Post by moscowwatcher on Dec 8, 2010 11:55:04 GMT -5
I couldn't find a thread for meta recommendations, so I decided to create one. If it's not okay, please, delete my post.
'BtVS Season 8: Please Mind the Gaps' by Elisi
elisi.livejournal.com/574578.html?style=mine#cutid1
A reflection on the Good the Bad and the Ugly of season 8.
An excerpt:
New readers, many of whom were on unfamiliar ground, were doubly at a disadvantage thanks to all these gaps since the one thing they thought they knew - Buffy's world - had changed too. This proved deeply upsetting for large swathes of fandom. Of course Joss fans are used to being upset but the gaps did something worse: It made many fans feel profoundly disconnected.
Now I could easily fill a book complaining about the gaps, and although grumbling would be very satisfying, it wouldn't be very productive. So the question is - why do we have gaps? What do they accomplish? The best way of looking at it, I think, is to see Season 8 as 'based on' the show, the same way the show was based on the movie. Joss wanted to tell a new story, and retconned (or 'jossed', as the term is so appropriately called in fannish circles) the parts of the Buffyverse that didn't fit. As I'm sure everyone knows, Buffy the TV show was about growing up:
“It [Buffy] is about adolescence, which is the most important thing people go through in their development, becoming an adult. And it mythologizes it in such a way, such a romantic way - it basically says, 'Everybody who made it through adolescence is a hero.'”
Contrast this with Buffy's first words of 'Season 8': “Everybody calls me Ma'am these days.” Buffy's a big girl now, and adolescence is far behind her. In Season 8 the whole concept of the 'verse has been refigured, which means a new vision, new world, new aims, and, to a certain extent, new characters.
'BtVS Season 8: Please Mind the Gaps' by Elisi
elisi.livejournal.com/574578.html?style=mine#cutid1
A reflection on the Good the Bad and the Ugly of season 8.
An excerpt:
New readers, many of whom were on unfamiliar ground, were doubly at a disadvantage thanks to all these gaps since the one thing they thought they knew - Buffy's world - had changed too. This proved deeply upsetting for large swathes of fandom. Of course Joss fans are used to being upset but the gaps did something worse: It made many fans feel profoundly disconnected.
Now I could easily fill a book complaining about the gaps, and although grumbling would be very satisfying, it wouldn't be very productive. So the question is - why do we have gaps? What do they accomplish? The best way of looking at it, I think, is to see Season 8 as 'based on' the show, the same way the show was based on the movie. Joss wanted to tell a new story, and retconned (or 'jossed', as the term is so appropriately called in fannish circles) the parts of the Buffyverse that didn't fit. As I'm sure everyone knows, Buffy the TV show was about growing up:
“It [Buffy] is about adolescence, which is the most important thing people go through in their development, becoming an adult. And it mythologizes it in such a way, such a romantic way - it basically says, 'Everybody who made it through adolescence is a hero.'”
Contrast this with Buffy's first words of 'Season 8': “Everybody calls me Ma'am these days.” Buffy's a big girl now, and adolescence is far behind her. In Season 8 the whole concept of the 'verse has been refigured, which means a new vision, new world, new aims, and, to a certain extent, new characters.
Keep 'em coming.
