The Existential Joss Whedon review

[alobear]

I've got a fair few books that are collections of essays by different people about my favourite TV shows/book series. For the most part, they're pretty good.

The Existential Joss Whedon by J Michael Richardson (I automatically wanted to type Straczynski there...) and J Douglas Rabb is a different animal altogether. The focus is a lot less on the TV shows and a lot more on the philosophy. I can't say I understood it all, but it was an interesting read and presented Buffy, Angel, Firefly and Serenity in ways I'd never considered before. (And I didn't cease to exist when I'd finished it, which I'm sure siroswold will be glad to hear.)

I'm sure a lot of people would read this book and think it's a load of rubbish, but I'm firmly of the opinion that a reader/viewer is fully entitled to interpret books and TV shows however they want. Yeah, yeah, I hear you all say - the slash fanfic writer would say that, wouldn't she? But I'm an English graduate, too, and I got into my chosen university partly because a tutor defended my right to interpret a poem in a way he wasn't expecting. If you can back up your theory with evidence, and explain yourself competently, then I believe you can think what you like about Joss Whedon's work, and these two guys certainly explain themselves very well indeed.

On a separate note, I started Titus Groan today. I'd been told the style would be the thing that would put me off if anything would, but I really like the style. Actually, it's the only thing keeping me reading it at the moment - because all the characters are really unpleasant and nothing interesting has happened yet. I shall persevere... at least for a little while.

Comments

[prunesquallormd.livejournal.com]

Ooooh. Titus Groan - one of my favourites (as you may be able to tell from the user name :) ). I've always thought that Peake is one of those love or loathe writers, and Titus Groan is the epitome of that. If you can bear to, I would certainly recommend persevering to the end. I'm not sure why I stuck it out to begin with - I found the style somewhat infuriating, the plot tedious and the characters hateful. But it got under my skin and some of the characters develop from strange and rather unpleasant caricatures into beings of genuine warmth and humanity (Dr Prunesquallor, with Mr Flay (and you probably really hate him at the moment, but give it time ), is obviously my favourite, but there's also Bellgrove (who doesn't turn turn up till ' Gormenghast'), Fuschia, even Irma, and Titus himself, in a strange way). And Peake's writing, although this is something that not many people seem to agree with me on, can be very funny.
I've met exactly 2 people in the 18 years since I read it who liked it, so , yep , it's not for everyone, but if you like the style , it's well worth sticking it out to the end. More happens in the second book, and I prefer it in some ways, but I think Titus Groan is technically the better of the two and it has a unity that Gormenghast lacks (Titus Alone is a different creature entirely, and Peake was very ill when he wrote it).
You've probably noticed that this is a subject that I can waffle on endlessly for, but for all that I've never managed to convert anyone, so, if you can stand to finish it, I'll be very interested to see what you think.

[weaselbitch.livejournal.com]

I really enjoyed Titus Groan... I'm surprised you've only met two other people who actually liked it!

[quintus-marcius.livejournal.com]

The series tends to do reasonably well in greatest book lists, so some people must at least respect it. I found all three books very interesting, although I can see why many people would not enjoy and/or finish them. By the way, alobear, in my view nothing interesting happening, at least at the beginning, is very much the point.

[alobear.livejournal.com]

I did immediately think of you when Dr Prunesquallor turned up - but, at the moment, I can't imagine why you'd choose him for your LJ username. Still, I am definitely persevering and will be interested to see how the characters develop. I'm not sure I'm exactly enjoying it yet, but the writing is wonderful and I'm not planning on stopping yet.

[alobear.livejournal.com]

I certainly agree that I can see why people don't like the books - but I admit I am intrigued, and I'm really enjoying the style because it's rather like mine used to be before people told me to stop being so pretentious...

[prunesquallormd.livejournal.com]

That increases my total to 3. Excellent :)

[prunesquallormd.livejournal.com]

I think the reason that the few attempts to dramatise the books have failed (although I've not seen the stage play) is that if you take away the writing (and I agree, it is wonderful) the story and the characters just end up seeming silly.
As for the user name, he's just a fab character, although I'll agree he's decidedly offputting to begin with. Give it time :)