Peter's heroes

Who were my heroes when I was a child? The first one that comes to mind is Batman. I liked his cool costume, and the baddies. Actually, I think the baddies were more interesting than the rather nice and boring Batman and his mate Robin. I especially remember Eartha Kitt dressed up in tight, sexy, black leather prowling around as Cat Woman. I can't remember what she did, but Batman boringly fell in love with her. Of course, Batman was also dressed up in a way that I'm not sure impressionable young children should be exposed to: unlike Cat Woman brandishing whips in leather, Batman went about in snug rubber like costumes which showed off his bulging muscles, especially when he was tied up. Now that I look back, it was all very camp with strong hints of SM sex. But it was also fun, and Batman was a hero. I would rush home after school and make sure I'd done my chores so that I was free to get my daily 30 minute hit of Batman. I think the stories were an hour each, but split into two half-hour sessions. At the end of the first half, Batman was always about to die some horrible death, usually tied up by some wonderful villain - the Penguin, the Joker, Sandman, Tut, Cat Woman, or whoever.

Other childhood heroes? When I visited my grandmother's house, one of the attractions was her large supply of comics, and the Phantom was one of my favourites. Like Batman, he was strong, wore a sexy outfit over his muscles and lived in a cave, but he was actually more exciting because he was a bit wilder - I don't remember him working with the police as he defeated the bad guys who were trying to steal treasure from a local jungle temple, enslave the tribes or kill an explorer. I think what appealed to me was the power and strength to act as he saw fit. And this sort of connects with an idea in Nietzsche, who became a hero much later. Friedrich Nietzsche was a great German philologist and philosopher who explored the idea that Christianity was a malignant illness that afflicted Western civilization at the cost of the true Western values enshrined in Homer. And Homer heroes definitely rate as heroes if our definition is that of a self-willed man with the strength to enforce order on society.

But Homer's heroes are a bit more sophisticated than mere brute force, and lead naturally to the classical Greek ideals that we see in Socrates and later thinkers, who became my heroes from high school on. But I also think some scientists qualify as heroes - who could deny that title to someone like the brave and brilliant Copernicus and Galileo?

Today? Maybe I'll write a bit more this evening.