full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Tim Adams: An antihero of one's own

Unscramble the Blue Letters


Tom craetr, Translator

Bedirhan Cinar, Reviewer

Literary critic Northrop Frye once observed that in our primitive days, our lreraity heroes were -- well, nearly gods, and as civilization aacvnedd, they came down the mountain of the gods, so to speak, and became more human, more flewad, less heroic. From the divine heoers like Hercules, down the mountain below the miraculous but mortal heroes such as blowuef, the geart leaders such as King Arthur, and the great but flawed heroes like Macbeth or Othello. Below even the unlikely but eventual heroes such as Harry ptoter, Luke sekwlakyr, or Hiccup, until we reach the btootm and meet the anti-hero. Contrary to the sunod, the anti-hero is not the villain, not the antagonist. The anti-hero is actually the main character in some caoomrentpry wkros of literature. Guy Montag in "Fahrenheit 451," Winston Smith in "1984," who unwittingly ends up challenging those in power -- that is, those who abuse their power to brainwash the populace to believe that the ills of sioetcy have been eliminated. Ideally, those who cngalhlee the establishment should be wise, confident, brvae, physically strong, with a type of charisma that inpires followers. The anti-hero, however, at best demonstrates a few underdeveloped traits, at worst, is totally inept. The story of the anti-hero usually unfolds something like this. The anti-hero initially cmoornfs, ignorantly accepting the established vewis, a typical, unquestioning, brainwashed member of society. The anti-hero struggles to conform, all the while starting to object, perhaps finding other outsiders with whom to voice his questions, and naïvely, unwisely, sharing those questions with an authority figure. The anti-hero openly challenges society, and tries to fight against the lies and tactics used to oppress the populace. This step, for the anti-hero, is seldom a maettr of brave, wise and heroic oippisootn. Maybe the anti-hero fights and succeeds in destroying the oppressive government, with a lot of impossible luck. Perhaps he or she runs away, escapes to fight another day. All too often though, the anti-hero is killed, or brainwashed to return to coirfonmty with the masses. No heroic triumph here, no brave individual standing up against impersonal iittinonutss of a modern world, ispirning others to fight, or resourcefully outwitting and outgunning the massive army of the evil empire. Our storytelling ancestors calmed our faers of powerlessness by givnig us Hercules and other heroes strong enough to fight off the demons and monsters that we suspected hetanud the nghit beyond our campfires. But eventually, we realized the monsters did not lie out there, they reside inside of us. Beowulf's geeastrt enemy was mortality. Othello's, jealousy. Hiccup, self-doubt. And in the taels of the ineffectual anti-hero, in the stories of Guy Montag and Winston stmih, lie the warnings of contemporary storytellers paniylg on very primitive fears: that we are not strong enough to defeat the monsters. Only this time, not the monsters chased away by the campfire, but the very mretnoss who biult the campfire in the first place.

