More Signs that Buffy is getting TOO SERIOUS

POSTED BY: Zicsoft
UPDATED: Monday, July 15, 2002 11:05
VIEWED: 3533
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ZICSOFT

Friday, July 5, 2002 9:28 PM

Quote:
In October this year, the School of English & American Studies, and the School of Language, Linguistics and Translation Studies at the University of East Anglia will be playing joint host to a two-day conference entitled "Blood, Text and Fears: Reading Around Buffy the Vampire Slayer" (it was originally planned as a one-day conference but, apparently, interest from academics in Europe and the US was so intense that it had to be extended). Last year saw the publication of Reading the Vampire Slayer, a collection of essays edited by the critic Roz Kaveney, with such titles as "Entropy as Demon: Buffy in Southern California", "Vampire dialectics: Knowledge, institutions and labour", and "'They always mistake me for the character I play!': Transformation, identity and role-playing in the Buffyverse (and a defence of fine acting)". You can find out more about these things at Slayage, "the online international journal of Buffy studies" ( www.slayage.tv), where you will also be invited to submit contributions for a planned new collection, Monsters and Metaphors: Essays on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The renowned orientalist Robert Irwin is a fan; so is the anti-science polemicist Bryan Appleyard.

This is from a British rag, The Independent. Complete article:

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/media/story.jsp?story=310937

NOVAGRASS

Saturday, July 6, 2002 12:44 AM

Things like this make me wonder about some people.

Sure, the show is intricate and well-planned, but a lot of these people seem to take the social messages a bit too far. "Reading" Buffy the Vampire Slayer as a literary piece requires an understanding that the show has transcended the creators' original intentions; it requires one to realize the the show has a life of its own within certain fan circles. This I find unsettling, just as I find the reading of Moby Dick as a symbolic adventure a bit absurd. Does our culture rely on finding meaning where no meaning exists to the point where some must analyze the esoteric philosophical theories in Buffy the Vampire Slayer?

Sure, one could recite their transcendentalist bullshit. "The story is what you make of it," and whatnot, but I can't respect such a hackneyed argument. People sure as Hell *can* find deeper meaning in Buffy, but more often than not, it's simply not there.

I won't argue that I don't see Buffy as a piece of art, cause frankly, I do. But can't we award recognition where it's deserved? Instead of contriving meaningless drivel, can't we recognize the art of Buffy where it really exists?

--Dylan Palmer, aka NoVaGrAsS--

The Ultimate Buffy-Angel Quote Generator™
Buffy: "But what else could I expect from a bunch of low-rent, no-account hoodlums like you? Hoodlums, yes. I mean you and your friends, your whole sex. Throw 'em in the sea for all I care. Throw 'em in and wait for the bubbles. Men, with your groping and spitting, all groin, no brain. Three billion of ya passing around the same worn-out urge. Men... with your sales."

TLSMITH1963

Monday, July 15, 2002 11:05 AM

They have done things like this with shows like Babylon 5, too. It does seem a bit odd.

Tammy