kyle's email also included a p.s., related to his observation in class about 'south park's' cartman character as an example of HUBRIS:
here is article about eric cartman which demonstrates how he displays hubris.
eric cartman: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eric_Cartman
on thursday we discussed HUBRIS in the context of what i call the 'calculus of moral decline' -- that gradation of human experience that can slide one into the abyss of tragic misfortune. it's worth thinking about this in the context of COMEDY, which is -- arguably -- the flip-side of tragedy. and i submit to you that cartman, like other characters on 'south park,' is a *comic* figure. how are the creators of 'south park' [trey parker and matt stone] inverting the tragic paradigm here? is it perhaps the case that the comic hero is precisely the one who can evince hubris without sliding into the abyss? and if so, does this mean that we do not take him/her seriously?
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