Sparkly Thoughts: Twilight and Philosophy

I've become a big fan of Blackwell's Philosophy and Pop Culture Series, where philosophical people look at some of the big media events of our time -- Harry Potter, Southpark, etc.  There are actually several publishers combining the odd bed mates of philosophy and modern video, and I've enjoyed reading from Open Court's books as well, but I did appreciate Twilight and Philosophy: Vampires, Vegetarians, and the Pursuit of Immortality.

Most of the essays do seem to start with a philosophy statement and then start digging through the material to find examples or support, but a few times the essays start from issues worried at in the text.  I actually like both sorts; I finally learned a bit about semiotics in the final sections here.  There was a good diversity of opinions, from the fundamental questions of Team Edward vs Team Jacob (both sides are represented) to the feminist questions of whether Bella is a flat cypher, a feminist hero, or a sexist dinosaur.  It's clear she's no Jane Eyre, but I preferred the essays that didn't dismiss her with contempt.

Anyway, it's not a college class (at least I hope not) but it was a fun way to revisit a topic that makes so many headlines.  I started the book just before I went to see the latest movie, which starts with Jacob ripping off his shirt and running about to show off his abs; now that's a quick way to establish the underlying thesis of a film!

Rewound Ending: Heat

My hobby this year has been devouring critical analysis of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, reading books that use the show to examine ideas about gender or race or ethics or whatever floats the academic's boat.  I've also read some of the graphic novels and comics based on the series, including some of the "official" continuations of the story.  But there are also a flotilla of fiction books set in the world of the show, some of which are written by authors I've heard of in other contexts.  I've read some vampire anthologies written by Nancy Holder (as well as some non-vampire books written by a different Nancy, Nancy Springer, whom I somehow confused with Holder which is why I read the first books), so I decided to try one of her Buffy books: Heat.

It was all right.  The big problem with books written inside a series is that nothing interesting can happen to the characters -- they have to fit into the shows that happen before and after the book.  So nobody can change or grow.  Occasionally a book will manage to sneak in some hidden information that explains things without contradicting events; the classic version of this is Orson Scott Card's Abyss which encompasses the movie it is based on but includes a lot more.  Heat does not do this, being set somewhere in Buffy Season 7, sometime before Principal Robin comes out to Buffy and sometime after Spike's insanity subsides a bit.  I forget where this places it in Angel Season 4.

It's also a bit too long; when reading a snack book it's best to get through it before noticing how shallow everything is.  Heat is about twice as long as it should be, probably because it stuffs in all the characters from both Whedon shows -- Buffy, Angel, Spike, Cordelia, Willow, Xander, Anya, Wesley, Gunn, Dawn, Fred and Lorne all get some screen time as viewpoint characters.  So do Connor, Lilah, Jhiera, Robin, and a slew of original characters, mostly villains or doomed witnesses.  This drags down the story.  Then, to emphasize the low stakes involved, Xander gets killed off in the final climatic battle, forcing the author to make the characters reverse the polarity of time (or something) so that everything that happened didn't.

There's a reason I don't super-size my junk food orders, and reading novel serializations of TV stories is really just literary junk food.  I'll pay stricter attention to page count next time I feel like indulging.

Thinking With Buffy: Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy

I liked Buffy the Vampire Slayer shows because they are fun, goofy, and play with words and ideas without usually taking themselves too seriously.  And that's how I like my literary analysis of Buffy as well.  James B South edited the Buffy book in the Modern Culture and Philosophy series, calling it Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale (Popular Culture and Philosophy, Vol. 4).  I suspect Buffy would tremble more about the philosophy part than the vampire part.

Most of the essays followed my preferred route -- have something to say about philosophy, whether it's a look at Plato's ethics, feminism and violence, or rationalizations for punishment, and then examine it through a specific lens.  In this book, that lens is the Buffy series.  Add in fun quotes for each section (section 4, Religion and Politics in the Buffyverse, is titled "That's the kind of wooly-headed thinking that leads to being eaten") and I had a pleasant trip through real concerns.  I think I'll look for the other books in this series.  B+

Pretty Pictures: Buffy the Vampire Slayer Panel to Panel

Well, I'm learning new things about Buffy all the time.  Such as there were a zillion comic books about her and her friends, so I'll go see what the library has to offer. But while leafing through the beautiful pages of Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Panel to Panel (Buffy the Vampire Slayer (Dark Horse)), I also inadvertently learned a lot about comics themselves.

I learned that different people might do the pencils, the ink, the lettering, the script, and the colors for a comic, and that the cover may or may not have any relation to the art and work within.  Well, I had known that last bit, but I assumed it was a mistake or my inability to see the connection.  The descriptions of the process of many of the comic series also revealed a lot about how and why art changes as it does and what some of the styles imply.  I'm still not a comic expert (HA), but I think I'll go check out some Dark Horse comics and see if any of my new understanding helps.  B