Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer

by Rhonda V. Wilcox (Editor), David Lavery (Editor), Donald Keller (Contributor)

For every television series, the original vision grows within a press of forces-both social and artistic expectations, conventions of the business, as well as conventions of the art. Bad television--predictable, commercial, exploitative--simply yields to the forces. Good television, like the character of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, fights them. Fighting the Forces explores the struggle to create meaning in an impressive example of popular culture, the television series phenomenon Buffy the Vampire Slayer. In the essays collected here, contributors examine the series using a variety of techniques and viewpoints. They analyze the social and cultural issues implicit in the series and place it in its literary context, not only by examining its literary influences (from German liebestod to Huckleberry Finn) but also by exploring the series' purposeful literary allusions. Furthermore, the book explores the extratextual, such as fanfiction and online discussion groups. The book is additionally supplemented by an online journal Slayage (www.slayage.tv), created by the book editors in acknowledgement of the ongoing nature of television art. Rhonda V. Wilcox and David Lavery have written and edited several books and articles exploring the social, literary, and artistic merit of quality television. In addition to Buffy the Vampire Slayer, their work has covered a variety of programs including Twin Peaks, Northern Exposure, The X-Files, and The Sopranos.

Genres: Nonfiction, Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Pop Culture, Vampires, Essays, Tv, Gender

290 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Dr. Rhonda V. Wilcox is a Professor of English at Gordon State College in Barnesville, Georgia.

Reviews

[Sarah Cooper · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m perfectly normal about BTVS

[Philly Aesthete · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this volume academics and theorists write about the deeper levels of meaning, symbolism and narrative structures at work in the popular UPN television series. There's some great stuff here: there's a reading of Kendra, the West Indian Slayer, as a tragic mulatta figure; there's a discussion of why the Buffy/Willow relationship resists a queer reading; there's a provocative id/superego dyad posited for Faith and Buffy and, of course, some thoughtful discussion of Christianity in the face of rampant demonism, sexual taboos, gender disruptions etc... great, great book. I found it useful to juxtapose some of the essays here (especially the ones that look closely at the female figure in the horror genre) with Barbara Creed's seminal work, The Monstrous-Feminine : Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis (Routledge, 1993). If you're into film theory, queer theory and feminist theory, you'll wanna, perhaps, put these two works in conversation with each other.

[Ian Mathers · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's, you know, a book of academic essays. Some are really good, some are right, some are both; many of the others are maddening in large and small ways. An interesting coda to my long-overdue viewing of the whole series, but not a book I'm likely to look at again.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

some essays are good, some are so-so.

[Janet Jongebloed · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is one of the earliest books of academic writing on television shows like Buffy, Supernatural, Marvel, ect. However, when they wrote this book I think they had just started a course on Buffy Studies at Harvard and all the PhDs in Liberal Arts/English/Media weighed in their topics in here, covering anything from gender studies, race studies, language and the arts. And unlike some essay books on pop media I've read since then, I think this book was tailored specifically TO Harvard students, so I was getting a headache reading all the sentences on this wall of text pages that went something like "the postmodernistic interpretation of the feminist agenda". As Giles once said on the show, "Xander, don't speak Latin in front of the books!" (when Xander accidentally read a spell out loud from one of his old grimoires).

But I did it! I don't think I would have if I didn't have to finish it if my friend hadn't pushed me to do it, but I'm so happy to have accomplished that this weekend. I found myself agreeing with some bits (the use of the fairytale tropes as seen through Buffy and the essay about how picking niche music for the show exemplified the outsider nature of the characters and the fans alike) and shaking my head and wondering how these PhD academics came up with the conclusions they did and whether they watched the same show (for example when Buffy said "You had SEX with GILES? On the hood of a police car?!" to her mother during the episode when she could read people's minds it wasn't because of some Elektra complex which meant she wanted Giles for herself, she was literally underaged at the time, ew). But it was fun to argue with the doctorates of the world about my favorite show. Even if they got it wrong.

And even if it was a 3 star read (because of some bizarre takes) it was definitely a 5 star experience because it brought back so many wonderful memories of my favorite show, it stretched my understanding of language in ways I didn't think possible and cause I was finally able to keep a promise to myself to read it "someday".

[Helena · Rating 4 out of 5]

okei, litt kleint å logge denne, MEN! det er sånne bøker som dette som gjer at eg synest fagfeltet eg er del av er så vanvittig spennande. Ein kan liksom skrive om kva som helst i lys av litteratur- og kulturteoriar. Litt drit at boka kom ut før dei siste to sesongane kom ut, men altså.

[dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book. I cannot say that any of the ideas or criticisms were new to me, but it did make me think more about how all the things I learned in the Liberal Arts relate to Buffy and TV in general. I've started requesting and buying more tv critiques on buffy, x-files, and others. Most of us spend more time than we care to admit watching tv, and it is good to read something that encourages you to think about it critically. Since I've started reading more about TV, I've found myself changing some of my viewing habits.

It was the intro or the first chapter that discussed what makes a quality TV show--things like character development, arcs, and complex language. These are often the shows that you hear about, but then you have to dvd or netflix your way from the beginning, as jumping into the middle can be hard. The more I thought about it, the more I agreed. Some few tv shows are elevating to art and eclipsing movies in quality. Think about it, a 1 hour TV series yields about 22, 42 minute shows a year. If a show runs for 5 years, that is over 75 hours of a story. If the story is thoughtful, innovative, and well-done, then you get much more than from a movie, even with sequels.

I'm not saying we should give up books for TV, but that TV might be growing into an art form. In the late 1800's, parents limited children's time with novels, using many of the same reasons that modern parents limit TV.

[Beth Windle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fighting the Forces is an example of the quickly-growing academic sub-discipline of television studies. In fact, there’s even such a thing within in that narrow category known as “Buffy studies.” There are probably a dozen books of collected essays on Buffy; this one is the best in both variety and quality. Included are essays such as “’I’m Buffy and You’re History’: The Postmodern Politics of Buffy,” “’Digging the Undead’: Death and Desire in Buffy,” and “’My Boyfriend’s in the Band!’: Buffy and the Rhetoric of Music.” If I could, I would devote an entire career to studying television, which makes books like this easy for me to tear through. Plus, who doesn’t love anything with an ass-kicking female hero?

[Vicky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five stars for my enthusiasm while reading this, slowly, over like two weeks on the commute. I started to feel self-conscious or something about being seen with the same book for so long, lol, and my excuse is that I spend all my time at home watching Buffy, then in between chapters of this book, I space out too much thinking about Buffy, their relationships, the blur of good and evil, Willow and Tara highlights, etc, which reading this adds to all I have to think about, I guess, and super. I feel like a couple of the essays, though, reminded me of student papers or something (the first essay on how television is valuable enough to study : "bored now" : and the end essays on why music matters, etc). But anyway, I feel excited.

To edit this review later with notes.

[Allan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is sort of the grandfather of all the let's talk about BtVS at a bit deeper level than 'omg Spike is so awesome'. Because very often the discussion about BtVS does not progress beyond that level. (that sounds a bit snarky). However, this book does live in my library due my devotion of all things Buff.

[Eli · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a great book for any true fan of the series. These academic essays go into many fun topics of the show from differing perspectives. Some of the connections were new to me and some were not but all of them were interesting. This book is packed - small font and lots of pages. It's not one that can be read in one sitting. Nice compilation of authors and ideas. Highly recommended.

[Katherine Clark · Rating 4 out of 5]

As far as I can tell, this was the first book of academic essays published on the television show Buffy, The Vampire Slayer. It was mostly delightful reading, though at times I got bogged down in arguments I was opposed to, but I learned a great deal, and this info will come in handy as I design my podcast. Onto the next Buffy book...

[Stacey Handler · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was a slog. There was a lot of good stuff in here, but it was buried deep. Plus most of the essays are about the first four seasons and the later seasons are my favourites, so maybe that was why this book was difficult for me. I usually enjoy academic Buffy, but this one misses the mark for me.

[Hayley (Gory B Movie) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one is better researched and more academic than Seven Seasons of Buffy but less stuffy than The Aesthetics of Culture in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. None of the essays were bad and all of them offered beneficial insight into the show. I recommend this to Buffy fans and anyone that is interested in analyzing and researching the show.

[Valerie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Entire review (too long for Goodreads!) is over at:
Fighting the Forces: What’s at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer edited by Rhonda V. Wilcox and David Lavery

[Rebekka · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought, having watched Buffy and Angel an embarassing number of times, that I knew all there was to know about the show, but this book is proving me wrong! I've learned several new things, including the fantastic concept of 'feminist camp'.

[Al · Rating 3 out of 5]

Yes, I know reading Buffy is just uber-geeky, but I just couldn't help myself... As if. ;)

[Stuart · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun book of literary criticism centered on the hit 90's TV show. Not all of it is as interesting as it could be, but it's fun to read and if you're a die hard fan you'll love it.

[D. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating collection of theory-rich essays that don't shy away from some of the more problematic aspects of the series... but still accessible enough to make for comprehensible bedtime reading.