Do You Want To Save The World?
February 17, 2008 5:59 AM Subscribe
Do You Want To Save The World?
Okay so I'm looking for any books, films, plays, fables, myths, folklore, games, poems etc etc etc you get the point about someone who has either been tasked to save the world (by doing something that they don't even know is actually working à la LOST and the button) or have been tasked to save the world but are unsure if it is the right thing to do.
Anything would be great!
Okay so I'm looking for any books, films, plays, fables, myths, folklore, games, poems etc etc etc you get the point about someone who has either been tasked to save the world (by doing something that they don't even know is actually working à la LOST and the button) or have been tasked to save the world but are unsure if it is the right thing to do.
Anything would be great!
Anything? Do you know how long this list could be? At the very least this is the basic plot of almost every action movie or television series.
I'll throw out Noah and the Ark. Anté up everyone.
posted by XMLicious at 6:08 AM on February 17, 2008
I'll throw out Noah and the Ark. Anté up everyone.
posted by XMLicious at 6:08 AM on February 17, 2008
Response by poster: XML I know what you mean...I'm more thinking along the lines of LOST's plot with the Button and Dharma etc.
posted by thelloydshow at 6:15 AM on February 17, 2008
posted by thelloydshow at 6:15 AM on February 17, 2008
Another thing is that they're always unsure if it's going to work, because if they were sure there would be no dramatic tension.
posted by XMLicious at 6:22 AM on February 17, 2008
posted by XMLicious at 6:22 AM on February 17, 2008
But I've only seen one episode of Lost and it was a few years ago so I don't know what you're talking about there.
posted by XMLicious at 6:24 AM on February 17, 2008
posted by XMLicious at 6:24 AM on February 17, 2008
Response by poster: Oh my mistake...there's a large plotline in Lost with two men stuck inside a underground Hatch on the island who have the sole job of entering a code into a computer every 108 minutes to "save the world".
posted by thelloydshow at 6:28 AM on February 17, 2008
posted by thelloydshow at 6:28 AM on February 17, 2008
Frodo in the Lord of the Rings. Harry Potter. Basically every protagonist in a classic "hero"
tale.
posted by lunasol at 6:31 AM on February 17, 2008
tale.
posted by lunasol at 6:31 AM on February 17, 2008
The story of Jesus Christ.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:43 AM on February 17, 2008
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 6:43 AM on February 17, 2008
We could throw in any comic book hero because they all fit the bill. Batman for example tasked himself with saving Gotham (easily seen as a metaphor for the world) without anyone really asking him to do so. Saving the world is at the heart of almost every story.
Yet the best example of this will be Plato's analogy of the cave. Many see it as the most profound idea to ever come out of western philosophy because it tackles so much... it is epic. If you think about it, it is at the heart of any story about a person tasked to save the world.
(here is an explanation of Plato's cave)
Plato's analogy of the cave as applied to Batman:
Finally, the only reason some hero's are hesitant about 'saving the world' is because they are not sure if they are saving the world in the right way.
posted by pwally at 6:52 AM on February 17, 2008
Yet the best example of this will be Plato's analogy of the cave. Many see it as the most profound idea to ever come out of western philosophy because it tackles so much... it is epic. If you think about it, it is at the heart of any story about a person tasked to save the world.
(here is an explanation of Plato's cave)
Plato's analogy of the cave as applied to Batman:
- Bruce Wayne, living in Gotham city with his parents having tons of fun. Oblivious to the world. Primed to help save the world with his pops.
- Parents get taken out, Bruce is on his own for a while emotionally. At this point he is the prisoner in the cave.
- Since he hasn't forgotten what his father has taught him about helping people, Bruce takes off on an adventure to find himself. This is congruent to the part of the allegory where the prisoner is broken free from his restraints and is forced into the sunlight.
- It takes the figure in Plato's allegory a little while to get acclimated to the 'sunlight' (truth) in the same way that it takes Batman (yeah hes batman now) to get used to his mission in life .
- Like the freed prisoner from the cave, Batman feels it is his responsibility to go back to the cave (Gotham) and save as many people (prisoners) as he can from evil doers.
Finally, the only reason some hero's are hesitant about 'saving the world' is because they are not sure if they are saving the world in the right way.
posted by pwally at 6:52 AM on February 17, 2008
High stakes BB, eh? I see your Messiah and raise you a Buddha and a Mohammed.
posted by XMLicious at 7:01 AM on February 17, 2008
posted by XMLicious at 7:01 AM on February 17, 2008
And by the way everyone needs to be appending “That's so crazy it just might work” to each of these stories.
“Leading every manner of bird and beast into an enormous ark? That's so crazy it just might work.”
“Sacrificing myself for the sins of all mankind? That's so crazy it just might work.”
“Teaching the secrets of contemplation and purity of being so that all mankind might free themselves from samsara and the cycle of rebirth? That's so crazy it just might work.”
posted by XMLicious at 7:08 AM on February 17, 2008 [1 favorite]
“Leading every manner of bird and beast into an enormous ark? That's so crazy it just might work.”
“Sacrificing myself for the sins of all mankind? That's so crazy it just might work.”
