Good find, catalyst2. This will be a must read. Thanks :)

Madhatter | June 21, 20:57 CET

Looks like an interesting read, I fully intend to read all the academic literature pertaining to "Buffy"...we will see how far I actually get. I've downloaded much of the stuff from the Slayage site and find most thought-provoking (some more intent on transforming the show to meet individual ideology). Still, at the end of the day, I'd much rather pop in a DVD and just enjoy the show than wade through the complexities of meaning....it's been a long life!

Calledon | June 21, 21:02 CET

I get aesthetics and I get cultural studies and I get how Buffy can be a subject to both, but aesthetics of culture in something? BtVS has aestheticed view on (reality's) popular culture. Ok. You can write about that. Buffy's individual characters views to their surroundings? You can write about them too. But backtracking from there into relevance to real world... complicated. :)

Let's try, I say "Whedon's character Anya in BTVS:s universe where magic works and indregients can be sold for profit mirrors definitely property X in our shared experience of popular culture in our reality. " - There are quite a many points in that sentence where you can just say, 'but not for me' and that's it for the theory. Hm, what Calledon said.

I like when shows get deep, but I feel slightly embarrassed when people try to use that deep in public. Share the experience, not the interpretation.

futile | June 21, 23:02 CET

I love the academic side to Buffy and Angel. You can say 'not for me', but you can say that about anything, including whether even watching BtVS/Ats is a worthwhile way to spend your time. That doesn't have to be the end of a discussion.
For me, sharing the interpretation of the experience is really fun - it brings so many layers to the show. I don't want to agree with everything an author says, in fact it can be more stimulating if I don't. Admittedly, I'm not really thinking about them when I'm engrossed in the show, but I love that there's more than just the story that's so brilliant.

lone fashionable wolf | June 21, 23:42 CET

While I'll certainly buy it, Buffy and Angel always brought, to me, much more interesting morality tales than cultural commentary. Oonly in the Buffyverse can you pose a question like, "If you could bring your best friend back from the dead, SHOULD you?" or "How responsible are we for the things our bodies might have done, even if we were out of our minds (or souls) at the time?"

Ocular | June 22, 02:27 CET

I wildly agree with some academic study and range all the way over to don't agree at all. It's the critical analysis part that's fun. If you can disect the show you can disect analysis just as well.

April | June 22, 20:27 CET