Just because the title caught Your Humble Blogger’s eye, Peter David’s Sir Apropos of Nothing (New York: Pocket 2001) is the latest Book Report.
My conclusion, after five-hundred-odd pages, is that I really dislike antiheroes. Antiheroes are, by definition, protagonists that lack heroic characteristics. In practice, antiheroes are protagonists whose authors take great care to portray as worthless incompetent sleazy cowardly libertine greedy self-centered bumbling wretched caddish blackguardly worms. In great detail. With lots of adjectives, don’t you know. And lots of time-wasting passages where the hero thinks “There’s no way I’m going to engage in that heroic activity; I’m a worthless incompetent sleazy cowardly libertine greedy self-centered bumbling wretched caddish blackguardly worm. Oh, what a worthless incompetent sleazy cowardly libertine greedy self-centered bumbling wretched caddish blackguardly worm I am. For were I not a worthless incompetent sleazy cowardly libertine greedy self-centered bumbling wretched caddish blackguardly worm, I would surely engage in that heroic activity. Where’d everybody go?” Often it’s not even heroic activity, just ordinary day to day living.
I don’t like Lucky Jim. I don’t like Seinfeld. I don’t want to spend my leisure time with the Jim Dixons or George Costanzas of the world.
I do like villains. I even like heroes. I also like main characters that are flawed. The main characters in books I read over and over are people such as Yossarian, Reuven Malter, Nikeratos the Tragedian, Bilbo Baggins, Jo March—heck, the Continental Op stole a crutch from a cripple in “The Gutting of Couffignal” (although there were extenuating circumstances). I don’t think any of these are antiheroes; they do the right thing, more often than not, despite their flaws. More importantly, the authors like them, and don’t waste my time with a lot of discussion about how unlikable they are.
OK, now I’ve got off track. And Apropos (of nothing) isn’t a real antihero, he’s the far-more-obnoxious hero in antihero’s clothing, which means that Mr. David spends even more time than Mr. Amis in discussing his antihero’s antiheroism, just to set up the joke. Which, I’m afraid, is a flaw in the book anyway. On the plus side, it’s actually well-plotted (in the sense of being amusing, not in the sense of being tight), and amusing in parts. Not enough to make the hedons flow in the right direction for me, though.
Redintegro Iraq,
-Vardibidian.
I liked Seinfeld for the same reasons I like The Simpsons, Futurama, and Family Guy, I think: Big piles of wacked out wacky wackiness.
Am I right to group those shows together? Do you like any of them?
I like many seasons of the Simpsons, and I watched Family Guy for the Big Guffaw moment which happened once or twice an episode. And I didn’t much like Futurama, tho’ I didn’t hate it. I don’t think the shows are much like Seinfeld, but then I’ve seen fewer than a dozen episones of that, as I don’t like it enough to go back.
Homer Simpson is moronic, and lazy, and gullible, and ignorant, but he tries to do the right thing. Usually. I mean, when he tells Bart that popularity is the most important thing in school, he’s giving the boy all the wisdom he has and that’s the joke. I don’t think he’s an antihero. Of course, I am old; I still think of the show as being about Bart, who is, of course, a hero. He’s brave, charismatic, and quick-thinking. He’s also ignorant, lazy, and narrow-visioned, of course … I’m hoping that I’m not going to define ‘antihero’ as ‘flawed protagonist I dislike’, and then tautologically discover I don’t like antiheroes. I do think there’s an actual distinction, one which isn’t dependent on my taste. I think.
And besides, Family Guy is all about (a) southwestern Connecticut in-jokes, and (b) the evil baby. Mostly the evil baby, who is (except Ryan Stiles) the funniest thing currently on television. Or is the show off the air?
R.I.,
-V.
I see the shows as similar in that they have lots of unappealing characters, and get a lot of their humor from crazy unexpected things happening.
How much does motive matter in your flawed-hero vs anti-hero comparison? Is Homer a flawed-hero because he wants to do what’s right, and George Costanza an anti-hero because he doesn’t care about anything?
The evil baby is definitely the best thing on Family Guy, and perhaps on all of television, although he sometimes lapses into lame-itude. The show is no longer producing new episodes, but it’s in reruns on Cartoon Network (along with Futurama), and has been popular enough that there’s been talk of making more.
What do you think of Holden Caulfield?
How about John Constantine, if you’ve read Hellblazer?
(I have no agenda or right answers in mind; just curious.)
Not a fan of Holden Caulfield, although I can’t say I remember the book very well. I read it at the age when it often makes people obsessive, and said “Enh.”
Haven’t read enough Hellblazer to have an opinion.
R.I.,
-V.