Not-too-fluffy Buffy Stuff: BITE ME!
Written: Apr 18 '03 (Updated Aug 03 '03)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Well-researched, well-written and thoughtful.
Cons: Some fluffy bits; some projection of characters onto actors.
The Bottom Line: The Bottom Line can, of course, BITE ME!
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| wordwalker's Full Review: Nikki Stafford - Bite Me!: An Unofficial Guide to ... |
Tasty!
May contain some 'empty calories'!
But fortified with added fiber....
Nikki Stafford's BITE ME! : AN UNOFFICIAL GUIDE TO THE WORLD OF BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER has been updated to encompass six seasons of BtVS and three of Angel; it now contains -- in addition to the new subtitle -- an Angel episode guide and new biography blurbs for fourteen cast members. In contrast to much "unofficial" material published about various offerings of the entertainment industry, it is respectful without being obsequious and remarkably free from careless errors.
It does contain rather too much stuff about real-world personalities for my taste.
But it has been considerably fortified by "serious thoughts".
A brief history of vampires in lore and in literature is followed by a necessarily lengthy history of how the two shows in the Buffyverse came to be, and what else Joss Whedon has managed to do in his career, as of 2002. (Does this man ever sleep?)
Then the balanced-and-sensible-sounding cast bios are accompanied by good, large, black-and-white photos, including pictures in which most of the men sport three-day growths! Inappropriately 'shaved' from this material are the blurbs and pics I expected to see of Kristine Sutherland (Joyce Summers), Eliza Dushku (Faith) and Marc Blucas (Riley Finn). All right, Sutherland and Dushku were 'merely' reoccurring guest stars. But Blucas was a Seasons Four and Five regular cast member, and Amber Benson, who gets a bio, wasn't listed as a regular until the, um, bitter end -- although she certainly deserved to be -- so what gives?
A detailed chapter on parties enjoyed by members of the Buffy Posting Boards and various cast members must have meant a lot to those involved.
And a brief guide to the online Buffyverse is sufficient to get anyone launched. There are thousands of sites not mentioned, of course, but everything's linked.
'Little Willow' the online goddess deserves her own chapter, if everything said about her here is true!
Buffy and Angel trivia quizzes are given -- and they're tough. No drinking game is offered. A description of the unaired, half-hour-long pilot for Buffy is quite surprising: I had no idea the show had ever been made in so brief a format, even as a demo.
Most of the rest of the four-hundred-plus-page volume is taken up by the episode guides, which begin on page 167. Herein lies the ... blood of the book? the life of the book, as Stafford offers moderate spoilers while leaving many plot points still unexplored -- the better to concentrate on episode quality, important themes, and relevant, interesting facts. Her research into 'actual' demons is impressive and seamlessly integrated into descriptions of the episodes in which they appear. She has collected RESTLESS MOMENTS which funnel into and fan out from that most surreal episode, the only favorite episode of mine which didn't make it into the Top Fourteen for the New Year's Day marathon....
She lists all of the songs featured on the shows, and all of the artists who play them. For this information she credits Leslie Remencus, who maintains a web site on the subject; the site's address is of course found in the chapter about Buffy online.
She nitpicks only out of affection.
And the themes she sees in various episodes are well worth considering, even as she tends to see all the episodes as 'having to' make sense on both a symbolic and a literal level. I'd like to suggest that it is possible, even probable, that some are just 'old wine in new bottles', plot-wise, yet perfectly valid in terms of the psychological realism, the character development which is the shows' stock in trade.
I'd also like to suggest that sometimes a symbolic level has gone missing from her analysis. "When She Was Bad" is 'really' about the effects of sexual abuse; Buffy's belated reactions to the Master having been "close" to her constitute a textbook-perfect list of the behavioral problems which tend to result from sexual molestation. (Remember the broken crockery -- and the white dress -- in "Prophecy Girl"?) The lesbian subtext of "Bad Girls" is entirely ignored; and you could cut that with even the heaviest piece of stolen weaponry!
On the other hand, I'd completely missed most of the Nazi references in the episode about Moloch....
A charming little box entitled "Giles's Head Trauma" details the ten episodes in which the poor Watcher got knocked silly. It's a wonder he can still see to read when not under a curse!
Stafford is Giles-friendly, Joyce-hostile, earlyFaith-critical and Riley-bashing. I can see her points about both Joyce and Riley (while still disagreeing with some of them), but of course I have to suspect that her disapproval / dislike of the characters is the reason for neglecting the actors who played them.
Eventually, one photo of Marc Blucas appears. He, too, has a three-day growth, and is described as "looking sexier than his farmboy-from-Iowa character ever did."
Hokay ... so lookin' clean-cut is not to be considered "of the good" here!
There are sixteen full-color, full-page photos of the major stars, and many other black-and-whites, including quite a few of Eliza Dushku. Aaaaaw ... I just wanna take all the young characters home and adopt them! (Did anyone else catch the Buffy reference in Dave Barry's column last Sunday? Sometimes I feel as if they are all my dependents!)
'Scuse me.
A large bibliography concludes the book; most of the sources named are magazine articles and some of the mags are junk, but you would never know it from Stafford's writing, which is smooth, unobtrusive and intelligent.
I wish Nikki Stafford reviewed for Epinions.
I wish she could differentiate better between characters and actors.
I'm not all that interested in the actors, either! Or in the fandom, except insofar as I shall use the links to both fan fiction and academic archives.
I am interested in the show as an 'overarcing' creative accomplishment of great complexity and detail, a sustained coming-of-age story more authentic, psychologically, than any other I've encountered. And I'm interested in its depiction of a living language, its usage and expansion and inclusivity.
And I'm fascinated by its 'vibes from the past' -- not the hokey 18th and 19th century stuff, but the distant past. I'll be on the lookout for a possible update to BITE ME! when the seventh and last season of Buffy has come to a close, and again when Angel ends. In the meantime, I recommend this book to fans of the shows for its thoughtful -- if not always spot-on -- analysis of 'what's 'really going on' in the episodes. Very much like Weetabix in a "Kiss The Librarian" mug in the morning, this material will really get you going, if you're a thoughtful watcher of either of these shows!
More analytical still, and with fewer little marshmallows, is READING THE VAMPIRE SLAYER, edited by Roz Kaveney, which I reviewed here at http://www.epinions.com/content_85435387524
Recommended:
Yes
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wordwalker
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