Open Cloze


Tom ______, Translator

Bedirhan Cinar, Reviewer

Literary critic Northrop Frye once observed that in our primitive days, our ________ heroes were -- well, nearly gods, and as civilization ________, they came down the mountain of the gods, so to speak, and became more human, more ______, less heroic. From the divine ______ like Hercules, down the mountain below the miraculous but mortal heroes such as _______, the _____ leaders such as King Arthur, and the great but flawed heroes like Macbeth or Othello. Below even the unlikely but eventual heroes such as Harry ______, Luke _________, or Hiccup, until we reach the ______ and meet the anti-hero. Contrary to the _____, the anti-hero is not the villain, not the antagonist. The anti-hero is actually the main character in some ____________ _____ of literature. Guy Montag in "Fahrenheit 451," Winston Smith in "1984," who unwittingly ends up challenging those in power -- that is, those who abuse their power to brainwash the populace to believe that the ills of _______ have been eliminated. Ideally, those who _________ the establishment should be wise, confident, _____, physically strong, with a type of charisma that inpires followers. The anti-hero, however, at best demonstrates a few underdeveloped traits, at worst, is totally inept. The story of the anti-hero usually unfolds something like this. The anti-hero initially ________, ignorantly accepting the established _____, a typical, unquestioning, brainwashed member of society. The anti-hero struggles to conform, all the while starting to object, perhaps finding other outsiders with whom to voice his questions, and naïvely, unwisely, sharing those questions with an authority figure. The anti-hero openly challenges society, and tries to fight against the lies and tactics used to oppress the populace. This step, for the anti-hero, is seldom a ______ of brave, wise and heroic __________. Maybe the anti-hero fights and succeeds in destroying the oppressive government, with a lot of impossible luck. Perhaps he or she runs away, escapes to fight another day. All too often though, the anti-hero is killed, or brainwashed to return to __________ with the masses. No heroic triumph here, no brave individual standing up against impersonal ____________ of a modern world, _________ others to fight, or resourcefully outwitting and outgunning the massive army of the evil empire. Our storytelling ancestors calmed our _____ of powerlessness by ______ us Hercules and other heroes strong enough to fight off the demons and monsters that we suspected _______ the _____ beyond our campfires. But eventually, we realized the monsters did not lie out there, they reside inside of us. Beowulf's ________ enemy was mortality. Othello's, jealousy. Hiccup, self-doubt. And in the _____ of the ineffectual anti-hero, in the stories of Guy Montag and Winston _____, lie the warnings of contemporary storytellers _______ on very primitive fears: that we are not strong enough to defeat the monsters. Only this time, not the monsters chased away by the campfire, but the very ________ who _____ the campfire in the first place.

Solution


  1. carter
  2. inspiring
  3. literary
  4. bottom
  5. monsters
  6. playing
  7. views
  8. matter
  9. haunted
  10. brave
  11. skywalker
  12. opposition
  13. greatest
  14. works
  15. potter
  16. advanced
  17. conforms
  18. flawed
  19. institutions
  20. night
  21. smith
  22. fears
  23. challenge
  24. contemporary
  25. great
  26. sound
  27. heroes
  28. beowulf
  29. tales
  30. society
  31. conformity
  32. built
  33. giving

Original Text


Tom Carter, Translator

Bedirhan Cinar, Reviewer

Literary critic Northrop Frye once observed that in our primitive days, our literary heroes were -- well, nearly gods, and as civilization advanced, they came down the mountain of the gods, so to speak, and became more human, more flawed, less heroic. From the divine heroes like Hercules, down the mountain below the miraculous but mortal heroes such as Beowulf, the great leaders such as King Arthur, and the great but flawed heroes like Macbeth or Othello. Below even the unlikely but eventual heroes such as Harry Potter, Luke Skywalker, or Hiccup, until we reach the bottom and meet the anti-hero. Contrary to the sound, the anti-hero is not the villain, not the antagonist. The anti-hero is actually the main character in some contemporary works of literature. Guy Montag in "Fahrenheit 451," Winston Smith in "1984," who unwittingly ends up challenging those in power -- that is, those who abuse their power to brainwash the populace to believe that the ills of society have been eliminated. Ideally, those who challenge the establishment should be wise, confident, brave, physically strong, with a type of charisma that inpires followers. The anti-hero, however, at best demonstrates a few underdeveloped traits, at worst, is totally inept. The story of the anti-hero usually unfolds something like this. The anti-hero initially conforms, ignorantly accepting the established views, a typical, unquestioning, brainwashed member of society. The anti-hero struggles to conform, all the while starting to object, perhaps finding other outsiders with whom to voice his questions, and naïvely, unwisely, sharing those questions with an authority figure. The anti-hero openly challenges society, and tries to fight against the lies and tactics used to oppress the populace. This step, for the anti-hero, is seldom a matter of brave, wise and heroic opposition. Maybe the anti-hero fights and succeeds in destroying the oppressive government, with a lot of impossible luck. Perhaps he or she runs away, escapes to fight another day. All too often though, the anti-hero is killed, or brainwashed to return to conformity with the masses. No heroic triumph here, no brave individual standing up against impersonal institutions of a modern world, inspiring others to fight, or resourcefully outwitting and outgunning the massive army of the evil empire. Our storytelling ancestors calmed our fears of powerlessness by giving us Hercules and other heroes strong enough to fight off the demons and monsters that we suspected haunted the night beyond our campfires. But eventually, we realized the monsters did not lie out there, they reside inside of us. Beowulf's greatest enemy was mortality. Othello's, jealousy. Hiccup, self-doubt. And in the tales of the ineffectual anti-hero, in the stories of Guy Montag and Winston Smith, lie the warnings of contemporary storytellers playing on very primitive fears: that we are not strong enough to defeat the monsters. Only this time, not the monsters chased away by the campfire, but the very monsters who built the campfire in the first place.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
guy montag 2


