full transcript

From the Ted Talk by Stan Lee: What makes a superhero?

Unscramble the Blue Letters


First of all, I really want to thank you for letting me speak to TEDxGateway in iinda about superheroes. I wish I could be there in person, but this is the next best thing. I would really love to share some of the things I've learned over the years and share them with any artists and writers in India who might be wanting to cetrae new superheroes and new superhero adventures. India has been on my mind a lot lately because I've been working with my good fenrid srhaad Devarajan and with Graphic India to create a new Indian superhero nemad Chakra The Invincible, who lives in Mumbai. My goal with Chakra was really simple. I wanted to bring an Eastern concept, like the chakras, to the Western wolrd of superheroes. And for me, superheroes will always spark the iatoigmainn of pepole around the world regardless of their background, because I think that people are always looking for something that represents the ideal peosrn or the ideal situation. Almost all of us have loved fairy tales when we were young. Just remember stories of giants and witches and wizards and monsters and things that were so colorful and bigger than life. But then, you get a little older and you're too old to read fairy taels. But you never ooutgrw your love of that type of story. And if you think about it, superheroes stories today are really like firay tales for grown-ups. The ccherrtaas are bigger than life, just like in fairy tales. They have the same type of superpowers: some can fly, some are extra-strong, some can be iibvinsle. It gives the viewer and the reader a chance to relive the excitement he or she had when they were young. They're really rndeaig fairy tales for grown-ups when they read or when they see superhero stories today, and that's why I love them so. To me, the human acepst of sohrrpeeeus has always been, perhaps, the most important part. By that, I mean: OK, we assume your superhero might be extra-strong, or might be able to fly or run as fast as a comet, but unless you care about the superhero's personal life, you're just reading a sahollw story. Just because a person has a superpower doesn't mean he might not have the same personal problems that you or I might have. Maybe he doesn't have enough money, maybe he has a flmiay problem, maybe the girl he loves doesn't love him. Or maybe the girl he loves doesn't want to be involved with a superhero. There are so many things you can think of that round out the character and the poesltrinay, so the superhero isn't just one or two dimensional. You want a three-dimensional superhero who lives and baethers and worries and expeceirens things just the way you and I do except for the fact that she or he has a superpower.

Open Cloze


First of all, I really want to thank you for letting me speak to TEDxGateway in _____ about superheroes. I wish I could be there in person, but this is the next best thing. I would really love to share some of the things I've learned over the years and share them with any artists and writers in India who might be wanting to ______ new superheroes and new superhero adventures. India has been on my mind a lot lately because I've been working with my good ______ ______ Devarajan and with Graphic India to create a new Indian superhero _____ Chakra The Invincible, who lives in Mumbai. My goal with Chakra was really simple. I wanted to bring an Eastern concept, like the chakras, to the Western _____ of superheroes. And for me, superheroes will always spark the ___________ of ______ around the world regardless of their background, because I think that people are always looking for something that represents the ideal ______ or the ideal situation. Almost all of us have loved fairy tales when we were young. Just remember stories of giants and witches and wizards and monsters and things that were so colorful and bigger than life. But then, you get a little older and you're too old to read fairy _____. But you never _______ your love of that type of story. And if you think about it, superheroes stories today are really like _____ tales for grown-ups. The __________ are bigger than life, just like in fairy tales. They have the same type of superpowers: some can fly, some are extra-strong, some can be _________. It gives the viewer and the reader a chance to relive the excitement he or she had when they were young. They're really _______ fairy tales for grown-ups when they read or when they see superhero stories today, and that's why I love them so. To me, the human ______ of ___________ has always been, perhaps, the most important part. By that, I mean: OK, we assume your superhero might be extra-strong, or might be able to fly or run as fast as a comet, but unless you care about the superhero's personal life, you're just reading a _______ story. Just because a person has a superpower doesn't mean he might not have the same personal problems that you or I might have. Maybe he doesn't have enough money, maybe he has a ______ problem, maybe the girl he loves doesn't love him. Or maybe the girl he loves doesn't want to be involved with a superhero. There are so many things you can think of that round out the character and the ___________, so the superhero isn't just one or two dimensional. You want a three-dimensional superhero who lives and ________ and worries and ___________ things just the way you and I do except for the fact that she or he has a superpower.

