Fictional outlaw heroes normalize rule-breaking by framing it as reluctant necessity

Evidence

The rules are crucial to Nolan’s method. If Memento is a kind of impossible object, then its impossibility is generated not via an anything-goes ontological anarchy but by the setting up of rules which it violates in particular ways – just as the effect of Escher’s paintings depend upon unsettling rather than ignoring the rules of perspective. — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life, 517 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Justified fictional violence weakens restraints as effectively as real justified violence — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 888; Fictional characters can become genuine models for perseverance in real life; Forcing recruits to kill bound them to the F.L.N. through outlawry — Horne, Alistair, A Savage War of Peace- Algeria 1954-1962, 416 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Puzzling fictions work by violating self-imposed rules, not by ignoring them. #complicates (0.72) — Mark Fisher, Ghosts of My Life, 517
• Fictional characters can become genuine models for perseverance in real life #complicates (0.71)