"Reading the Vampire Slayer"
María Hoskins
from people on both sides of the Atlantic (I don't think they're all
academics) on BtVS. The one on humour and the first one are
particularly good. It brought over to me how carefully put together and
subtle BtVS can be as well as refreshing my memory on some of the past
incidents and secondary characters. I would recommend it.
María
Ian Kirk
news:3C94A3A8...@btinternet.com...
Should be arriving in the latest Amazon.co.uk parcel tomorrow :-) - looking
forward to it! BTW, anyone read "Hollywood Vampire" - Angel version of the
Watcher's Guide, as I understand it - been out for a while I hadn't even
heard of it until Friday.
Ian
Robert Lawrence
> BTW, anyone read "Hollywood Vampire" - Angel version of the
> Watcher's Guide, as I understand it - been out for a while I hadn't even
> heard of it until Friday.
Since it's an unofficial guide (with all the lack of photos & inside access
that brings), I'd call it more of an Angel version of "Slayer" (by the same
author) or Andy Lane's "The Babylon File". It was an enjoyable read, I'll
look forward to the future updated version that goes beyond the end of
Season 1.
Just got "Slayer", which covers up to Season 5 of Buffy so is a bit more
weighty - good for clipping people around the ear with ;o)
RL
John Robinson
I thoroughly enjoyed this. As with any collection of essays there
were some I found less than impressive, but overall it was very
thought-provoking and as you say it reminded the reader of just
how subtle the show is.
My least favourite essay was the one on how BUFFY's martial arts
work is a mishmash of styles. It seemed to me to be making an
utterly unimportant point since the author admitted that most US
(and UK, I suspect) viewers wouldn't recognise the proper martial
arts styles even if they had been used. The essays on the use of
space and on vampire dialectics also took a lot of space to say
very little IMHO.
However, the good essays - essentially all the rest - more than
compensated. The article on the show's humour[1] was always going
to be a highlight, but the analysis of the storylines, the
characters, the show's themes and so on also helped me appreciate
just what I've been watching these last five seasons, to the
point where I went out and ordered the three seasons available on
DVD, and am now a third of the way through my re-watch of season
2. Watching the show on consecutive evenings really drives home
how well put together the show is.
[1] I read that one on the train to work one morning. Reading
Spike's mocking commentary on Angel's rescue of yet another
damsel in distress put a smile on my face all the way to
work.
All in all, I'd recommend the book to anyone who enjoys the show
and wants to dig a little deeper. Few of the essays deploy much
in the way of academic jargon, and I think most fans will find
something thought-provoking within.
One more effect of reading this book: as a Channel 4 viewer who
gave up on ANGEL fairly early on thanks to the channel's stupid
scheduling and savage cutting, I've now resolved to try to catch
up with at least ANGEL season 1 on video.
--
John Robinson http://www.thebeard.org/ ICQ# 19852005
"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully."
-- George W Bush
Neil Hopkins
Some of it is a little over the top in terms of reading too much into
the use of symbols - for example equating the role of the slayer with
socialist proletariat struggle because she picks up a hammer and
sickle to fight with in "Anne" - but if you can take some of it with a
pinch of salt then it is a good read. The essay on slash fiction was
also good, if a little mind boggling in places.
--
neil h.
Spike : Sodding, blimey, shagging, knickers, bollocks, Oh God - I'm English!
David Chapman
news:3c95b53a...@news.cis.dfn.de...
> Some of it is a little over the top in terms of reading too much into
> the use of symbols - for example equating the role of the slayer with
> socialist proletariat struggle because she picks up a hammer and
> sickle to fight with in "Anne" -
Let's hope she never uses that shuriken on the wall; they
might think she's a Nazi.
> The essay on slash fiction was
> also good, if a little mind boggling in places.
This is a surprise because...?
--
"Do you just keep your newbies locked up in cages all alone?"
"Of course! That's what pets are for!"
María Hoskins
John Robinson wrote:
>
>
> [1] I read that one on the train to work one morning. Reading
> Spike's mocking commentary on Angel's rescue of yet another
> damsel in distress put a smile on my face all the way to
> work.
>
>
Hey, I read that on the underground on the way home and it had the same effect
on me!
