Despite having worked in publishing for two and a half decades now, I have to admit that when it comes to Joss Whedon, creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, I turn into into a teenage fan girl. Buffy, during its best seasons, was ground-breaking, mythic, hilarious, and contained some of the best writing and character development I've ever seen come out of Hollywood. (Okay, for us New-York-is-the-center-of-the-universe literary types, that might sound like faint praise indeed...but writers like Joss Whedon, Aaron Sorkin and David Chase have managed to convince me that television writing can equal the art of novel writing at its best.)
Buffy is a show that I dearly wish had been around when I was a teenager, and I envy all the young girls (and young men) who have grown up with its heroine and her friends as archetypes. As if that wasn't reason enough to love Joss Whedon, please read his recent blog entry on women and violence on the Whedonesque website. (With thanks to Emma Bull for the link.) It's utterly spot-on: both heartbreaking and a rousing call to action. Bless you, Mr. Whedon.
And if you want to know more about what you can do about violence against women and girls around the world, go here.
Speaking of Buffy, Will Shetterly wrote a thoughtful essay a couple of years ago reflecting on what one can learn about writing the series -- from both its triumphs and its failures. You can find the essay, "The Buffy Lessons: Learning from the Dead" on the Qwerty Ranch blog. (If you haven't yet watched all seven years of the series yet, however, don't read the essay, for it's full of spoilers.)
I am a big Buffy fan also Terri - I watch it on DVD while writing most nights.
I just started reading Joss's new "Season 8", written in comics (you have the cover for Issue #1 here) and it is fabulous. Highly recommended - it picks up not too long after the show ended and thus far is quite true to form. I'm so glad he is doing this for his fans.
Posted by: Colleen | May 21, 2007 at 05:28 PM