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Thu, 21 Mar 2013 21:28:26 -0400

Joss, you sadistic bastard.This week we have to watch...

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 01:40:32 -0400

Joss, you sadistic bastard.

This week we have to watch “Seeing Red”

buffyconfessions: I would have pushed Dawn off the tower. I...

Fri, 15 Mar 2013 19:11:48 -0400

buffyconfessions:

I would have pushed Dawn off the tower.

I don’t feel this way but this made me laugh.

worldoutsidethelines: most renowned episodes ~ C We are...

Tue, 05 Mar 2013 22:43:40 -0500

worldoutsidethelines:

most renowned episodes

~ C

We are watching “The Body” in class tomorrow.

It is going to be rough.

I just added “Buffyverse” into my microsoft word dictionary. That is all.

Sun, 24 Feb 2013 19:40:56 -0500

I just added “Buffyverse” into my microsoft word dictionary. That is all.

Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?: WHAT? WHO? WHAT?

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 01:01:03 -0500

Are You Now or Have You Ever Been?: WHAT? WHO? WHAT?:

nocountryforx-men:

imaybedead:

HAS ANYONE ELSE NOTICED THAT THEIR DVD VERSION OF BUFFY SEASON 4 IS IN 4:3 AND NETFLIX HAS IT IN WIDESCREEN?

yeah all of the seasons are 4:3 on DVD. I always thought it was just shot that way until they put it on netflix. I don’t mind watching the fullscreen though because it…

Woahhhhhhh I had no idea until just now. I thought I’d watch my dvd version for the novelty, and then became outraged when I realized the different aspect ratio. But THIS explains a few of the hilarious crew-in-the-shot mishaps. In Intervention you can see the animal trainer leading the lion. lol.

WHAT? WHO? WHAT?

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 00:37:12 -0500

HAS ANYONE ELSE NOTICED THAT THEIR DVD VERSION OF BUFFY SEASON 4 IS IN 4:3 AND NETFLIX HAS IT IN WIDESCREEN?

We had a… moment… in class today when we were...

Mon, 11 Feb 2013 22:26:00 -0500

We had a… moment… in class today when we were discussing s4 ep The Freshmen and the scene where Buffy walks into Giles’ house and awkwardly meets his lady friend.

Prof: This is really awkward for Buffy, and she keeps asking if this is a bad time. How would you react to this?

Dude: Well if I walked in and met his Slam Piece I would -

*2 seconds of silence*

Me/Mary/Prof/Various other classmembers: WAIT, WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?

Dude: Uh-

Prof: Like, what were the words you just used?

Dude: “Slam Piece.” Is this not politically correct?

Mary: No, no, that would not be considered politically correct.

Me: Why don’t you just take a second and think about what the words you just said mean.

Prof: …. words…. matter.

I am offended on a few different levels over the use of the term “slam piece” in a university class, let alone in like, you know,life, but I have also never been in a class that so unanimously and without hesitation called someone out on gross normalized sexist bullshit.

Buffy makes the world a better place. As Mary said “these are my people.”

"The message is, if you survive high school, you are a hero."

Wed, 06 Feb 2013 17:04:00 -0500

“The message is, if you survive high school, you are a hero.”

- Buffy Studies Prof

quotesqr: Don’t give people what they want, give them what they...

Fri, 01 Feb 2013 19:15:11 -0500

quotesqr:

Don’t give people what they want, give them what they need.

- Joss Whedon

We discussed this quote at length last class

Open up for Mummy!

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 00:40:43 -0500

Open up for Mummy!

"I’ve read all of the parenting books, you cannot surprise me."

Sun, 27 Jan 2013 22:25:40 -0500

“I’ve read all of the parenting books, you cannot surprise me.”

- Joyce - Passion 2.17

"If we learned anything from Dracula, it’s never have sex. And also don’t have any blood..."

Thu, 24 Jan 2013 12:03:26 -0500

“If we learned anything from Dracula, it’s never have sex. And also don’t have any blood transfusions.”

