Monday 18 December 2017

Political Heroes

Fictional heroes include not only soldiers and swordsmen but also skillful political leaders who sometimes get beneficial measures passed through hostile assemblies, e.g.:

Poul and Karen Anderson's King Grallon of Ys;
the French representative in the World Federation Parliament (see here);
James Blish's Mayor John Amalfi of the Okie city of New York;
SM Stirling's High King of Montival;
Neil Gaiman's version of the comic book teenage President, Prez;
no doubt many others that I have not thought of.

Such fiction addresses an important question: what do people expect from their leaders and how much can the leaders deliver?

2 comments:

David Birr said...

Paul:
Good heavens, it's been a LONG time since I've seen a reference to Prez. (I wonder what Gaiman would do with Sooper Hippie [sic]?)

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

David,
Gaiman also revived a character called Brother Power.
Paul.