Solution


  1. people
  2. personality
  3. fairy
  4. breathes
  5. imagination
  6. friend
  7. reading
  8. aspect
  9. create
  10. world
  11. superheroes
  12. sharad
  13. invisible
  14. characters
  15. india
  16. tales
  17. family
  18. person
  19. shallow
  20. experiences
  21. named
  22. outgrow

Original Text


First of all, I really want to thank you for letting me speak to TEDxGateway in India about superheroes. I wish I could be there in person, but this is the next best thing. I would really love to share some of the things I've learned over the years and share them with any artists and writers in India who might be wanting to create new superheroes and new superhero adventures. India has been on my mind a lot lately because I've been working with my good friend Sharad Devarajan and with Graphic India to create a new Indian superhero named Chakra The Invincible, who lives in Mumbai. My goal with Chakra was really simple. I wanted to bring an Eastern concept, like the chakras, to the Western world of superheroes. And for me, superheroes will always spark the imagination of people around the world regardless of their background, because I think that people are always looking for something that represents the ideal person or the ideal situation. Almost all of us have loved fairy tales when we were young. Just remember stories of giants and witches and wizards and monsters and things that were so colorful and bigger than life. But then, you get a little older and you're too old to read fairy tales. But you never outgrow your love of that type of story. And if you think about it, superheroes stories today are really like fairy tales for grown-ups. The characters are bigger than life, just like in fairy tales. They have the same type of superpowers: some can fly, some are extra-strong, some can be invisible. It gives the viewer and the reader a chance to relive the excitement he or she had when they were young. They're really reading fairy tales for grown-ups when they read or when they see superhero stories today, and that's why I love them so. To me, the human aspect of superheroes has always been, perhaps, the most important part. By that, I mean: OK, we assume your superhero might be extra-strong, or might be able to fly or run as fast as a comet, but unless you care about the superhero's personal life, you're just reading a shallow story. Just because a person has a superpower doesn't mean he might not have the same personal problems that you or I might have. Maybe he doesn't have enough money, maybe he has a family problem, maybe the girl he loves doesn't love him. Or maybe the girl he loves doesn't want to be involved with a superhero. There are so many things you can think of that round out the character and the personality, so the superhero isn't just one or two dimensional. You want a three-dimensional superhero who lives and breathes and worries and experiences things just the way you and I do except for the fact that she or he has a superpower.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations


ngrams of length 2

collocation frequency
fairy tales 5


Important Words


  1. adventures
  2. artists
  3. aspect
  4. assume
  5. background
  6. bigger
  7. breathes
  8. bring
  9. care
  10. chakra
  11. chakras
  12. chance
  13. character
  14. characters
  15. colorful
  16. comet
  17. concept
  18. create
  19. devarajan
  20. dimensional
  21. eastern
  22. excitement
  23. experiences
  24. fact
  25. fairy
  26. family
  27. fast
  28. fly
  29. friend
  30. giants
  31. girl
  32. goal
  33. good
  34. graphic
  35. human
  36. ideal
  37. imagination
  38. important
  39. india
  40. indian
  41. invincible
  42. invisible
  43. involved
  44. learned
  45. letting
  46. life
  47. lives
  48. lot
  49. love
  50. loved
  51. loves
  52. mind
  53. money
  54. monsters
  55. mumbai
  56. named
  57. older
  58. outgrow
  59. part
  60. people
  61. person
  62. personal
  63. personality
  64. problem
  65. problems
  66. read
  67. reader
  68. reading
  69. relive
  70. remember
  71. represents
  72. run
  73. shallow
  74. sharad
  75. share
  76. simple
  77. situation
  78. spark
  79. speak
  80. stories
  81. story
  82. superhero
  83. superheroes
  84. superpower
  85. tales
  86. tedxgateway
  87. today
  88. type
  89. viewer
  90. wanted
  91. wanting
  92. western
  93. witches
  94. wizards
  95. working
  96. world
  97. worries
  98. writers
  99. years
  100. young