Monday, May 10, 2004

Glenn Yeffeth, ed., Seven Season of Buffy: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Discuss Their Favorite Television Show.

This collection of twenty-two essays begins with some degree of promise, examining certain aspects of Buffy. In particular, Nancy Holder's "Slayers of the Last Arc," is a piece that argues that the final conclusion of the show works well both artistically and in the context of the show as a whole. While I'm more tempted by its seductive appeal to Joseph Campbell's outline of the quest myth (from Hero with a Thousand Faces) as an explanation, it is one of the few pieces that doesn't fall into the trap that most of the rest do. That is to say, it has a clear argument and it doesn't just follow a story--it uses quotations from the show to argue a point. It's a real essay!

The other extreme--and I won't pick on a particular author or essay, here, are the pieces that say, wasn't Buffy great? Don't you miss it when X happened? Who really was Buffy's best boyfriend?

So. Some decent essays, some crap. Much like those essays that you'll find online--and in short, spend your time looking for interesting pieces there; unless you can get this Yeffeth book from the library, it's not worth the price of purchase.

3 comments:

Matthew said...

This comment a) tests Blogger's new, built-in commenting system; and b) extends my point slightly--the things about the vast majority of those essays is that they felt like high-schoolers' essays. I don't know if that's a function of aiming for a very wide audience, or just of a lack of careful writing: certainly some of the writers avoided that particular trap.

plantone said...

wow. this comment thing is cooool. this is just to a) further test these blogger comments and b) waste time for me at work.

Herbie said...

yes, comments do rock! buffy rocks too. i did not know that 24 and buffy overlaped in airdates. i thought buffy ended and then 24 started. i learn something new everyday.