- Our Buffy Studies prof

Mary's January 23, 2013, notes: Love, Sex, and Obsession

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 23:36:35 -0500

I was late today and the lecture was already going so we’re just gonna dive right in here okay GO

Lie To Me

Speech at the end
Expectations of fantasy - black and white morality, easily spotted villains, just and true good guys, etc.
Rest of the show brutally subverts this

The Dark Age

Complicates Giles’ morality with his backstory

What’s My Line?

Show largely ignores racial diversity in California
Kendra is black SHE IS A UNICORN
And then she dies.
Other major black character is an evil vampire (season 3).

Ted

Adult relationships also end horribly
Phases
Because Oz is a monster, he becomes closer to the group
Oz’s chillness contrast to his wolf side

Innocence

Dramatizes the idea that you sleep with someone for the first time and they turn out to be a jerk after
Angel literally becomes a monster
End of a full season (since season 1 was a half season)
The term “virginity” is never used
Talk about sex in metaphors
Then we watched the scene where Buffy sees Angel again UGH MY HEART WHY
Angel becomes approx. one billion times more interesting after he loses his soul
All types of horror
Preys on our fear that people we love will treat us terribly (not often explored in horror since most people die after having sex)
Representations of different sexual relationships:
Willow/Oz
Willow/Xander (unrequited crush)
Cordelia/Xander
Buffy/Angel
Betrayal:
Xander to Willow (kissing Cordelia)
Angel to Buffy
Jenny Calendar
Willow begins to grow up after this

Sex and love

Sex called making love in Wilcox book (“Why Buffy Matters”)
Angel and Buffy love each other
Almost marriage on the docks
Sex scene filmed romantically, slow, intimate, loving
Then everything goes horribly wrong
“You were a real pro.”
First woman he killed as Angelus is a prostitute
How do we know that? She’s just listed as woman in credits.
Angelus’s “you were a real pro” speech to Buffy draws attention to Buffy’s innocence
Lots of emphasis on the emotions in the relationships
Satisfying physical relationships do exist:
Willow and Oz, Willow and Tara
Terrible things happen to them, but not as a result of them having sex

Angel’s curse

Orgasm = perfect happiness
Love important to that
Perfect fusion of love and desire

Visual parallels

Wounded soldier scene – Angel is wounded when they kissed the first time
Reversal of wounded soldier – Buffy is the wounded one when they have sex
[insert Community reference here]

Vampires and sexuality

Sexual blood drinking – what angle does that give the Master drinking Buffy in season 1?
A fucking creepy angle, that’s what

Innocence isn’t necessarily lost in “Innocence”

Joyce says “You don’t look any different to me.”
Watched that scene. This class is just punching me in the feels.
White cupcake, white clothing
Joyce as the mom who doesn’t understand what’s going on in her child’s life

Not as much focus on male characters’ ideas about sex, other than Teacher’s Pet

Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered

Dramatization of how scary it is when people you don’t think would be interested in you suddenly are
Dru ultimate fear of commitment: “How do you feel about eternal life?”
Spell cast out of vengeance, jealousy
Oh hey Anya future fiancé of Xander
Posters around Amy and Xander:
Responsibility
Opportunity
Panic
This episode in a nutshell, basically
Later, magic has consequences similar: Something Blue
No matter what Cordelia does, she can’t win back Harmony and co.
Shows the mysteriousness of popularity – how do you make people like you if doing what they want doesn’t even work?
Sociology study shows that the ability to lie makes people popular - Hiding when your hurt, telling people what they want to hear
And yet Cordelia is the most blunt and honest of them all

Obsession

“It’s not love, it’s obsession.” Giles to Amy in BBB
What is the difference between love and obsession?
Especially in the case of young people, without much experience?
What about soulless monsters? Are Spike and Dru in love or obsessed with each other?
Explored further in “Passion”

"He’s like a cross between a serial killer and a weird troll."

