IS IT IN MAN'S NATURE TO DESTROY HIS HEROES?

We remember Atticus Finch as "To Kill A Mockingbird"'s moral conscience:

kind, wise, honorable, an avatar of integrity

who used his gifts as a lawyer to defend a black man falsely accused

of raping a white woman in a small Alabama town filled with prejudice and hatred in the 1930s.

As indelibly played by Gregory Peck in the 1962 movie, he was the

ideal father and a principled idealist, an enlightened, almost saintly believer in justice and fairness.

 In real life, people named their children after Atticus.

People went to law school and became lawyers because of Atticus.

Now, shockingly, in “Go Set a Watchman” (due out Tuesday),

Atticus is a racist who once attended a Klan meeting, who says things like

 “The Negroes down here are still in their childhood as a people.”

Or asks his daughter:

“Do you want Negroes by the carload in our schools and churches and theaters? Do you want them in our world?”

"Go Set A Watchman" was written first, and the prose shows it. 

I was looking forward to reading this novel --

I was going back to look at the landscapes and streets I had known,

to look at the faces, to hear the voices, to hear, in fact, the voices in my own blood.

Not now.

 

 

And now, there is to be a stand-alone Han Solo movie ...

 

focusing on the adventures of a young Han Solo (no Harrison Ford)

 

because as everyone knows, you can't have an older hero for your movie.  Sigh.

 

 

Hugh Jackman has told fans at the Comic-Con that the latest Wolverine movie will be his last as "Old Man Logan."

 

I mean he is at the terrible old age of 46. 

 

(Shakes his head.)

 

{Yes, I know that "Old Man Logan" is a grim future tale of an aged Wolverine having to go cross-country across a vicious landscape

 

 to pay rent to the vicious grandchildren of Hulk and She-Hulk accompanied with a blind Hawkeye.}

 

 

I know that getting into shape for the role is grueling.  I understand that. 

 

But it seems as if Hollywood is saying adventure ends in our mid-thirties.



Is there no room for mature heroes in our myths anymore?

(This is written for the last time on a friend's computer.  Mine is dead.)