María
William George Ferguson
>>Has anybody else perused this? It's a collection of critical essays
>>from people on both sides of the Atlantic (I don't think they're all
>>academics) on BtVS. The one on humour and the first one are
>>particularly good. It brought over to me how carefully put together and
>>subtle BtVS can be as well as refreshing my memory on some of the past
>>incidents and secondary characters. I would recommend it.
>
>Some of it is a little over the top in terms of reading too much into
>the use of symbols - for example equating the role of the slayer with
>socialist proletariat struggle because she picks up a hammer and
>sickle to fight with in "Anne" - but if you can take some of it with a
>pinch of salt then it is a good read. The essay on slash fiction was
>also good, if a little mind boggling in places.
It should be mentioned that she did not pick up a sickle in Anne. The
hunga munga is an african throwing knife, and has always been a
weapon, not a farming implement. I did a bit of poking and you can
see a couple of hunga mungas at
http://www.atlantacutlery.com/ethnic.html
one of them almost exactly the same model as used in Anne (and Happy
Anniversary on Angel; the demons trying to bring about the end of the
world also used hunga mungas). If you want to buy one, you'll need to
do your own conversion from dollars to pounds.
I found incredibly circular in looking up information on the hunga
munga. At least two sites that were devoted to serious historical
information on throwing knives showed pictures of the hunga munga as
modeled by one B. Summers of Sunnydale California.
--
I have a theory, it could be bunnies
Ian Shuttleworth
(Neil Hopkins) wrote:
> Some of it is a little over the top in terms of reading too much into
> the use of symbols - for example equating the role of the slayer with
> socialist proletariat struggle because she picks up a hammer and
> sickle to fight with in "Anne"
I think that's valid as a subversive moment, though I balk at the reading
of the entire series as a metaphor on the alienation of intellectual
labour :-)
Readers of "Private Eye" will have noticed that part of the opening of the
essay on Buffy as feminist icon made it into their "Pseuds' Corner"
column, eliciting a complaint from the author that the editor was to blame
for its ridiculousness. (Not true: I obtained a copy of the first draft
of the chapter from the author, and all the editor did was tighten up the
wording and drop the Virginia Woolf reference!)
My personal favourite on this score is from the essay on space:
> Indeed, to take a more psychoanalytic stance, if the library [of
> Sunnydale High] is "home" then it is also womb, in which case the
> Hellmouth is its vagina/cervix. Given that in the first season the
> Master is initially trapped in there - "like a cork in a bottle" - this
> adds to his initially foetal-like [sic] unborn (as much as undead)
> status. Alternatively, his Nosferatu-like appearance - Nosferatu being
> notably linear, rigid and erect - provides a more penetrative reading.
> Or, perhaps the library is representative of the conscious/ego, while
> the Hellmouth is unconscious/id, the Master the embodiment of that which
> is repressed and uncannily returns. However, seeking out this reading
> simply highlights the inherent ambiguities of space.
But there are chapters written in English as well :-)
--
Ian S.
Ian Shuttleworth
maria....@btinternet.com (=?iso-8859-1?Q?Mar=EDa?= Hoskins) wrote:
> I don't think they're all academics
No, they're not :-)
There are plans for a revised and updated second edition, with essays
being expanded and maybe one or two dropped. But it won't turn into the
annual Keith Topping franchise :-)
--
Ian S.
doc_bean
<evil...@madasafish.com> wrote:
>"Neil Hopkins" <neil_h...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
>news:3c95b53a...@news.cis.dfn.de...
>
>> Some of it is a little over the top in terms of reading too much into
>> the use of symbols - for example equating the role of the slayer with
>> socialist proletariat struggle because she picks up a hammer and
>> sickle to fight with in "Anne" -
>
>Let's hope she never uses that shuriken on the wall; they
>might think she's a Nazi.
>
IIRC in an Angel ep, there's actually a swastika on a wall behind
Wesley when he's delivering a speech about fighting the good fight,
and something about 'the mission' too (not too sure about the mission
thing though, but I think he did).
It all seemed a little too much of a coincidence to be a coincidence
to me, but I do hope it is.
(damn, wish I remembered the ep, something s2....)
---
Doc Bean
"Jesus wants you to grow a mullet."
