Customer Reviews

Blood Relations: Chosen Families In Buffy The Vampire Slayer And Angel

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This book represents itself as an academic discussion of the family in Buffy and Angel, and is dressed in the jargon of contemporary criticism, but is a largely unreadable essay of personal reflections about what the programs mean to the author. Better choices for the academic fan are Jowett's Sex and the Slayer or Wilcox' Why Buffy Matters or any of the collections of shorter pieces available in book form or on line, or, on the other hand, for the pleasure of well written personal essays with insight, Seven Seasons of Buffy. This is least successful of the growing number of Buffy studies.

This book purports to examine the TV series Buffy and Angel with respect to the characters relationships as "families." I thought that sounded like a great idea, so I read this book. Unfortunately, the essays in this work are quite muddled. The author begins each essay by stating what he will be focusing on for the duration of the essay, but then he inevitably meanders away from the topic. Maybe he should consider creating an outline before he starts writing and sticking to it! Another problem I had with the essays in this book is the fact that the information about the shows that is presented within them is often incorrect. I found that incredibly distracting and annoying. I am giving this book the two stars for the idea --- it gets no stars for the execution of the idea.

I bought this book with great hopes, the extended family aspects of Buffy being one of my favorite topics. First, and foremost it is outrageously priced at $32.00. $3.20 would have been more appropriate. I'm just grateful I bought a used half-priced copy. The text reads more like a doctoral thesis than most of its predecessors and is much the worse for it. If you can wade through descriptions of Buffy episodes as, "They are visual representations, whose imagery is double-coded with semantic "values" that often conflict, or even negate each other," and other comments like, "I mentioned a Deluzian family-rhizome in the introduction, but that's absurdly abstract," then you'll probably love this book. Anyone else will be much better served checking out Reading the Slayer or Why Buffy Matters. Nothing really new is said here, but writing it in acadamian just makes it seem new and important. I give this book 5 yawns and a 10 on the waste of money scale.

There was nothing new here. The writing is so dull I could not read past the fourth chapter. Save your money and buy the Buffy DVD's instead.

Jes Battis successfully examines the perverse way that Joss Whedon's Buffty the Vampire Slayer and Angel develop and maintain rather perverse family structures. Battis intelligently examines the show using both his own passionate love for the show (which is blaring obvious from the start) and a strong mix of critical theory. The book clearly understands its position within the field of critical television writing, as Battis himself asks whether any text (and it is implied here that he is speaking of Buffy) can be analyized and discussed in an intelligent and meaningful way. Battis, however, quickly shows that Buffy can be discussed in such a manner by making note of the intense fan base of academics that have taken on the show as a text to be 'torn apart' and examined from all angles possible.

As the author points out in his introduction, he does not intend to produce yet another collection of unrelated essays about the show, rather he wants to seriously look at it as a 'post-modern novel' and acheive a greater understanding of how the show is organized around the idea of the family. This text is not meant to act as a reader's guide to the show, rahter it provides an intelligent and thought provoking attempt at understanding Buffy through the language of chritical thought. The very use of critical theory (or 'the academic language') is needed to show that Buffy is a serious text, one that warrents examination in such a manner. Yet, because Battis is such a early scholar, one can see him understanding that he is still learning the ins and outs of such language, as well it is clear that he is enjoying making use of theis language - thus as a reader, I also came to enjoy it. Battis' intention here is to not explain the concept of the choosen family, rather he wants to find the unique way that family exists in Buffy and to recognize the way these shows queerify that concept. As Battis expresses: "family is the equation that both of the shows' pilot episodes open with - the discovery and assemblage of a core group - and the support system that emerges again and again, for these characters to fall back on." The family - all our families - are hugely important to us, and this is something that Battis easily taps into as he examines the various levels of family within the show. Thus, one can easily suggest that Battis is writing from experience, and allows us to understand and consider our own family experiences as well.

Battis' text engages with a wide range of theory, from queer theory to post-colonialism to gender studies, thus it is able to transverse being a book merely about Buffy the Vampire Slayer and becomes a powerful account of the ideas behind the show and how a text can be used to better understand the world around us. Battis has taken a queer little show about a blond heroine (although he does argue that Buffy queers the idea of hero and heroism) and shows how academics have become fascinated and driven to examine the show.

Overall, this is a fantastic text that uses the language of theory to build on a love and appriciation of the problematic text that is Buffy. Battis, while admitting his obsession with the show, is not adverse to engaging in a critical conversation with it, nor is he adverse to explaining his pl;ace as an emerging pop culture scholar. This is an excellent first text by a young academic, and will easily find a place on any Buffy lover's shelf.