Session Four - Genres, Form and Cross-Media Buffsters

Dr Scott Knight - Step into the Stylish Yet Affordable Boots of Buffy Summers: Game Style and Narrative Characteristics of Buffy on the X-box.

I should note at the outset that I am not a gamer of any sort. My entire experience of the Buffy Xbox game is listening to a friend give instructions to her sister on how to play it, while the said friend and I were on the phone.

To quote: "This paper is an exploration of the narrative and stylistic characteristics of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer video game for the Microsoft Xbox console via a detailed textual analysis focusing particularly on how the game extrapolates the television series diegesis. Located within an alternative timeline season 3, Buffy (Xbox) demonstrates a fidelity to the TV series through character, situation and dialogue both in the in-game action and the cinematic sequences. … Buffy on the Xbox demonstrates the possibilities of the presentation of next-generation platforms for video games derived from popular fantasy entertainment supersystems."

As Dr Knight noted, authorised ancillary texts (spin-off books, but in particular, the video games) are a risk-reduction strategy for large media franchises. One only has to look at the plethora of authorised Star Trek ancillaries to see that these are important to the franchise owners. However, as with much else Buffy-related, there is a feeling that the Buffy creators pay more attention to the quality in general and canonicity in particular than many franchise creators. For example, the Buffy Xbox was four years in production, and was written by Christopher Golden, who knows the canon Buffy storyline inside out. The story is crucial to the game, which is set ‘interstitially’, as an alternate season three (neither Faith nor Oz appear). The game has a linear macro-narrative; this isn’t a "Choose Your Own Adventure", nor is there a capability, like in some current games, to simply "ride around the city on a Vespa" (a description of the non-plot possibilities of one of the most recently released car chase games, possibly one of the Need For Speed franchise). Dr Knight also noted that sequences in the game have powerful emotional resonance - particularly inspiring fear in the player (in Dr Knight’s case, partially because he was playing it at 2am in the dark.) Of course, if you’ve played the game, you knew all this. Sorry.

Dr Knight’s work on the Buffy Xbox game is part of a larger study called the Diverse Worlds Project, looking at various elements of video game content. Those elements include narrative, geography, style and internal objects. The purpose of the study (which is the first study of this magnitude anywhere) is to gather a baseline academic knowledge on video game content, and as a result, to be able to enter into dialogue with industry, and be able to contribute to public debate, particularly around issues of legislation. Given the concern exhibited by various governments and public groups about the level of violence in video games, it is surprising that this is the first such study to be conducted. Equally, given that the first six months of this study required Dr Knight to play all the games, beginning to end and all points in between, it is surprising that the Diverse Worlds Project doesn’t have more research assistants than they need.

Dr Jennifer Dowling - ‘We Are Not Demons’: Homogenizing the Heroes in Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel

The second most enthusiastically presented and well-received paper of the day, following Gwyn Symonds’ paper on Spike fandom. Dr Dowling is not a cultural studies or cinema studies academic: she is a lecturer in Yiddish language and culture, who admitted to being thrilled when, late in season six, words of Hebrew were spoken (reasonably well) by Willow. Dr Dowling had intended to look at a number of characters from both Buffy and Angel, including Kendra and Gunn, but due to time limitations, she was only able to consider Willow and Xander.

To quote: "The focus will be on the main protagonists, and perhaps more importantly, the cluster characters, ie, those with whom the audience tends to empathise. A discussion of these heroes as they mature into adulthood (Buffy) or come to terms with their often self-imposed exiles (Angel) will show that as the shows evolve, cultural and ethnic heterogeneity is erased and the characters become increasingly homogenous."

Dr Dowling began by noting that in six seasons of Buffy there have been only seven African-American characters in total (which would be one vampire called something like Ambrose, Lishanne (in "Witch), Kendra, Mr Trick, and four others I obviously can’t think of at this time.) She then considered Xander: a boy from a working class family, and a home environment that, from the snippets we’ve seen, is borderline abusive (at least emotionally), and stereotypically ‘white trash’. This was particularly clear in the abortive wedding episode (I can’t remember the title, although undoubtedly it was something like "Happy Ever After"), and in Xander’s "fear" sequences, in which he and Anya ended up in a situation very similar to that which we suspect his parents experience. However, one look at Xander’s apartment (I wish I could afford a place like that) makes it obvious that young Alexander Harris is upwardly mobile…Dr Dowling concludes, particularly on the basis of the "fear sequences" in the wedding episode, that Xander is held back by himself rather than by any outside force.

