ABSTRACT
As a child, Kate would leave the security of the known world. She conjured an alternate reality. She personiŒed malignancy and magic. In this world, Kate was in danger. She was alone, among strangers. She had resolute intentions, Heroic aspirations, and a received moral code. She imagined a contest between Good and Evil. But to rescue the innocent, she needed to shape-shi…. Her body had to become something plastic. Her agency had to be tutored and sustained by multiple capacities and strategies. To acquire wings, she needed the wisdom of a guide. Winged, she could not rescue children without the assistance of allies. In her fantasy, she made herself larger than life. But that expansiveness was insu§cient to danger. She had to rely on the “timid” and their “small” gestures. Going up the stairs, she had a Heroic “code of honor.” Rescue the Innocent. Vanquish the Monsters. en, that code was tested by risk; it was elaborated in a conversation with strangers, and her morals acquired the complexity of ethics. Remorseful villains became tragic subjects, and heroic action took many forms. Courage was an adventure in solitude, but it was also a communal Œeld.
