Yes, his was a sad case. I remember when it happened. There's an
expression, "May your name not become a byword" - and Layne
unfortunately became one, symbolic of a series of small wrong
choices that repeated through time. He also has been symbolic
for other things as well, but more importantly, he was a real
person, yet held up as if a fictional figure.
Perhaps that is why I am also a fan of the White Collar Hero;
the forgettable average guy, who gets up, goes to work, does
what he needs to do, and managed to successfully navigate life's
travails, whatever it going on around him.
Yet perhaps the ultimate answer is neither to romanticize nor
despise heroes and their ways but acknowledge the genre as
enacted fiction. The trend of late, which I tend to like, is
"You can write your own life story". While it fits a person's
life in a limited context, it's a least some kind of roadmap.
I've been searching for the scripts I've been following, and
there are many to dismantle. My quest continues; perhaps not so
epic on a global scale but as epic a hero's quest as one can
imagine for myself.
