Reading the Vampire Slayer: The New, Updated, Unofficial Guide to Buffy and Angel

Unfortunetly we don't get Angel season five in this book, it is still very engaging, informative, interesting and thought provoking. This book is not for the average viewer or even for just a passing fan. It's for the fanatic. He does include a character list, including villains and recurring characters with descriptions for everyone, but it won't mean much to you unless you're a fan of the show. This book links both shows together, often discussing them both in unison and how some characters on Angel relate to Buffy, which I liked because both worlds do intertwine, epecially with Buffy and Angel as a former couple. But what's best is Kaveney really goes in depth with Buffy, making points about show titles, quotes, certain moments and key comments and objects and how they either pertain to something important or forshadow something else. He explains a lot, and does well discussing Spike and Buffy's relationship and all the sexual relationships on the show, which is one of his best reviews. He goes through each season discussing character growth, and the oh so many metaphors of Joss' world -- many things that you probably didn't catch, but can now note on another viewing after him pointing it out to you. There were so many things I didn't catch or understand during the years that were pointed out to me now. However, not every page is exceptional or even worthy. Best chapters are : "She save the world. A lot" "Entropy as Demon" "What you are, what's to come" "The only thing better than killing a slayer" and "Blood and Choice" Also, "They always mistake me for the character I play" is fairly interesting and provides some good key information. The interviews were pretty bland. Kaveney sometimes writes with an overzealous flair, but he does get his point across and I enjoyed it. I gave this five stars for the chapters I mentioned. I wish season five of Angel could have been included. I think his discussion on Angel would have been deeper had it been. Overall, a FANTASTIC read for a hardcore fan. I reccommend, especially now the the Whedonverse is officially gone.

I can't begin to describe what it was like to get this as a Christmas present a couple of years ago. As a confirmed Buffy addict and a modern lit major, there were times where the "watch Buffy" parties lasted much longer than my friends could stand because I wanted to TALK ABOUT THE SHOW. Finally here was a volume of people who were just like me - well, maybe better educated and clear spoken, but you get the idea.If you're new to a show that's was on the air for 7 or so seasons, and like a little light theory, I'd advocate getting this book simply to put in perspective what all of those crazies are talking about. While every essay may not strike a chord, some of them will begin the painful process of explaining just why there are a number of fanatics out there who will watch this silly main character fulfill improbably plot lines till the very end. Read She saved the world. A lot. - An introduction to the themes and structures of Buffy and Angel. Don't skip it. It's the most important one for you.And for those of you who loved the show in the good old days but can't watch it past season three (because that's when it started to get bad), there's plenty of material here for you as well. Most of the discussions center around the early years - with good reason. That's when the identity of the show was forming itself and so many of the characteristics that make it so exciting were created. And they do talk about them, with abandon.Then for everyone who's like me, and watched the show till the bitter end, not just because you didn't have anything else to do on Tuesday nights, but because the characters (even when they were developed badly) and the sequences (even when they become overly dramatic) still had an almost inexpressible draw - you'll love this book because it whets your appetite for more. Each essay will call up just as many memories of watching the show as it does ask some of those questions your non-lit friends just don't want to entertain (or your het friends just don't want to discuss - see Staking a Claim #9).But in a very real sense, these essays seem like introductions to topics that can be discussed at greater length. Maybe it's simply wishful thinking on my part, but I think almost every chapter could begin it's own book. Maybe someday?

