Description
Book SynopsisBeing a crime fighting superhero is a tough job and it comes with no shortage of social and moral responsibilities.
Trade ReviewIn this, the latest in Wiley’s Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture series (
South Park and Philosophy,
The Office and…,
Metallica and…), editors White and Arp assert upfront, and without qualification (apparently, that’s the contributors’ job), their belief that Batman is “the most complex character ever to appear in comic books and graphic novels.” Exploring certain works that have broadened the philosophical undercurrents of the Batman mythos (Frank Miller’s
Batman: Year One and
The Dark Knight Returns are cited often, but rarely the new movies), a raft of professors, students and PhD candidates paint Bruce Wayne’s choices as, most often, either utilitarian or deontological, with basic descriptions of these systems helpfully provided for the novice. A few contributions broaden the discussion beyond the well-worn (origin stories of Batman and foes, etc.); casting butler Alfred as Kierkegaard’s “knight of faith” to Batman’s “knight of infinite resignation,” contributor Christopher M. Drohan actually gets close to the archetypal sources that keep the serialized exploits of Batman and other comic heroes from getting stale. Unfortunately, most of these essays get old fast.
(July) (
Publishers Weekly, July 28, 2008)
Table of ContentsACKNOWLEDGMENTS: The Oscar Speech George Clooney Never Got to Make ix
Introduction: Riddle Me This . . . 1
PART ONE DOES THE DARK KNIGHT ALWAYS DO RIGHT?
1 Why Doesn’t Batman Kill the Joker? 5
Mark D. White
2 Is It Right to Make a Robin? 17
James DiGiovanna
3 Batman’s Virtuous Hatred 28
Stephen Kershnar
PART TWO LAW, JUSTICE, AN D THE SOCIAL ORDER: WHERE DOES BATMAN FIT IN?
4 No Man’s Land: Social Order in Gotham City and New Orleans 41
Brett Chandler Patterson
5 Governing Gotham 55
Tony Spanakos
6 The Joker’s Wild: Can We Hold the Clown Prince Morally Responsible? 70
Christopher Robichaud
PART THREE ORIGINS AND ETHICS: BECOMING THE CAPED CRUSADER
7 Batman’s Promise 85
Randall M. Jensen
8 Should Bruce Wayne Have Become Batman? 101
Mahesh Ananth and Ben Dixon
9 What Would Batman Do? Bruce Wayne as Moral Exemplar 114
Ryan Indy Rhodes and David Kyle Johnson
PART FOUR WHO IS THE BATMAN? (IS THAT A TRICK QUESTION?)
10 Under the Mask: How Any Person Can Become Batman 129
Sarah K. Donovan and Nicholas P. Richardson
11 Could Batman Have Been the Joker? 142
Sam Cowling and Chris Ragg
12 Batman’s Identity Crisis and Wittgenstein’s Family Resemblance 156
Jason Southworth
13 What Is It Like to Be a Batman? 167
Ron Novy
PART FIVE BEING THE BAT: INSIGHTS FROM EXISTENTIALISM AND TAOISM
14 Alfred, the Dark Knight of Faith: Batman and Kierkegaard 183
Christopher M. Drohan
15 Dark Nights and the Call of Conscience 198
Jason J. Howard
16 Batman’s Confrontation with Death, Angst, and Freedom 212
David M. Hart
PART SIX FRIEND, FATHER, . . . RIVAL? TH E MANY ROLES OF THE BAT
17 Why Batman Is Better Than Superman 227
Galen Foresman
18 World’s Finest . . . Friends? Batman,Superman, and the Nature of Friendship 239
Daniel P. Malloy
19 Leaving the Shadow of the Bat: Aristotle, Kant, and Dick Grayson on Moral Education 254
Carsten Fogh Nielsen
20 The Tao of the Bat 267
Bat-Tzu
CONTRIBUTORS : The Clown Princes (and Princess) of Casuistry and Categorical Imperatives 279
INDEX : From the Secret Files of Oracle, Master Indexer to the DCU 285