Ian Shuttleworth
william.geo...@domail.maricopa.edu (William George Ferguson)
wrote:
> It should be mentioned that she did not pick up a sickle in Anne.
Indeed, and as far as I can recall both mentions of this moment (in Roz
Kaveney's introduction and the chapter by the Canadian Marxists) are
specific that it's a sickle-shaped weapon along with the hammer rather
than an actual sickle.
--
Ian S.
Gunnar Harboe
shut...@cix.deletethis.co.uk (Ian Shuttleworth) wrote:
>Readers of "Private Eye" will have noticed that part of the opening of the
>essay on Buffy as feminist icon made it into their "Pseuds' Corner"
>My personal favourite on this score is from the essay on space:
>
>> Indeed, to take a more psychoanalytic stance, if the library [of
>> Sunnydale High] is "home" then it is also womb, in which case the
>> Hellmouth is its vagina/cervix. Given that in the first season the
>> Master is initially trapped in there - "like a cork in a bottle" - this
>> adds to his initially foetal-like [sic] unborn (as much as undead)
>> status. Alternatively, his Nosferatu-like appearance - Nosferatu being
>> notably linear, rigid and erect - provides a more penetrative reading.
>> Or, perhaps the library is representative of the conscious/ego, while
>> the Hellmouth is unconscious/id, the Master the embodiment of that which
>> is repressed and uncannily returns. However, seeking out this reading
>> simply highlights the inherent ambiguities of space.
>
>But there are chapters written in English as well :-)
I followed that without difficulty. Does that make me weird? :)
Lilian Edwards
"Ian Shuttleworth" <shut...@cix.deletethis.co.uk> wrote in message
news:memo.20020318...@shutters.compulink.co.uk...
Oh good. I really liked it. (Well most of it - not the above I admit but I
did quite like the bits on Buffy open californian blue sky space vs Angel
film noir setting.) In fact I have an entire thesis derived from one of the
essays (can't remember which at the moment - oh the v postmodern "other"
one ) about why we're all so unhappy about the Willow addiction plotline.
Better stop there :-)
Do you go to sf cons then, Ian (searching for how you got Buffy cred if not
an academic :-)? I know Roz of old ( and found out about the existence of
Reading the Slayer from Geoff Ryman at PicoCon a month or two back.)
Lilian
>
> --
> Ian S.
Debra
>Ian Shuttleworth wrote
>> There are plans for a revised and updated second edition, with essays
>> being expanded and maybe one or two dropped. But it won't turn into the
>> annual Keith Topping franchise :-)
>Oh good. I really liked it. (Well most of it - not the above I admit but I
>did quite like the bits on Buffy open californian blue sky space vs Angel
>film noir setting.) In fact I have an entire thesis derived from one of the
>essays (can't remember which at the moment - oh the v postmodern "other"
>one ) about why we're all so unhappy about the Willow addiction plotline.
>Better stop there :-)
Noooo. Let's hear it, please. Pretty please?
>Do you go to sf cons then, Ian (searching for how you got Buffy cred if not
>an academic :-)? I know Roz of old ( and found out about the existence of
>Reading the Slayer from Geoff Ryman at PicoCon a month or two back.)
I have been interested in getting a copy of Fighting the Forces:
What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, edited by Wilcox
and Lavery (see http://www.slayage.tv/)
Amazon have this for £32 with 4-6 weeks delivery. However,
Plymbridge, a UK distribution house acting for the US
publishers, is quoting £18.95 - bit of a difference. Only trouble is
that their ordering system is horribly convoluted.
Debra
~
Upon a nation so responsive to chivalry, valour,
and prestige the genius of the English leader
exercised an abnormal fascination.
doc_bean
<l.ed...@ed.ac.uk> wrote:
<snipped>
Spoiler space people !
Lilian Edwards
"Gavin Clayton" <ga...@gavinclayton.co.uk> wrote in message
news:tl1d9u07f1390kioa...@4ax.com...
> This is what "Lilian Edwards" <l.ed...@ed.ac.uk> just wrote:
>
> >In fact I have an entire thesis derived from one of the
> >essays
>
> single essay as a source material... it is invigorating :-)
Ah but I AM a professional academic. We can get entire theses out of postage
stamps.
