Fighting The Forces: What's At Stake In Buffy The Vampire Slayer? [Paperback]

Rhonda V. Wilcox (Editor), David Lavery (Editor, Contributor), Camille Bacon Smith (Contributor), Katrina Busse (Contributor), S Renee Dechert (Contributor), Diane DeKelb-Rittenhouse (Contributor), Lynne Edwards (Contributor), Greg Erikson (Contributor), Sarah N. Gatson (Contributor), Elyce Rae Helford (Contributor), Donald Keller (Contributor), Elizabeth Krimmer (Contributor), Tanya Kryzywinska (Contributor), Justine Larbalestier (Contributor), Farah Mendelsohn (Contributor), Mary Alice Money (Contributor), Karen Eileen Overby (Contributor), Patricia Pender (Contributor), Lahney Preston-Matto (Contributor), Shilpa Raval (Contributor), Anita Rose (Contributor), Catherine Siemann (Contributor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0742516814 | ISBN-13: 978-0742516816 | Publication Date: April 2002

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

All 'Buffy' books are not created equal. Anyone interested in delving into the issues raised by the show (including what constitutes feminism, how we can define 'the other,' and whether the world can be reduced with Manichaean simplicity to the battle between good and evil) should invest in Fighting the Forces. (The New York Observer )

In giving 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' the academic attention it so deserves, Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slayer acknowledges the richness and complexity of the program. Be advised, however, that it is not simply a rah-rah, Buffy is great lovefest. Rather, it is a thought-provoking deconstruction of 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer' as text that is sure to be of interest to both scholars and fans alike. Taken together, the essays in this book provide insight into what is at once a complicated yet underrated program. Like the program itself, Fighting the Forces gives the reader, if you'll pardon my pun, a lot to sink her/his teeth into! (Sharon R. Mazzarella, Ph.D. )

Fighting the Forces is a solid collection and shows how much substance there is to a show that to the casual observer might seem campy and shallow. (Rain Taxi Review Of Books )

A collection of scholarly essays treats the show with the serious attention fans have long known it was worthy of. Although the essays take an academic approach, the arcane jargon is nearly absent, yet each essay offers a serious, entertaining perspective on the social, literary, and artistic aspects of Buffy. (The Austin Chronicle Screens )

Race, gender, religion, history, music, technology: who would've thought you could deliver an entire liberal arts curriculum by talking about nothing but Buffy? Rhonda Wilcox and David Lavery, important voices in contemporary television studies, have gathered a compelling set of essays that make up one of the best books available about a single TV series. The scholarship is sophisticated, but the prose is readable and amusing. The volume avoids both the slobbering panegyrics of fan books and the incomprehensible jargon of so many academic books. Including the introduction and afterword there are 22 chapters: read one a week and it'll last the whole TV season. (Robert Thompson )

Fascinating reading which provides a deeper understanding of the richly detailed Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (Laurie Thayer Rambles )

The twenty essays collected in Fighting the Forces, and others available on its companion website www.slayage.tv, demonstrate a higher level of critical rigor and quality of writing. (Science Fiction Research Association Review )

Will appeal to the more intellectual of the show's core teenage constituency, helping empower them with respect to the often crypto-vampiric institution of academia. (Science Fiction Studies )

[The book] contains 20 essays organized into three overlapping sections, all of which deal quite seriously and affectionately with aspects of this silly-sounding but quite seriously-written program. (The Whitehorse Star )

About the Author

Rhonda V. Wilcox is professor of English at Gordon College. David Lavery is professor of English at Middle Tennessee State University. 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, Nothern Exposure, The X-Files, and The Sopranos.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers (April 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0742516814
• ISBN-13: 978-0742516816
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.8 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #441,023 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

