The essay below originally appears as Chapter 8 of Joker and Philosophy. You Get What You F****** Deserve Greg Littmann Joker: “What do you get when you cross a mentally ill loner with a society that abandons him and treats him like trash?…You get what you fucking deserve.” [Shoots Murray] There’s something satisfying about watching Joker…
Diabolical Revenge on The Boys Edwardo Pérez There’s something about revenge that most of us intuitively understand. It’s universal, isn’t it? When we’re wronged or when someone we love is wronged, especially in a significant way, it seems natural to want to get even, right? Isn’t that what the Code of Hammurabi was all about?…
Nietzschean Revenge in Game of Thrones Edwardo Pérez “If given the opportunity, what do we do to those who hurt the ones we love?” While Lord Petyr Baelish (also known as Littlefinger) posed this question to Sansa in the fourth season of HBO’s Game of Thrones (in the episode titled “Mockingbird”), it’s a perfect summation…
The Paradox of The Force II The Quest for Revenge in Star Wars Edwardo Pérez What if Obi-Wan had saved Anakin? Wouldn’t that have been the Jedi thing to do? It seemed cruel (un-Jedi-like) for Obi-Wan to leave Anakin as he lay on the ground in flames, struggling to cling to whatever life was left…
Sons of Anarchy and Philosophy Holy, Moses! The Pleasures and Perils of Revenge (Part II) George A. Dunn “Anyone who maims another shall suffer the same injury in return: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; the injury inflicted is the injury to be suffered.” ~ Leviticus 24:19-20 Do you think Jax Teller…
Sons of Anarchy and Philosophy The Pleasures and Perils of Revenge (Part I) George A. Dunn “And where the offense is, let the great ax fall.” ~ Claudius in William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Act IV, Scene V In this current and final season of Sons of Anarchy, one thing has become unmistakably clear: Jax Teller’s…
We recently caught up with George Dunn, editor of the recently published Veronica Mars and Philosophy: Investigating the Mysteries of Life (Which is a Bitch Until You Die). George tells us about the record-breaking Kickstarter campaign which bankrolled the recent movie, talks a bit about why he loves the show, and explains why it has hidden philosophical depths. Don’t forget to read…
The Blackwell Philosophy and Pop Culture Series 