I love this so much I bookmarked it. I'm usually not that fond of academic writing on my favourite things but this certainly has made the exception... it feels fresh, I suppose.

Jaymii | June 05, 01:14 CET

I want to be honest: I gave up half way through.

I am interested in the subject and I like the angle that the author has on the subject -- but it's written in such a unnecessarily complicated language that it really turns me off. Maybe these long-winded sentences are regarded good style in some academic circles. But linguistically its simply unelegant.

a stranger in my place | June 05, 15:08 CET

I'm with a stranger in my place. Self consciously academic style .... bored now.

Shey | June 05, 15:21 CET

I'm with Shey who's with a stranger... I can dig my way through dense scientific literature for kicks, but couldn't make it through any entire paragraph in this.

I feel like the author invoked so many ideas but failed to convince me any of them were either valid or intentional on the writers' parts. Let's see a bar graph!

5X5B | June 05, 17:54 CET

[4] While Joss Whedon's blog is no longer available online, certain websites have copies of his entries. I've chosen to access these instead in order to provide evidence for the statement I've chosen to make.http://www.whedon.info/Joss-Whedon-s-Reaction-About-Angel.html [accessed 12 January, 2010].

Joss had a blog? Is she talking about posts he's made here at Whedonesque? Because I could swear this is where I read that Angel post.

yourlibrarian | June 06, 00:18 CET

I agree with 5X5B, Shey and a stranger in my place, it was written too complicated, I read about half and gave up.

DeezyG | June 06, 06:33 CET

I read the whole thing but yep, it's my least favourite sort of lit-crit in that it uses overly complex sentences and references to make fairly simple, straightforward points (that've often been made before). E.g.

True but not new - superheroes and their villains reflecting aspects of each other's character (or, taken together, being one complete, fully functioning psyche) is a widely accepted aspect of the genre (Batman and Joker maybe being the best known example).

Or

Jeez, d'ya think ?

In general, a bad words/ideas ratio IMO which is a shame cos even given its length, Doctor Horrible has a lot of meat on its bones and as Simon says, there hasn't been that much attention paid to it by academics (that i've seen anyway).

Saje | June 06, 08:20 CET

Joss made that Angel post at the Bronze Beta not here. I don't know what the author is referring to about Joss no longer having a blog. Unless they wrote the paper when we had a lot of downtime here?

Simon | June 06, 08:25 CET

Memory might be tickling about some downtime around the middle of January this year (which is when the author was apparently compiling her references) though there's no comment from then in the status updates thread of the .org.

Still, wrong however you slice it since (AFAIK) Joss has never had a blog anyway (and mistaking the W'esque for his blog is the sort of thing you'd expect more from rushed journalists than academics studying his work).

Saje | June 06, 08:50 CET