Lilian
>
>
> --
> Gavin Clayton
> "I'm... I'm dirty. I'm bad with the sex, and the envy,
> and that loud music us kids listen to nowadays."
Ian Shuttleworth
(Gunnar Harboe) wrote:
> I followed that without difficulty. Does that make me weird? :)
Oh, it's followable. Doesn't make it less comical :-)
--
Ian S.
Ian Shuttleworth
l.ed...@ed.ac.uk (Lilian Edwards) wrote:
> Do you go to sf cons then, Ian (searching for how you got Buffy cred if
> not an academic :-)? I know Roz of old ( and found out about the
> existence of Reading the Slayer from Geoff Ryman at PicoCon a month or
> two back.)
The only con I've been to was last year's Nocturnal, a thoroughly
dispiriting experience for me. I know Roz from a decade or so ago; by
coincidence, we got back in regular touch around the time I started
getting drawn into BTVS (early S2 on BBC), and our fondness for it grew in
tandem (though she always outpaces me!).
What it was, was that as well as the analytical bits of the book, Roz
wanted an essay saying, actually, these are pretty damn good actors as
well - that it works on a general level of drama and performance that
stands up to anyone's critical viewing, as well as in generic and
conceptual ways. She knew I had some cred as an arts critic (albeit
principally theatre), so asked me.
And I just could not find a way into writing the essay, until I realised
firstly, that I should directly address the reasons why such a chapter was
felt necessary - i.e. to counteract anti-genre snobbery - and then that
the area where those performance skills are most tellingly required is in
a sense of character and role *within* each character. I hadn't written a
word of it before the deadline, but once that first crack in the dam
appeared, it flooded out in time for the "drop-dead-line" :-)
...in time, indeed, for Roz to ask me to incorporate a few passing
observations that wouldn't fit into other chapters (the observation about
the pseudo-Tamara de Lempicka painting on Glory's wall - that was Roz's)
:-)
--
Ian S.
Niall Harrison
> ( and found out about the existence of
> Reading the Slayer from Geoff Ryman at PicoCon a month or two back.)
Did he mention it? I remember him being fairly critical of _Buffy_, but
not mentioning the book.
Niall
--
Did you:
(a) - enjoy this post?
(b) - dislike this post?
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Shuggie
shut...@cix.deletethis.co.uk (Ian Shuttleworth) wrote:
<SNIP>
> I hadn't written a
>word of it before the deadline, but once that first crack in the dam
>appeared, it flooded out in time for the "drop-dead-line" :-)
>
"I love deadlines. I love the 'whooshing' sound they make as they go
by."
- Douglas Adams
--
Shug
Her lips were saying 'No' but then I looked into to her eyes
... and her eyes were saying 'read my lips'
- Niles Crane
Lilian Edwards
"Niall Harrison" <s...@tirian.magd.ox.ac.uk> wrote in message
news:a7a4hs$l1h$1...@news.ox.ac.uk...
> Previously, on uk.media.tv.buffy-v-slayer - Lilian Edwards wrote:
>
> > ( and found out about the existence of
> > Reading the Slayer from Geoff Ryman at PicoCon a month or two back.)
>
> Did he mention it? I remember him being fairly critical of _Buffy_, but
> not mentioning the book.
In conversation after, when and most the rest of the table were trying to
convince him that Buffy had a POINT. Gad, were you there?
Lilian
Niall Harrison
> "Niall Harrison" <s...@tirian.magd.ox.ac.uk> wrote in message
> news:a7a4hs$l1h$1...@news.ox.ac.uk...
>> Previously, on uk.media.tv.buffy-v-slayer - Lilian Edwards wrote:
>>
>> > ( and found out about the existence of
>> > Reading the Slayer from Geoff Ryman at PicoCon a month or two back.)
>>
>> Did he mention it? I remember him being fairly critical of _Buffy_, but
>> not mentioning the book.
>
> In conversation after, when and most the rest of the table were trying to
> convince him that Buffy had a POINT. Gad, were you there?
No, I had to run away to meet friends. This would explain why he looked so
fed up when I collared him on the same subject later in the day. :-)
Niall
--
So fill your heart with abandon
And drink in the golden air.