Let's face it: academics are people, too. And like everyday folk, they enjoy being fans. Truth be told, the contributors didn't write these essays so much because they had deep insights into the nature of society, but because they, like me and probably you, love BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER and ANGEL. I don't fault them for this: I praise them.We are currently seeing a growing number of academic books focusing on Buffy/Angel. I am completely on the fence as to whether this one or the volume edited by Rhonda V. Wilcox and David Lavery--FIGHTING THE FORCES: WHAT'S AT STAKE IN BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER--is the better. Both are superior to the more recent BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER AND PHILOSOPHY: FEAR AND TREMBLING IN SUNNYDALE, edited by James B. South. Interestingly, all the academic studies so far have been anthologies. It will be curious to see if anyone undertakes a book-length study.For the most part, these essays in this collection are very interesting. I suspect that each individual will respond more or less strongly to various essays. I particularly enjoyed the essays in the first half of the volume, especially "Vampire dialectics: Knowledge, institutions and labour" by Brian Wall and Michael Zyrd. I had a lot less interest in an essay discussing Buffy in terms of East Asian martial arts films. And I must confess that I am utterly baffled by Slash fiction--i.e., fan fiction depicting major characters from television shows in kinky homosexual relationships, a practice that originated in STAR TREK. Personally, the appeal of imaging Xander and Spike as lovers utterly escapes me. The essay dealing with this aspect of Buffy, therefore, failed to engage me. But I acknowledge another reader might prefer those essays that I found dull to those I found invigorating.What is not debatable is the high quality of the essays as a whole. All anthologies are uneven, either in the abilities of the individual contributors, or in the intrinsic appeal each essay makes to a particular reader. No reader is likely to enjoy all of this collection, but I'd bet that any academically oriented fan of BUFFY and ANGEL will find more than a few to their liking. I heartily recommend this.I should note that there is a second book with nearly the same title edited by Roz Kaveney scheduled for publication in January of 2004. I am unclear as to whether this will be a reprint or a new, expanded, and updated edition. The pagination for the new book shows it to be longer. At any rate, I would heartily recommend anyone interested in this one to also investigate that book, to determine whether it is a second, distinct volume.

"Reading the Vampire Slayer" is a critical appreciation of "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" from those living in their proverbial ivory towers but glued to their tube for "BtVS." This collection of 10 essays focuses on seasons 1-5 of Buffy, 1-2 of Angel, and as the spelling of some of the words in some of these titles will tell you, a lot of these authors are British: 1. Roz Kaveney, "She Saved the World. A Lot: An Introduction to the themes and structure of 'Buffy' and 'Angel'" is the first and most fan friendly essay in this collection. Looking at character clusters and season structures, Kaveney does a nice job of articulating what most fans of "BtVS" have intuited regarding why the show works and works so well. The key section of the essay books at each season of "BtVS" in turn from the perspective of Big Bads and Emotional Traumas. This is the perfect introductory essay for this collection because it makes a clear case for how patterns and meaning become significant in this series. The only problem is that as the most comprehensive look at "BtVS" in this collection, readers (whether academicians or fans) will find all the rest of these efforts pale in comparison. 2. Boyd Tonkin, "Entropy as Demon: Buffy in Southern California," might have the most erroneous title of the bunch because the article focuses much more on So Cal than notions of entropy. Whereas "Angel" deals more explicitly with the cultural mythology of Los Angeles, "BtVS" creates a fictional local with Sunnydale that Tonkin argues "gives a fresh, and quite distinctive, twist to a strain of Southern Californian suburban noir that has flourished at least since the 1930s." However, the best parts of this essay look at the way "BtVS" confronts genre cliches and typologies. 3. Brian Wall and Michael Zryd, "Vampire Dialectics: Knowledge, Institutions and Labour" looks at the battles of Buffy and Angel with supernatural creatures as allegorical battles with the very logic or modernity. Writing in the tradition of Walter Benjamin and Fredric Jameson, this essay might be a struggle for many readers, but there are a couple of very interesting sections in which they look at the death of Joyce as the first "real" death in the series (all others being essentially "symbolic") and look at the evolution of Giles's character. 4. Steve Wilson, "Laugh, Spawn of Hell, Laugh," focuses on the jokes in Buffy and not just Xander's lame jokes but also the larger humor of casting adolescent growing pains as externalized demons. Wilson goes to great pains to catalogue the times of "time-honoured buffoonery" that abound on the show, making connections to the comic impulse in history from William Shakespeare to David Letterman with extensive dialogue examples. This essay might be much ado about nothing, but it will probably be one of the more enjoyable ones for readers. 5. Karen Sayer, "It Wasn't Our World Anymore--They Made It Theirs: Reading Space and Place," looks at the concept of Home on bot

For the literary, the overeducated, or just those seeking like minds about how truly truly awesome Buffy can be, this book is great. From discussions about its fractured and fantastically unique dialogue to about a zillion essays on why Buffy isn't a feminist but still kicks guys' all over the screen, you *want* to read this book. Honestly, don't hesitate. I desperately love the critiques on its comedy: "This isn't the blather of kids who can't speak well, it's an honest reflection of the way our increasingly odd and perplexing world eludes easy expression. By pushing language to do what it's not supposed to, these lines capture the sensations and images of modern life that Webster's hasn't caught up with yet." (Wilson)