Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer

by Rhonda V. Wilcox

Book Overview

Hugely enjoyable, long awaited book by top world authority on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer". Buffy is still on screens and on DVD in home television libraries of a wide array of TV watchers and fans. This is also the student text for TV and cultural studies at colleges and universities where Buffy is widely taught. Rhonda Wilcox is a world authority on "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", who has been writing and lecturing about the show since its arrival...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1845110293
• ISBN13: 9781845110291
• Release Date: November 2005
• Publisher: I. B. Tauris & Company
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Buffy the Vampire Slayer

I have not read the entire book yet, but the pieces I have read seem to offer clues about the symbolism present in the show that, upon watching the episodes again, give it greater meaning.

Go buy it now

I found this book absolutely fascinating. Anyone whom is interested in the critical analysis of televison or film should read this. In terms of her writing, she does digress and is often bias- but she has clear and strong arugments with which she backs up well. I admit, I am a huge Buffy fan. And yes, I am making an effort to read all the literature out there on the show (I do myself write articles) BUT I don't think you need to be a Buffy fan to read this.

Academic Buffy Without A Lot of Jargon

I bought this book after Christmas and really enjoyed it. I found Wilcox's writing to be clear and often concise. I really enjoyed the essay topics that she included, especially "When Buffy Meets Harry" which compares Buffy and Harry Potter. She does a remarkable job comparing to two of them. As a student in Media Studies and Philosophy, I found her analysis on various subjects to be very insightful. Non-academics can really appreciate this book and understand her essays. While I do have some philosophical background, I was still able to grasp her material much easier the first time around than some of the essays I have found in other academic Buffy books. My only complaint is her fixation with Freud, I felt that Freud and phallic comparisons were made far more often than necessary and in ways that I didn't feel were warranted. But it could just be that I'm not a big fan a Freud. In conclusion, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

An important set of essays on a seminal television series

To this day, when discussing aesthetic matters with my more intellectual friends, if I mention BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, the initial reaction is usually a snicker, as if bringing BUFFY into a serious discussion was indistinguishable from doing the same with BARNEY or HEE HAW. Once they realize that I'm not making a joke but being serious, there is a somewhat stunned reaction, then amazement upon realizing that this television show with the inconceivably silly name might be taken seriously by anyone. Then there is further amazement when I inform them that BUFFY is probably the most popular show of all time among academics, who often tend to write about it not merely as detached spectators, but fans. In fact, nearly three years after the end of the series, Buffy Studies remains a vital and even expanding field. As television studies moves more and more towards the textual discussion of individual shows, a canon of the great shows is gradually forming. Though the list of canonical shows is rather small and still very much in flux, there is no question that BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER is one of those few shows. Rhonda Wilcox, author of this fine collection of essays, has done as much as anyone within academia to further the serious discussion of the show. Why does Wilcox's book matter? I can best illustrate this by referring to a proposal that C. S. Lewis makes in AN EXPERIMENT IN CRITICISM. Most critics, Lewis points out, primarily focus on what works are good or bad, a practice Lewis laments because what is regarded as great in one generation is frowned upon in another, while a reviled book in one era is considered a classic in another. Instead, Lewis suggests, we should focus instead on what works promote good reading and which preclude it. John Donne, for instance, in any age can be read in a good fashion, while a romance novel cannot. What is good reading? It incorporates such things as rereading, constant reflection over certain passages, ongoing discussion about it, and perhaps memorization of some passages. These are merely a few of the activities that works that promote good reading can generate. I believe Lewis's proposal applies equally to film and television viewing. And BUFFY can be read in a "good" fashion. If anyone doubts me on this, I would point to Wilcox's book as concrete proof that my contention is true. I believe Wilcox proves beyond doubt that BUFFY generates good viewing. She does this in a host of ways. For instance, she frequently teases out various themes in the series, such as the use of light imagery in the show or the role that names plays. She explains the logic of the series, many of the major narrative devices, the role and use of music in the series, and the way language is employed. She furthermore takes up in the second half of the book a number of individual episodes and amplifies many of the explicit or latent themes contained within. I will not say that everyone will like BUFFY after reading

More than meets the eye

After you've watched several episodes of the 7-year TV series "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," you begin to suspect that, just as in Sunnydale, something is going on beneath the surface. Wilcox explores the depths, revealing the artistic devices with which the series' creators built their marvelous world. This hardened "Buffy" follower found new insights and observations throughout the book. (Try, for example, the chapters on Buffy/Spike, "The Body," and "Once More, With Feeling.") Wilcox convinced me, too, that there's still much more to think about here - a telling point in the argument that Buffy matters.