[ExI] Heroism without self-sacrifice

PJ Manney pjmanney at gmail.com
Fri Mar 7 06:35:23 UTC 2008


On Thu, Mar 6, 2008 at 9:56 PM, Lee Corbin <lcorbin at rawbw.com> wrote:
> It sounds as though you've received the full blast of the anti-sacrifice
> meme from your father and Ayn Rand.

It was the flavor of Max's question that brought it up for me.  I
could be wrong about his intention, but yes, my name is PJ and I am
the child of a recovering objectivist.  Which is why I'm not one.

> But seriously, why does heroic
> conduct have to include self-sacrifice?  The way that the Romans
> looked upon "Horatio at the Bridge" (reality at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horatii)
> is certainly an ancient, archytypical example. And, of course, the countless
> heros who save others in floods and other disasters, have no component
> of their behavior actually involving them deliberately giving up something.
> (True, they're brave, they take risks, etc.)

But that's it.  Risk taking.  Which can lead to a possible bad end.
Simply, the chances they take to succeed or fail involves the
potential for sacrificing something.  Not necessarily their lives, but
something worthwhile enough that they and we don't want them to
sacrifice if they don't have to.  Sacrifice doesn't have to always
involve life-or-death situations -- in fact, they rarely do in
stories! -- but as I said before, the stakes must be worthwhile and
meaningful, commensurate with the story involved, to engage the
audience.  (For example, in a romantic comedy, we're usually not
worried about the hero losing his life.  We're worried about the hero
losing the girl, sacrificing his self-respect, etc.  Those are worthy
stakes commensurate with the story.)

PJ



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