📚Marginalia

#️⃣Heroes

mythical figures

Mythical figures live many lives, die many deaths, and in this they differ from the characters we find in novels, who can never go beyond the single gesture. But in each of these lives and deaths all the others are present, and we can hear their echo. Only when we become aware of a sudden consistency between incompatibles can we say we have crossed the threshold of myth.

heroes and villains

The most fiendish of men, the most cowardly, none of them think of them as villains. They believe themselves to be heroes, accomplishing impossible tasks against overwhelming opposition.

They convince themselves of this by seeing only what they wish to see, robbing words of their message, forgetting the real and remembering the false. In this way, they are not so different from true heroes.

What is the difference?

True heroes are on our side.

Fiendish, cowardly, treacherous villains are the heroes of our enemies.