WHO HAS SEEN THE WIND?

Who has seen the wind?

Neither you nor I:

But when the trees bow down their heads,

The wind is passing by.

                     - Christina Rossetti

 Popular literature has always denoted what society is running towards ... and from. 

 Take Horror.

 Horror Fiction authors and films have to appeal to the public interest,

 so the horror within their story has to reflect society’s current view of what is fearful.

 Consequently from this you can understand the context from when it was written.

 So if books begin to write more about the perverse nature of man, does this indicate a more perverse society?

 In another genere, great Crime fiction offers what no sociology text can provide,

 To feel the living, breathing essence of New Orleans, both pre- and post-Katrina,

 check out the Dave Robicheaux series by James Lee Burke.

 In like manner, Rock Music remains the most democratic of mass media—

 the only one in which voices from the margins of society can still be heard out loud.

 It does not so much influence society as reflect it.

 Take our current movie fascination with the Superhero --

What is a hero? 

There are many views on that. 

Part of the definition

would contain the thought

that a hero embodies what is best in ourselves,

rising above what we feel is the worst in us all.

 I believe CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER reflects the quandry of the common man

 in today's society --

 trying to fit into a world that no longer seems to believe in anything much beyond power and self-interest.

 It is the classic story of the Child learning that Adulthood was a tarnished dream after all.

 It is telling that every hero that enters into public consciousness has experienced 

 significant trauma in his or her life that has practically defined them,

 a trauma that serves to motivate them in their lives as superheroes

 (Batman and Spider-Man serve, of course. as the perfect examples),

  traumas to which they are, and will always be, unable to reconcile themselves or fully resolve.

 But though both Batman and Spider-Man will, out of necessity, never be able to reconcile

 their respective traumas, they do, in fact, manage to live with them ...

 As must we all -- and perhaps that is our fascination with superheroes:

that they do well what the rest of us struggle through day by day.

What do you think? 

What makes a hero? 

Does our literature, our entertainments

reflect who we are?

Is the emphasis on Lust rather than Love

in 50 SHADES OF GRAY symbolic

of what is felt

throughout our society?