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May 25, 2003
Titleless
From a fairly old E! Online interview with Joss Whedon (and if you don't know who Joss is, you're visiting the wrong site. . .)
Do you ever think the show's title has deterred some people from checking it out?Yes, I think that's probably true. The network always said it would be a problem and desperately wanted to change the title. I believe that anyone who isn't open to a show with this title isn't invited to the party. I made the title very specifically to say, "This is what it is." It wears itself on its sleeve. It's sophomoric, it's silly, it's comedy-horror-action; it's all there in the title. Having the metaphor to work with makes the show better, and having the silly title makes the show cooler. At least to me.
I am never going to apologize for the name of this site again.
Ok, not that I was apologizing before, but. . .
Saw the quote in one of the essays in Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer, which I've been reading off and on for a while now.
It's. . . well, it's a collection of fairly scholarly essays about a television show. I'm not sure there's any point reviewing such a thing.
I did, however, want to introduce it.
Foreshadowing: your guide to quality blogging.
Posted by Aaron at May 25, 2003 09:57 PM
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Comments
Even a little weensie review would be welcome. I mean, I keep hearing about that book and wondering whether it's worth picking up. So... is it?
Posted by: Lauren at May 26, 2003 06:42 PM
Lauren, if you're a fan or at least a frequent viewer of the show, and not put off by passages like
This incident demonstrates -- apart from the frail flammability of Giles's manuscript collection -- the materiality of language in Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Words and utterances have palpable power, and their rules must be respected if they are to be wielded as weapons in the fight against evil.
then yes, it's worth a look.
Or I could send you this copy to check out if you'd like.
Warning: the above was typed in a pre-coffee state, and may not actually answer anything.
Posted by: Aaron at May 27, 2003 09:24 AM
Sounds fun! I may wander over to the nearby university library and see whether they've got a copy.
Posted by: Lauren at May 27, 2003 04:04 PM
Best of luck, Lauren. I checked ours, & all the copies [in the state!] are checked out until doomsday. Wankers.
Posted by: Neogrammarian at May 28, 2003 08:38 AM
Yes, well, our timing is not the best -- everyone I know who was a Buffy fan is in massive nostalgia mode, and grasping onto anything they can get their hands on to relive the glory days. :)
Posted by: Lauren at May 28, 2003 11:11 AM
Huh. I really wasn't that impressed with Glory.
Oh, come on, somebody was going to say it.
Neo, seeing as I have a small pile of Nausicaa tpbs to send your way, I could add one more book to the stack.
Which reminds me, could you email your snail/postal address? I have no idea where anything is right now. . .
Posted by: Aaron at May 28, 2003 01:24 PM
Aaron, seriously? That was bad. :)
Posted by: Lauren at May 29, 2003 10:19 AM
BUFFY: I'm sorry, I just... ahhhh... I haven't had a good pun in a while.
ANGEL: That would still be the case.
It's ok to post bits of Chosen (the series finale) without spoiler warnings at this point, right? Most visitors are from the US and Canada, I think. . .
Posted by: Aaron at May 29, 2003 05:18 PM
Certainly safe for me -- I've seen it two and a half times already. But I think those lines were cut, weren't they?
Posted by: Lauren at May 30, 2003 10:54 AM
"Foreshadowing: your guide to quality blogging."
Someone's a Bloom County fan. Nice to see that folks still remember.
Posted by: Cretin at Sparta at May 30, 2003 05:25 PM
> I'm not sure there's any point reviewing such a thing.
Someone CLEARLY doesn't remember WHY this book was SENT TO THE HOUSE IN THE FIRST PLACE--!
I'm gonna tell Joe Bob!
Posted by: Val at June 1, 2003 06:09 PM
So...I dunno if y'all have heard, but Joss Whedon is supposedly planning to write or is writing a BALLET about Buffy. Hrrrm.
Posted by: IchBinEinPotential at June 12, 2003 06:38 PM
He seems to be doing a lot of them, there's a Joss interview posted over at IGN Filmforce...
http://filmforce.ign.com/articles/425/425492p1.html
RE: Buffy essays - There's a essay in "The Partly Cloudy Patriot" called "The Nerd Voice" that says that Al Gore should have tried to be more like High School Willow - and Vowell actually backs her arguement up pretty well. Interesting read.
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4587 http://www.rapid-debt-consolidation.com
Posted by: debt consolidation at October 16, 2004 03:34 PM