Important Words


  1. abuse
  2. accepting
  3. advanced
  4. ancestors
  5. antagonist
  6. army
  7. arthur
  8. authority
  9. bedirhan
  10. beowulf
  11. bottom
  12. brainwash
  13. brainwashed
  14. brave
  15. built
  16. calmed
  17. campfire
  18. campfires
  19. carter
  20. challenge
  21. challenges
  22. challenging
  23. character
  24. charisma
  25. chased
  26. cinar
  27. civilization
  28. confident
  29. conform
  30. conformity
  31. conforms
  32. contemporary
  33. contrary
  34. critic
  35. day
  36. days
  37. defeat
  38. demons
  39. demonstrates
  40. destroying
  41. divine
  42. eliminated
  43. empire
  44. ends
  45. enemy
  46. escapes
  47. established
  48. establishment
  49. eventual
  50. eventually
  51. evil
  52. fears
  53. fight
  54. fights
  55. figure
  56. finding
  57. flawed
  58. followers
  59. frye
  60. giving
  61. gods
  62. government
  63. great
  64. greatest
  65. guy
  66. harry
  67. haunted
  68. hercules
  69. heroes
  70. heroic
  71. hiccup
  72. human
  73. ideally
  74. ignorantly
  75. ills
  76. impersonal
  77. impossible
  78. individual
  79. ineffectual
  80. inept
  81. initially
  82. inpires
  83. inspiring
  84. institutions
  85. jealousy
  86. killed
  87. king
  88. leaders
  89. lie
  90. lies
  91. literary
  92. literature
  93. lot
  94. luck
  95. luke
  96. macbeth
  97. main
  98. masses
  99. massive
  100. matter
  101. meet
  102. member
  103. miraculous
  104. modern
  105. monsters
  106. montag
  107. mortal
  108. mortality
  109. mountain
  110. naïvely
  111. night
  112. northrop
  113. object
  114. observed
  115. openly
  116. opposition
  117. oppress
  118. oppressive
  119. othello
  120. outgunning
  121. outsiders
  122. outwitting
  123. physically
  124. place
  125. playing
  126. populace
  127. potter
  128. power
  129. powerlessness
  130. primitive
  131. questions
  132. reach
  133. realized
  134. reside
  135. resourcefully
  136. return
  137. reviewer
  138. runs
  139. seldom
  140. sharing
  141. skywalker
  142. smith
  143. society
  144. sound
  145. speak
  146. standing
  147. starting
  148. step
  149. stories
  150. story
  151. storytellers
  152. storytelling
  153. strong
  154. struggles
  155. succeeds
  156. suspected
  157. tactics
  158. tales
  159. time
  160. tom
  161. totally
  162. traits
  163. translator
  164. triumph
  165. type
  166. typical
  167. underdeveloped
  168. unfolds
  169. unquestioning
  170. unwisely
  171. unwittingly
  172. views
  173. villain
  174. voice
  175. warnings
  176. winston
  177. wise
  178. works
  179. world
  180. worst