In contrast, Willow is held back by society, initially by her religious difference (and, I would argue, by her intellectual geek-girl status), and in later seasons by her sexual difference. Nevertheless, Willow’s Jewishness, reaffirmed every so often by the creators, does give her a particular position as different without being an ‘outsider’. Dr Dowling argued persuasively that in the specifically American context, to be Jewish is to be different, yet not ‘other’. (Dr Dowling is both American and Jewish, and highly qualified in the academic study of Jewish culture.) Her major problem with Willow — or more particularly, with Joss — is that despite Giles’ speech in the opening episode that dismissed a specifically Christian mythology behind the series, a Christian bias persists, particularly in the demonology. As an example, she quoted Willow’s outburst in "Gingerbread" (episode 3.11) where she calls upon Beelzebub, who I’ve usually seen called Beazubul anyway, but whom Dr Dowling gave an entirely different name that originates from the Jewish mythology (which is where it comes from anyway), except that he/she/it isn’t a demon in the Jewish mythology. As a Jew, Willow should have a) known the right name and b) realised that calling on he/she/it wouldn’t upset her mother as much, because it’s not so bad. This is a very good point. I’ll add it to one of my bugbears (it annoyed me during the symposium, too): the continual confusion between crucifixes and crosses. After all, it’s not that difficult a distinction.

Diana Sandars - What, No Romantic Ending? The Horror of the Hybrid Sci-Fi/Fantasy Musical Television Series.

This paper — the final one of the day — comes in at number three on my "Things I know about and therefore have the ability to criticise" list. I’m a Hollywood Musicals buff from way back. (At one stage during the "Moulin Rouge" publicity campaign I was ready to strangle anyone who tried to convince me that "Moulin Rouge" was a comeback for the movie musical. Believe me, a pastische of pop music, however inventively directed, does not measure up to "Singin’ in the Rain", "On the Town" or even "Gentlemen Prefer Blonds". But so far, this has nothing to do with Buffy.)

Let’s first of all put aside my still-simmering annoyance at the fact that Ms Sandars continually referred to the episode as "One More Time, With Feeling", and that her description of the opening sequence was inaccurate in the extreme. I will also put aside the fact that I suspect she may not actually be all that big a fan of Buffy, or, indeed, of musicals.

The paper summary included the following: "An examination of ["Once More, With Feeling"] reveals that although the key stylistic features of the classical Hollywood musical persists in the prime time television form, its reliance on the successful union of the romantic couple for a happy ending has been subverted. Additionally, the moments of musical spectacle are not self-determined expressions of love and euphoria, but random and uncontrolled acts that are externally forced on the characters and realist narrative. … In Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s fantasyscape, where the relationships are as implausible as those in the classical Hollywood musical, the musical numbers instead announce the demise of romance. These moments of musical transcendence are the result of black magic in "Once More, With Feeling". Buffy, a series that escapes and yet romanticises the mundane, uses the musical episode to invert the series’ ideology in order to critique and ultimately condemn what they are fighting to protect and the lives they have constructed for themselves. The true horror of the musical episode of Buffy is the loss of the romantic possibilities and happy ever after ending promised by the classical Hollywood musical."

That may have been the intention, but a lot of this either wasn’t argued at all, or wasn’t argued persuasively. My responses to the above would be the following - it takes a lot of hindsight to see the Buffy/Spike kiss as a subversion of "happy ever after" ideas, especially if you are a ‘shipper for that pairing. While the final number may show the brewing problems among the characters, and Spike certainly indicates his distaste of the whole singing thing, the episode still ends with a fade-out on a Spike/Buffy kiss that doesn’t become problematic until the next episode, and then only if one is particularly perceptive.

In terms of "they got the mustard out" and "there was no parking anywhere", I would agree that the singing is random and uncontrolled. However, the major numbers are, like in any musical, times of high emotion, and in fact, express feelings that could never be expressed in words. This is clear in every number except the one between Dawn and the demon, which is simple exposition. Apart from this, we have Buffy’s admission that she has lost any passion for slaying; an almost unbelievably explicit lesbian love song; the expression of Xander and Anya’s (well-founded, it turns out) doubts about their wedding; Dawn’s continuing existential crisis ("does anybody even notice?"); Spike’s plea that Buffy let him "rest in peace"; Giles and Tara’s individual decisions that they have to break with the Scooby Gang; and of course Buffy’s confession that it was heaven from which Willow and the others pulled her… I hope you get the picture. This isn’t random stuff. This isn’t unimportant, as Ms Saunders argues — this is the highly important, vital and yet unspeakable stuff of Buffy, and the fact that it was spoken changes the rest of the season.

You get the idea that I didn’t exactly agree with what was said in the paper. The final straw, I have to admit, was when Ms Saunders argued that Joss Whedon was reacting against composers like Stephen Sondheim…given that Sondheim was among the first composers of musicals (other than the amazingly brave Gershwin brothers) to be willing to subvert the ‘happy ever after’ principle, and to put grief, angst and doubt into musicals, I’m just not going to pay that argument.

Amazingly, I have actually reached the end of this marathon summary. Hope you enjoyed it. There is one final file in this series: a list of relevant resources. Some of these I’ve mentioned off my own bat, some were mentioned by academics and I’ve chased up the references.

Back to Session Three

On to the Resources List