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No one has anything to say about this? OK, I'll try: a character from an ancient tragedy with hubris would now be psychologized as "narcissistic." Or something
by Cupertino95014 4y ago
No one has anything to say about this?
OK, I'll try: a character from an ancient tragedy with hubris would now be psychologized as "narcissistic." Or something.
Or even just called "very self-confident" as though that's a good thing.
Suppose our "tragic hero" is a Director of Engineering or Marketing, and they decide to become an entrepreneur. They fail spectacularly. A modern audience wouldn't say they were a victim of hubris. Maybe they really were.
On the other hand: Walter White could be one, as Gioia suggests. But Vince Gilligan has actually said that Ikiru was his inspiration (a character who "broke good"), rather than any classical tragedy.
So I don't think it's really that we're in a "digital age," it's just that we have a lot more explanations for things than the classicists did.
- plankers 4y ago>So I don't think it's really that we're in a "digital age," it's just that we have a lot more explanations for things than the classicists did. s/explanations/rationalizations
- AlbertCory 4y agoI wouldn't argue with that. Maybe "hubris" really is a better explanation than all the pop psychology.
- plankers 4y agomaybe the millenia old concept that's been culturally relevant enough to stay in our lexicon all that time is a better explanation than pop psychology, yeah. for all the miracles of modern social science and statistics, the ancients' theories have a critical advantage over ours. they've had time for their hypotheses to be borne out.