[ExI] Heroism without self-sacrifice

[Lee Corbin]

Max writes

> Your mission--should you choose to accept it--is to reconceptualize 
> the hero myth, removing the core element of self-sacrifice.

But isn't the near-requirement of self-sacrifice a mid-to-late 20th
century degeneration?  John C. Wright in an interview says

      [True] Heroism in literature died at about the same time Nietzsche
      announced the death of God, or Sartre the death of Reason.
      Unknown to the mainstream, heroism and reason (as well as
      the sense of wonder reason inspires), like the sacred river
      Alpheus, re-emerged from subterranean obscurity in the most
      unlikely place imaginable: the pages of common rags with
      names like THRILLING AIR WONDER STORIES.
      Simplistic and childish at first, scientifiction recaptured the
      simplicity and child-like innocence the mainstream had lost.
      Need I remind readers that "innocence" does not mean
      "naivety"; it means "not guilty"? Mainstream literature of the
      Twentieth Century is by no means innocent.

I can attest that Keith Laumer's heros, for example, did not care much
for self-sacrifice, to put it mildly.  Wright goes on (see URL below)

       Modern literature outside of genre writing or historical novels is,
       of course, ugly rubbish. In this respect I am a snob of Philistinism,
       proud of my taste in tastelessness: I would rather read Maxwell
       Grant or World-Wrecker Hamilton than James Joyce. The clean
       and honest heroism absent from the world-view of modern literature
       can be found only in genre writing.

http://www.sfsignal.com/archives/001978.html  (longish, but interesting)

I think that Wright would agree with you.

Lee

> Essays may be of any length and in any format (but legible please--I 
> have to read and grade a dozen of these things).
> 
> Any student deserving an A grade on this assignment will immediately 
> receive a full Ph.D.
> 
> If you have any doubts about your brilliant ideas, I am available 
> during my unusual office hours.
> 
> Dr. More
> 
> Max More, Ph.D.
> Strategic Philosopher
> www.maxmore.com
> max at maxmore.com