David Lavery is the author of over one hundred and twenty published essays and reviews and author/co-author/editor/co-editor of twenty books published or under contract: Late for the Sky: The Mentality of the Space Age (Southern Illinois U P, 1992), Full of Secrets: Critical Approaches to Twin Peaks (Wayne State U P, 1994), "Deny All Knowledge": Reading The X-Files (Syracuse U P, 1996), Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in Buffy the Vampire Slaye(Rowman & Littlefield, 2002), Teleparody: Predicting/Preventing the TV Discourse of Tomorrow (Wallflower, Columbia U P, 2002), This Thing of Ours: Investigating The Sopranos (Wallflower, Columbia U P, 2002), Seinfeld, Master of Its Domain: Revisiting Television's Greatest Sitcom (Continuum, 2006), Unlocking the Meaning of Lost: An Unauthorized Guide (Sourcebooks, 2006, 2007), Reading Deadwood: A Western to Swear By and Reading The Sopranos: Hit TV from HBO (in the Reading Contemporary Television Series, I. B. Tauris, 2006), Dear Angela: Remembering My So Called Life (Lexington Books, 2006), Lost's Buried Treasures (Sourcebooks, 2008, 2009, 2010), Saving the World: A Guide to Heroes (ECW, 2007), Finding Battlestar Galactica (Sourcebooks, 2007), The Essential Cult TV Reader (U P Kentucky, 2009), Screwball Television: Critical Perspectives on the Gilmore Girls (Syracuse U P, 2010), Joss Whedon: Conversations (U P Mississippi, 2010), On the Verge of Tears (forthcoming from Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010), and Joss: A Creative Portrait of the Maker of the Whedonverses (forthcoming from I. B. Tauris/St. Martin's). The organizer of international conferences on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, The Sopranos, and Lost, a founding co-editor of the journals Slayage: The Online International Journal of Buffy Studies and Critical Studies in Television, he has lectured around the world on the subject of television (Australia, Turkey, the UK, Portugal, New Zealand, Ireland, Germany) and has been a guest/source for the BBC, NPR, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, The New York Times, A Folha de Sao Paulo (Brazil), Publica (Portugal), The Toronto Star, USA Today. To learn more about him, visit his home page at http://davidlavery.net/. His C.V (in PDF) is available here: http://davidlavery.net/CV/Lavery_Curriculum_Vitae.pdf.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

42 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cogent, scholarly, entertaining, August 13, 2002

By 

J. Roberts "RP madman" - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fighting The Forces: What's At Stake In Buffy The Vampire Slayer? (Paperback)

Now, let me start by saying that I don't typically read scholarly books about television series. Quite frankly, most of them are just chock-full of flowery, useless speech and precious little actual information or well-argued opinion.

I picked up this book because I'm a huge fan of Buffy and I wanted to see how badly a bunch of academics would mangle the themes and structures Joss & Co. employ on a weekly basis. Odd as this sounds, I was disappointed to find myself greatly enjoying each and every essay.

Now, not each one is a perfect gem and a couple of them made me wonder if the writer had ever actually sat through and enjoyed a single episode, but some of those essays were the most entertaining because they were quite thought-provoking.

I would recommend this book to anyone who's a long-time viewer of the show, regardless of academic experience, although it doesn't hurt to have a B.A. in something under your belt.

This book receives four stars simply because of a few minor grammar and spelling errors. In any other book, I'd let it slide, but this is supposed to be made by real professionals and should be perfect in that regard.

24 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing book for those who like Buffy for it's depth, June 27, 2002

By 

Allison Kalman (NJ USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Fighting The Forces: What's At Stake In Buffy The Vampire Slayer? (Paperback)

If you watch Buffy because of the great fight scenes and the pretty people, this book is probably not for you.

But if you watch this show because you see the amazing depth of the characters, the metaphor and mythology it uses expertly, or if you'd like to understand those things more, this book is amazing.

It contains essays on everything from gender and postmodern politics to the uses and purposes of fanfiction and fairy tales. These are the types of topics I discuss after viewing the show, but much more in-depth due to the writers expertise. (Many of them are processors of film, literature, media studies, women's studies, etc.) It's a facinating read for anyone really interested in the show, and for those who don't watch, it will show you that the show is much more than you think.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a solid body of academic work on the series, November 6, 2003

By 

Emily Held (Pittsburgh, PA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fighting The Forces: What's At Stake In Buffy The Vampire Slayer? (Paperback)

As a collection of critical essays on pop culture, I'd probably only give this 4 stars, but this is head and shoulders above the rest in comparison with the other collections of Buffy academia I've slogged through lately. (Reading the Vampire Slayer and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy - both good in their own right, but rather unpolished).

This collection has both the widest number of topics, and some of the best written essays on the show I've read. We get the usual ones like feminism, female representation, and race, as well as some extremely interesting ones on language uses and a nice homage to the creator. Like all collections of this type, there's a nice hefty appendix of sources and references, mostly online due to the relative lack of published work, but a surprising amount of them reference 'ordinary' fans (those of us without a PhD. in media studies). We also get a nice healthy examination of fanfiction and the fan dynamic, unlike one rather anemic essay in another volume. If you're having a hard time deciding how to get into cultural critisism, ignore the rather stuffy cover and check this out.