I’ve been reading Investigating Firefly and Serenity: Science Fiction on the Frontier edited by Rhonda Wilcox and Tanya Cochran on the train in the past week or so. Some really interesting essays on different aspects of the Firefly universe and well worth a look if you’re interested in looking how people from different disciplines might engage critically with a TV show like this.
I’ve also been reading Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Philosophy: Fear and Trembling in Sunnydale edited by James South and William Irwin. Again, some interesting material in there.
One thing that comes through from time to time though, is the sense that the occasional author is so caught up in the constructed world that they engage more with the characters as ‘real people’ rather than with the people (directors, writers, actors etc.) who shape that world. A problem perhaps for anyone writing about something they care about deeply.
That said, I’ve asked the library to order Finding Serenity: Anti-Heroes, Lost Shepherds and Space Hookers in Joss Whedon’s Firefly and Serenity Found: More Unauthorized Essays on Joss Whedon’s Firefly Universe.