“Teaching the secrets of contemplation and purity of being so that all mankind might free themselves from samsara and the cycle of rebirth? That's so crazy it just might work.”
posted by XMLicious at 7:08 AM on February 17, 2008 [1 favorite]
Putting in a plug for Ursula LeGuin-- the Earthsea books really turn out to be about Ged saving the world by healing a rift between the land of the living and the land of the dead. You can read this particular story, The Farthest Shore, which is the third book, as a stand-alone, but you really should read the series from start to finish, including the final two, written years later. Here's the whole list:
* A Wizard of Earthsea (1968)
* The Tombs of Atuan (1972)
* The Farthest Shore (1974)
* Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea (1990)
* The Other Wind (2001)
(As I've said before, JK Rowling completely ripped off the entire Ged narrative, start to finish, and should have had her ass sued off). Oops, sorry, derail, I'll get off my soapbox now.
posted by nax at 7:34 AM on February 17, 2008 [1 favorite]
* A Wizard of Earthsea (1968)
* The Tombs of Atuan (1972)
* The Farthest Shore (1974)
* Tehanu: The Last Book of Earthsea (1990)
* The Other Wind (2001)
(As I've said before, JK Rowling completely ripped off the entire Ged narrative, start to finish, and should have had her ass sued off). Oops, sorry, derail, I'll get off my soapbox now.
posted by nax at 7:34 AM on February 17, 2008 [1 favorite]
Heroes? Pretty plainly saving the world, but there's a lot of folks who follow the NYC has to explode idea and some back-and-forth with who's the good guys.
posted by dagnyscott at 8:28 AM on February 17, 2008
posted by dagnyscott at 8:28 AM on February 17, 2008
Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun
Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time
Season 4 of Angel
Watchmen
The concept of doubt over salvation reminds me of the Gospel of Thomas: ("(16) Jesus said, "Men think, perhaps, that it is peace which I have come to cast upon the world. They do not know that it is dissension which I have come to cast upon the earth: fire, sword, and war. For there will be five in a house: three will be against two, and two against three, the father against the son, and the son against the father. And they will stand solitary.")
posted by jbrjake at 8:40 AM on February 17, 2008
Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time
Season 4 of Angel
Watchmen
The concept of doubt over salvation reminds me of the Gospel of Thomas: ("(16) Jesus said, "Men think, perhaps, that it is peace which I have come to cast upon the world. They do not know that it is dissension which I have come to cast upon the earth: fire, sword, and war. For there will be five in a house: three will be against two, and two against three, the father against the son, and the son against the father. And they will stand solitary.")
posted by jbrjake at 8:40 AM on February 17, 2008
There's this interesting series by Stephen R. Donaldson called The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever, about a complete jerk of a guy (with some justification, as he is a socially ostracized leper) who is pulled into a magical land as its saviour.
posted by man why you even got to do a thing at 8:44 AM on February 17, 2008
posted by man why you even got to do a thing at 8:44 AM on February 17, 2008
jbrjake's mention of The Wheel of Time is a solid choice. I'd also like to throw out Smallville, in which the young Clark Kent has doubts about what his father wants him to do, etc.
posted by phaded at 10:23 AM on February 17, 2008
posted by phaded at 10:23 AM on February 17, 2008
Ahem, hal_c_on, spoiler alert? But yeah, I immediately thought of Ender's Game.
posted by theiconoclast31 at 10:30 AM on February 17, 2008
posted by theiconoclast31 at 10:30 AM on February 17, 2008
The Lost plot may have been inspired by "Dead Man's Switch," an Outer Limits episode in which an Air Force officer (James LeGros) is sealed alone in an underground bunker in the early days of an alien invasion. LeGros's cell, like four other cells on different continents, is wired to a massive doomsday device capable of rendering the Earth's surface uninhabitable. At random intervals, an alarm sounds, and a countdown begins, giving LeGros or one of his counterparts half a minute in which to push a biologically keyed button in their cell and avert the end of the world. The cells can only communicate with Earth's high command and with each other; if humanity falls, they are to let the bomb ignite and deny the aliens the spoils of victory.
Naturally, the link to the surface goes dark...
posted by Iridic at 12:19 PM on February 17, 2008
Naturally, the link to the surface goes dark...
posted by Iridic at 12:19 PM on February 17, 2008
Campy and fun, but also often seriously thought-provoking: the TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel. They are made much more meaningful by reading the All Things Philosophical on BtVS and AtS fan site. Both the titular characters are tasked with saving the world from evil, but have their doubts and (temporarily) even give up at least once each.
posted by Jacqueline at 7:23 PM on February 17, 2008
posted by Jacqueline at 7:23 PM on February 17, 2008
Response by poster: Thanks guy and special props to pwally and Iridic
posted by thelloydshow at 6:54 AM on February 18, 2008
posted by thelloydshow at 6:54 AM on February 18, 2008
Response by poster: Thanks guys*
Lot of good material here to comb over!
posted by thelloydshow at 6:55 AM on February 18, 2008
Lot of good material here to comb over!
posted by thelloydshow at 6:55 AM on February 18, 2008
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Science! at 6:06 AM on February 17, 2008