Mon, 21 Jan 2013 17:38:00 -0500

“He’s like a cross between a serial killer and a weird troll.”

- Our Buffy Studies Prof on Spike’s singing during ‘School Hard’

"We’re not going to watch a scene [from the 1992 Dracula film] because then we would have to..."

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 00:17:51 -0500

“We’re not going to watch a scene [from the 1992 Dracula film] because then we would have to watch Keanu Reeves acting, and that frightens me to my very core.”

- Our Buffy Studies professor

Mary's January 16, 2013, notes: Dracula and Sexuality

Thu, 17 Jan 2013 00:31:30 -0500

SEX!

By which I mean gender and sexuality.

1. Weird sex and horror

If you have sex you will die.
This is some Mean Girls shit right here.
Sex is never safe if you’re a woman unless you’re married. And even then your hubby has to be around to protect you.

History of Dracula images

Image of Vlad the Impaler, who was inspiration for Dracula
Tessa points out that it looks like he impaled people in a way that’s consistent with making husks he was indoctrinated all mysteries are solved
Picture from the book crawling down the wall like a lizard.
Count Orlac from Nosferatu. Not even a little seductive.
1931 film, becomes cultured and more human
Christopher Lee’s Dracula started to become very gory and campy
Closer to today’s horror films
Christopher Lee is still, despite this, humanized
1979, become more suave and attractive (two years after Anne Rice’s first vampire novel)
Gary Oldman, 1992 Dracula
Two different Draculas: classy as fuck, but a monster in the beginning
HBO factor is added as things progress (sexier sexiness, more violent violence)
“Love never dies” Dracula, in GO’s version, is more romantic
Dracula falls in love with Mina, who looks like his dead wife
late 90s ANGEL HI BB
Not monstrous at all when you meet him
Pure sexuality (I mean he wears tank tops come on)
Ultimate Angel evolution: True Blood, Eric Northman
On Eric, and I quote, “if he were an RPG character, he would be completely neutral.”
Yes, our prof made a reference to RPG alignment
Bless

OK BACK TO SEX

“Sexual inversion:”
Sounds a lot like transgender to us modern types, but was used to mean same-sex attraction
Laws against male/male sex, but no laws against women/women sex because lesbians aren’t believed to be real
Fascinated with Oscar Wilde case
Weird male sexuality in Dracula
Van Helsing: “Men are brave, women are good.”

Lucy’s staking

Really horrific
Way more graphic, violent, and drawn out than Dracula’s

Mina’s siring

Nurses from Dracula
Very perverse

Women in Dracula

Mina the closest thing to an empowered female this book has
Office worker (secretary, but out of the house)
Gathers all the information
Basically does all the legwork and everyone would be lost without her
Three female vampires:
Passivity from Harker
He is gripped with desire and fear
Female sexuality threatening

Characters

Quincy:
American rugged spirit
Action hero
“manly,” doesn’t cry at Lucy’s funeral
Arthur gives blood to Lucy, almost sensual (feels like they’re married after)
Later Quincy gives transfusion (strong manly American blood)
Sometimes has a sort of Southern twang
Brings guns (contrast: guns are bad in Buffy)
Intimacy between men
Harker:
Terminally weak at the beginning, spends a long time in hospital, hair greys
What do we know about him?
Where does his money come from?
What does he even do?
America is the greatest hope because the empire is crumbling, so Harker there to contrast Quincy?

