• About / Contact
  • Archives
  • Free Novella
  • My Writing: Romance
  • My Writing: Speculative Fiction
    • Don Coyote de la Merika
    • Konstantin’s Gifts
      • About
      • Chapter 1
      • Chapter 2
    • Of Myth & Memory: Fictions & Labyrinths
    • Persephone’s Library and Other Stories

Kat's Blog

~ Musings on Authorship & Inspiration

Kat's Blog

Tag Archives: dexter

The Age of the Anti-Hero?: Walter White v. Frank Underwood

17 Monday Feb 2014

Posted by Kat in An Aside, concepts & analysis, inspirations, My Take On:, Reviews, Writing

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Breaking Bad, dexter, House of Cards, Luther, Macbeth, Sherlock

house of cardsWe recently (finally) got around to watching Breaking Bad, a program that features one of the most fully-developed, envisioned and enacted tragic falls that we have yet to see in popular culture, as discussed in a previous post.

We are now in the process of watching the American edition of House of Cards, Season 2–no doubt along with a significant proportion of the rest of the netflix-subscribing population.

The two characters–and series–present a fascinating set of contrasts. Both works feature frequent nods to Macbeth. House of Cards even goes so far as to have these wonderful soliloquies and asides that at least for my part, I find as effective as Elizabethan and Jacobean audiences must have found the asides and soliloquies of Shakespeare and other contemporary works. There is something chilling, thrilling, disturbing and peculiarly disarming about being the confidant of the villain, party to those inner thoughts and observations to which no-one else has access. It draws us in, as we watch his intricate machinations with bated horror. There are other wonderful, resonant references as well, which I touched on in the post I wrote last year–the extinguishing of the candle, for instance, and Frank’s relationship with his wife.

Breaking Bad‘s allusions are more muted, but nonetheless detectable. One of the more elegant ones comes when Walter is holed up in his cabin and walks to the gate, then says “Tomorrow…”. All is lost at that stage, and Walter is weary. It is a powerful moment of temporary capitulation.

Macbeth is itself a play that has always fascinated me. For me, the crux of the work, and the crux of how an actor will play the Scottish anti-hero, derives from the question of whether the witches’ prophecy that he will be king, transforms him from being a genuinely honourable man and war hero into an amoral killer who is slowly eaten from the inside out by his ambition, or whether it simply gives him permission to do what he wanted to do all along, but which the bounds of propriety did not allow. As a student, reading the play in English class, I had believed the former–that Macbeth was once good, and turned bad. Now, as an adult, I’m leaning towards the other reading. He was that way all along, and just needed permission to cast aside his morality. Continue reading →

Advertisements

Kat Anthony

Top Posts & Pages

  • Another Curveball...

Recent Posts

  • Another Curveball…
  • Stage Four Cancer
  • Recent Encounters with Ireland
  • Democracy’s Capitol: Ruminations on D.C.
  • Speilberg’s Lincoln, Original Sin and Norse Mythology

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Now Available Exclusively at Amazon:

Konstantin's Gifts

Of Myth & Memory: Fictions & Labyrinths

The Clarendon Rose

The Clarendon Rose

Now Available at Amazon and Smashwords:

An Immodest Proposal

An Immodest Proposal

Persephone's Library

Persephone's Library and Other Short Stories

Don Coyote

Don Coyote de la Merika: available as a FREE download @ Smashwords

Blogs I like

  • Author Lorinda Taylor’s Blog
  • Writer friend Siri’s blog
  • Lorinda’s Blog, featuring discussions of myth & literature
  • Miroki–truly a Jacques of trades

Goodreads

Kat on Twitter

  • @RobinKBayley thanks so much for reading and sharing... 4 years ago
  • These stunning photos of the beauty of frozen winter lakes are a nice antidote to the winter blues: ow.ly/GLxNt 4 years ago
  • Kind of awesome: this 84-year-old grandfather made a Death Star-shaped fire pit for his granddaughter: ow.ly/GI8P2 4 years ago
Follow @writekatanthony

Category Cloud

An Aside concepts & analysis Copyright Creative inspirations creativity crow girl publishing Digital World Don Coyote DRM / TPM e-books family lore heirloom stories indie publishing inspirations Konstantin's Gifts Milestones My Take On: NaNoWriMo New Technologies Persephone's Library publishing industry Reading Research Reviews self-publishing Self-publishing challenges short stories travels Uncategorized Writing

Tags

articling backlist barrister BBC book launch Breaking Bad Brideshead Revisited creating a brand david tennant Dean Wesley Smith Doctor who Downton Abbey erg chebbi fantasy fiction Font-de-Gaume House of Cards Iguana Books impulsive decisions kdp select Kit Foster law school Luther Macbeth Netflix price change Romance Genre rusalka Russian empire Sherlock television time travel triple bypass surgery turtleduck press werewolf

Pages

  • About / Contact
  • Archives
  • Free Novella
  • My Writing: Romance
  • My Writing: Speculative Fiction
    • Don Coyote de la Merika
    • Konstantin’s Gifts
      • About
      • Chapter 1
      • Chapter 2
    • Of Myth & Memory: Fictions & Labyrinths
    • Persephone’s Library and Other Stories

Search The Blog

Publishers

  • Turtleduck Press

RSS My App Review and Mobile Blog

  • Apps Gone Free is like Goldilocks: not too much, not too little
    I’ve tried a couple of different apps whose purpose of existence is to alert users to the existence of other apps that are temporarily discounted or free. So far, the standout for me is Apps Gone Free. I’m not a … Continue reading →
  • Logitech Ultrathin wins my Heart
    A while back, I did a side-by-side review of the in-app dictation software in the more recent iOS versions and the free Dragon dictation app. The in-app software won (sad though I am to admit it, as I do love … Continue reading →
  • Goodreader is actually the Bestreader
    Looking back through my old posts, I was simultaneously astonished and chagrined that I had not yet written anything about Goodreader. It was one of my early purchases on the iPad and has been one of my top, go-to apps … Continue reading →
  • Productivity App: Advanced To Do Lists
    I’m a productivity junkie. Modern life, with all its devices, information and demands means that if you’ve got your fingers in more than one pie (and most of us do) we can’t afford to waste a moment–and that if we’re … Continue reading →
Advertisements

Archives

  • February 2015
  • January 2015
  • July 2014
  • May 2014
  • February 2014
  • January 2014
  • November 2013
  • September 2013
  • August 2013
  • July 2013
  • June 2013
  • April 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • August 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • April 2012
  • March 2012
  • February 2012
  • January 2012
  • December 2011
  • November 2011
  • October 2011
  • September 2011
  • August 2011
  • July 2011
  • June 2011

Header Image:

Timothy Lantz

Monthly Calendar of Posts

February 2019
M T W T F S S
« Feb    
 123
45678910
11121314151617
18192021222324
25262728  

Blog at WordPress.com.

Cancel
Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy