On Thursday, July 26, 2012 2:26:17 PM UTC+1, Granity wrote:
No Name;965469 Wrote:
> Steerpike wrote:-
> FYI Steerpike was the hero of a novel by Mervyn Peake-
>
> I would not have called him a hero.

From Wiki, sounds like a good analysis of this steerpike:

*Steerpike* might be called the antagonist of the Gormenghast Series,
but in truth he is more of an anti-hero; the first book for example is
largely focused on him, only covering the first year of the titular hero
Titus's life. Steerpike could also be considered an archetypal
Machiavellian schemer: a highly intelligent, ruthless character willing
to justify any and all means to reach his end. In the books, Mervyn
Peake describes his personality as follows:

If ever he had harboured a conscience in his tough narrow breast he
had by now dug out and flung away the awkward thing - flung it so far
away that were he ever to need it again he could never find it.
High-shouldered to a degree little short of malformation, slender and
adroit of limb and frame, his eyes close-set and the colour of dried
blood, he is climbing the spiral staircase of the soul of Gormenghast,
bound for some pinnacle of the itching fancy - some wild, invulnerable
eyrie best known to himself; where he can watch the world spread out
below him, and shake exultantly his clotted wings




--
Granity

In modern day terms when members of the British forces responsible for the murders of thousands of innocent people are seriously referred to as "Hero's", it seems appropriate to refer to Steerpike in exactly the same way...................