Sexualizing vampires

Sex sells, marketing
After 1950s, ugly vampires kind of disappear
Only the pretty vampires survived
Standard for vampires to seduce now a days
Need for physical contact
Cautionary tale, girls don’t go home with strangers
Buffy totally does this
Buffy and sex end horribly pretty much always
Anxiety in Dracula of sex infecting you
Lucy doesn’t nourish children, she eats them, and is more promiscuous
The New Woman (might propose to a man, call on a man, holy crap buckets)
Radical feminists of the Victorian era
Lucy repeatedly punished for sexuality
Mina and Willow:
Both academics
Both teachers
Both put in danger and saved at the last second
Vulnerable
Two father figures: Dracula and Van Helsing
Amoral and moral father figures (GUESS WHICH ONE IS WHICH GUESS)
Constantly reminded that Van Helsing is foreign
“This one is mine. He belongs to me” – Dracula about Harker, when vamp chicks are attacking/seducing him
interesssssttttttiiiiiiinnnnggggg
What if my boyfriend were immortal and loved only me?

Here endeth the lesson.

Mary's January 14, 2013, notes: Dracula

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 14:07:00 -0500

Dracula

There have been vampire-like monsters for ages

Succubi, incubi, lamia, ghosts that suck your spirit (revenant NO THESE ARE HARD TO FIGHT EARLY IN DRAGON AGE)
These came from not understanding decomposition
Mistaken buriel, people buried alive
Fingernails and hair apparently growing after death

Entomology/history

Vampyr
Werewolves
Witches
18^th century the term vampire is used (translation of vampyr)
Travelogues
Expansion of empire
Middle ages is when the superstition of the vampire started
“Aren’t these people and their superstitions quaint?”

Gothic

Being goth can be traced back to the 50s and 60s
Being goth today is a rediscovery
Gothic literature a century before Dracula written
Exploration of the horror genre
Reaction to enlightenment discussions and science
Popular trend
Emerged to check scientific progress
Early X-Files, explored what science couldn’t explain
Took place in old mysterious dark mansions
“The Castle of Otranto”
Claustrophobia, dark enclosed space
Objects come alive
Unexpected: a knife doesn’t attack you, but a curtain might
Weird sex
Weird family dynamics
Incest

Romantic period, early 19^th century

1816, a group of writers go on a retreat
John William Polidori is amongst writers
They tell each other stories (Mary Shelley writes Frankenstein)
Byron starts a vampire story
About young enthusiastic student and mysterious teacher
Magic ring that will raise him from the dead
Thinks raising the dead a stupid plot, abandons the story
Polidori loves it and writes a longer novella, “The Vampire”
The Vampire is a prototype for every vampire we see after
Rich, upper class
Promiscuous
Amoral
People though Byron wrote it and Polidori was a failure

Victorian, Dracula

1897
Before published, he though it could be a play
The play was shit
1921, Nosferatu was made (unlicensed film)
Stoker’s widow copyrighted Dracula
1927, Hamilton Dean’s successful adaptation is made
Typical Dracula image established here
Wasn’t seen as great literature back in the day
Seen similar to original audiences to how many see something like Twilight now: fun but poorly written
People thought there was a disconnect between the low tech opening, high tech second half, and the sudden low tech end
Anti-climactic death of Dracula

Technology in Dracula

Kodak camera (I took some Kodaks, like we say Kleenex):
New tech
Kodaks have mirrors…would Dracula have shown up in a picture?
Starts idea of vampires being insubstantial
Typewriter:
Mina can short hand
Learns to use the typewriter so she can be useful to her fiancé
Instead becomes the one who makes their mission and the narrative possible
Carbon paper was an awesome new thing
Did not sit well with people MAKING A COPY THAT IS FOR GOD ONLY WHAT ARE YOU DOING
Dracula makes copies – bites you and you become a vampire
Horrific Xerox machine
Phonograph:
Miraculous!
Telephone:
Still rare to have one in your house
There were pay stations with a bank of phones in an office, usually connected to a post office, where you could make a call
WHAT IS THIS SORCERY
Side note: Steampunk is recent cultural movement to combine modern technology and ye olden aesthetic
19^th century cab:
Close to public transit
Bus comes from omnibus
Sit on top with driver or below in carriage – precursor to double decker buses
19^th century taxi cab:
Primary mode of Dracula characters
Electric cab:
Mind! Blowing! High! Tech! Automobile!
Subway:
Marketed as fashionable transportation!
It was, in reality, mostly used by the working class
Dracula is a modern novel as it is about the old world and the modern world
Characters so surrounded by tech that they barely noticed it (hey wait we’re like that too so relatable)
Technology adapts really quickly

