Myth, the Universe, and Everything

For today's guest blog, we're doing something a little different. Rob Schmidt is a journalist who produces Newspaper Rock: Where Native America Meets Pop Culture whom I met through a review of Cowboys and Aliens. What I didn't know at the time was that Rob is also the writer of Peace Party, a comic dedicated to promoting fair and accurate images of Native America while, of course, telling a good story. A couple of months ago, Rob gave me permission to excerpt some of his essay, "Why Write about Super Heroes?" for the blog. The full essay gets into the idea of the hero (from Cambpell through cowboys), compares gunslingers to Greek gods, and generally links the desire to perpetuate hero stories that has shown up in written culture time after time. The full essay is here, and it's well worth the read, but for now, just a quick excerpt from Rob's conclusion. Thanks, Rob, for letting me "reprint" an excerpt!

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Who we write about is far from arbitrary. Rather, it reflects the deepest, most significant trends of history. Our choice of hero literally tells us where we've been and where we're going.

Let's grossly oversimplify world history and look at who our heroes have been. Note the following reflects the dominant Western/European/American view of history, not the reality:

• The creation of civilization. The law-givers and philosopher kings. Moses, David, Jesus; Plato, Socrates, Aristotle.


• The spread of civilization throughout the "known world." The warrior kings. Alexander the Great. Julius Caesar and the Roman legions. Charlemagne and the knights in shining armor.


• The spread of civilization across the Atlantic. Explorers such as Leif Ericsson, Columbus, and Magellan. Pioneers such as the Spaniards (in New Spain), the Pilgrims, and the Colonials. Civilizers such as Andrew Jackson, Abraham Lincoln, and Teddy Roosevelt.


• The spread of civilization around the globe. America as the world's source material (Walt Disney, John Wayne, Michael Jordan). America as the world's shining beacon (American GIs, JFK and Camelot, the astronauts). America as the world's superpower (Reagan, Bush, Powell).

The line that began with Moses and the first gathering of the "chosen people" has ended with America atop the world's heap. Our righteous country stands for truth, justice, and the American way and so does our righteous superhero. An archetypal character like Superman is the embodiment and culmination of human history.

Attentive readers will note that this conclusion neglects the 85% of the world that isn't Euro-American. Precisely. Though some people would wish otherwise, history has yet to end. The next challenge in our historical development will be perhaps the trickiest.

Unless large-scale space travel becomes a reality, we have nowhere left to spread. The dissemination phase of civilization is over. The next challenge is integration: meshing the dominant Euro-American culture with the non-dominant but much larger and older non-Euro-American cultures.

We can keep going in a straight line: "taming" and developing and building the world until it's one paved-over shopping mall and parking lot. As the last fish is caught, the last tree is cut, the last well runs dry, we can watch the great American civilization collapse into rubble. As Ozymandias put it, "Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!"

Or we can turn in a new direction: blending America's can-do drive and technology with the rest of the world's cultural norms. Living within our means. Valuing community over competition. Thinking seven generations ahead.

The choice is between seeing the present world go up in smoke or evolve into a kinder, gentler place. If we want the latter, we need a new kind of leader and icon. We need a new heroic paradigm.

Superman's brawny, know-it-all attitude won't cut it here. Brute force was fine for beating the Indians and digging the Panama Canal, but now we're dealing with bioengineering and nanotechnology. We need the subtlety and cleverness of a Trickster to merge the old and the new.