with a strong sense of justice than our own run it. What would this look like? Why is it that fiction always gets it right but reality gets it wrong. Higher ideals sometimes are just that ...an abstract that can never be aspired to. Probably why I enjoy fiction more than real life most of time.

Like Dexter, I think we all have a dark passenger in us. Someone who cries out for justice but we don't act like upon our dark desire. These anti-heros lack emotion or sympathy for man kind and that is where I can't relate to them. It is fun to fantasize about what it would be like to run around in tights or avenge those who have wronged us, but emotion keeps us from it...which is a good thing.

"The backyard barbecue, it's a holdover from the last Ice Age when food was scarce and men had to work together to take down a large beast. Those who worked well with others survived and their genes have been passed down through the centuries until they landed here, in this... my community."

Often times the anti-hero gives us something that we yearn for: imperfection reflected. We humans know we aren't perfect and we see it in these characters. Unlike Superman, the anti-hero gives us hope that we can make a difference in the lives of others without being what society respects or even worships. No one would ever want to be like these characters in real life, but our desire to make a difference in the lives of others can be realized in these characters. I think teachers reflect this perfectly.

1. Teachers see the potential in their students they often don't. Rorschach wants to help the human race even though they are too ignorant to know they need help.
2. Teachers care for children but often have a hard time dealing with adults. This is Dexter to a T. He cares for his children, but has no sympathy for adults and their perversions.

So the next time you pick up a book on an antihero, try to imagine yourself in the midst of it. How would you respond as that character? Do you have the same inner desires? I know that with Dexter and Rorschach, I feel a kinship and an inner need to help others, but what I don't share is their lack of emotion for others. :) Happy Reading Ya'll.