Dracula

Dracula tries to learn about England and learn to speak like Jonathan speaks
Unruly speech: lower class people with different accents
Van Helsing “creates some of the most beautiful mutilations of the English language”
He’s kind of painful
Mina’s typewriter takes all these different voices and turns them into text
Surrounded by ethnic conflict
Contains a lot of research and writing things down and phoning people
“the most structured horror novel you have ever encountered in your life”
Hey wait Buffy characters do this too
Vampire and mass culture
Consuuuuuuuume ALL THE THINGS
Produce
Characters utilize all these sources of media
AND YET never a point at which mass culture learns that vampires exist
Sunnydale connection!!
“mass media doesn’t announce vampires because they are the same thing”
copy and mass production
Dracula goes after upper class women
Angel of the home
Women will vamp their husbands and children
Vampires originally only went after people dear to them (SPIKE!!)
Dracula has a connection to his victims
Lucy becomes a celebrity after she’s vamped
Dracula connected to capital
Capital has value but no use (five dollar bill can be exchanged for something but isn’t valuable in and of itself)
What scares the characters is that Dracula represents monopoly capital
Vampires control labour
Copyright, downloading – those anxieties we have today
Copying
Still a lot of data policing today
Anxious about what women do, colonization, and sexuality
Darwin’s stuff getting digested
If we can evolve, can we also devolve?
Fear of foreigners devolving white countries because all y’all are racist (Dracula is foreign)
New faux sciences
Phrenology:
Science of detecting someone’s intelligence based on the shape of their head
No really
And whites are the smartest because okay
Racism similar to homophobia (too much time with black people will make us stupid; too much time with gay people will make us gay)
Mesmer:
Not only can you hypnotize people, but you can make them do your bidding
Anxiety about psychoanalysis

OLD VS NEW

Tension also present in Buffy
Show about magic, hell, horror, and old Christian beliefs
Also about computers and college and modern stuff
Mina and Willow similar
Mina gets very excited about research
Mina uses logical deduction
Young people main characters (Buffy and Dracula)
Van Helsing…Rupert Giles
What we know now about vampires comes more from the Dracula films
Sunlight hurting vampires
Vampire in long cape comes from the staged version

Here endeth the lesson.

Mary's January 9, 2013, notes: "Welcome to the Hellmouth" & "I Robot, You Jane"

Wed, 16 Jan 2013 00:31:00 -0500

Pop Culture vs Literary Canon

Reality shows didn’t really exist at the same time as Buffy
“Real World” pretty much the only one
Now they are the default
What is the role of reality television in our lives?
These days, anything is considered fair game (the weirder, the better)

What is Buffy about?

Prophecies often happen to boys in literature
In this series, it centers around women
No male slayers
Only My So Called Life was a show with a main female character (15 year old girl is the lead and narrator)
Influence on Buffy
Similar teenage slang
It did, however, have “very special episodes”
Dawson’s Creek ran beside Buffy
At the time, considered gripping drama
Most of the actors clearly in their late twenties despite characters being teens
Buffy Pushes boundaries with teen sexuality and gay characters
New sort of deal in the 90s
Vampires (defined by oldness) vs teenagers
Teenage slang vs the way adults talk
Teenage reactions to adults is often horrifying
In Dracula, there are young people but they are in their mid to late twenties (functional adults)
Children are the ones most in danger in Dracula, whereas teenagers are the heroes in Buffy
High School is hell
Teenage experiences represented by monsters
Characters of Joss
Xander is Joss in high school
A loser, a failure
Cordelia has depth eventually, but comes across at first as a shallow monster
Giles is the book loving nerd in all of us
The student who is excited about footnotes
Joss went to a British prep school
Hungry for research

