Thursday, July 16, 2009

Cassandra's curse and Destiny

The Cassandra metaphor (variously labelled the Cassandra 'syndrome', 'complex', 'phenomenon', 'predicament', 'dilemma', or 'curse'), is a term applied in situations in which valid warnings or concerns are dismissed or disbelieved.

[I particularly like this bit:]

The Marvel Comic characters Mystique and Destiny are two mutant super-villains driven to commit acts of violence and terrorism based upon Destiny's visions of the future. Comic writer (and creator of the characters) Chris Claremont often refers to Destiny as a "Cassandra" figure whose predictions of death for mutantkind are often ignored by the X-Men, with catastrophic effect. However, while Destiny often took her failures in stride, her lover and comrade Mystique would ultimately be driven to insanity after coming into possession of Destiny's various diaries, written with details of the future of mankind and mutantkind. Her madness ultimately leads her to fight the X-Men, who defeat her. Afterwords, Mystique gives the X-Men her copies of Destiny's diaries, promptly telling the X-Men that it was their time to "play Cassandra" with the information inside the diaries.

Cassandra's curse and Destiny

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