Welcome to the Hellmouth

Tension between the old world vampires and Buffy’s vampires
Theme song starts with old world organ, then switches to guitars
Starts like traditional horror film
Dark hallway (high school is not sunny)
Petite girl, scary guy…and then the girl kills the guy
Told right away that girls will not always be victims on this show
Willow:
Original actress is heavy set and dresses like she’s from the sixties
Looks like people you actually know
There was an attempt to have a realistic looking character
Alyson Hannigan is conventionally very attractive
Library was supposed to be a labyrinth but the budget didn’t allow it
Still, brief moment when it seems spooky
Then it becomes a safe space
Scoobies are the only ones who go to the library
Very different from a 2013 library
Only one computer
Landline
Card catalogue
The show is being filmed while technology is taking a huge leap forward
The Master
Pointy ears, looks closer to Nosferatu
One of the only vampires that looks like a real vampire
Sarcastic and campy
Minions kill to transmit strength to the Master, right out of Dracula
Sunnydale:
Small town
In Dracula, there is a tension between London and the old world
Whedon is more interested in the idea of there being something dark under every suburb

I Robot, You Jane

Interesting case study on fear of technology growth
In Dracula, there is also cutting edge (at the time) technology
IRYJ: Internet a new technology
’94, internet has just started
’96, internet closer to what we know now
Computers linked with evil
After this episode, they stop being linked with evil
They’re mostly linked with Willow
Where is technology going? What is the future of the printed word?
Conflict between Giles, the old world librarian, and Jenny Calendar, the hip ComSci teacher
Rare to have a female ComSci teacher who is also an expert
Willow is the other most technologically savvy
Giles is one of the only characters who resists technology
Smelly books speech
Look this debate is still going on!
Scoobies aren’t in the library for the reason they’re supposed to be
Learning about demons, not school stuff
First episode Willow is tied to a computer
Connection between adults and the occult
This episode shows that there is a larger world of magic (the techno pagans)
This becomes a larger theme
Magic as a protector, is shown as dangerous later in the series
Magic is the least explained plot element in the show
Spirituality in this show:
There’s a hell
There’s hell dimensions
There’s heaven dimensions
A lot of demons
Gods
How does it all work?
Master: I’m afraid of this cross and I don’t know why.

Here endeth the lesson.

Mary's January 7, 2013, notes: Lesson the first

Tue, 15 Jan 2013 01:05:00 -0500

[Hello, new co-blogger taking the same Buffy class here. If anyone’s interested, I take pretty detailed notes each class. Here are my notes from the first day, unedited…]

He brought a Vamp-faced Angel puppet (a la Smile Time) to class this is good already.

Nosferatru

Original vampire archetype
Not pretty, or even particularly strong or “super”
Can be watched really easily on YouTube

Interview With a Vampire

Vampires beautiful, appealing, and immortal
Creates the template for Buffy vampires and the modern idea of pretty vampires
Evolution from vampire with no motive except to drink blood and kill, to Anne Rice’s vampires with philosophical questions and morals
Faith and vampires
Vampires in Buffy afraid of crucifixes and crosses, yet God is not really present
Presence of God very important to Anne Rice’s vampires
Who made me? Where do I belong?
Why are vampires still so popular? (See syllabus “the vampires we need” quote) What do they represent today?

Buffy a response to the Final Girl trope

“You need to kill your darlings.” (Joss is unafraid to kill characters)
Why do academics find it so interesting? (Is it because there’s a librarian as a main character is it is it)
Buffy speak
Adding the letter “y” to the ends of nouns to make them verbs
Teenagers inventing words

Dracula

We’ll read it because it allows us to get the feel of where vampires come from
Vampires always traditionally coming from this dark, old, ancient place
Vampires in Buffy are in California

Interview with a Vampire

Vampire close to being a celebrity
World weariness
Struggle to possess immortality
Have a presence, larger than life

Here endeth the lesson.