You could also talk about Xander's Yellow Crayon saving the world.
Zoe ,'Serenity'
Buffy and Angel 1: BUFFYNANGLE4EVA!!!!!1!
Is it better the second time around? Or the third? Or tenth? This is the place to come when you have a burning desire to talk about an old episode that was just re-run.
Context to sociology-speakers: a part of what I'm doing is taking Durkheim's study on suicides, and linking it to superheros
That is far too exciting. Details! Draft copies!
I'm still working on the Buffyverse connection, but what set me to do it, in the first place, was Durkheim's observation that moral ideas are (solely?) composed of certain amount of egoism, certain amount of altruism, and a dash of anomie. In that moment, all I could think of was "OMG! It's Captain Jack Harkness! And the Doctor!".
And since Durkheim shows that if any of these "ingredients" of the social order is too strong in an individual there will be a suicide of some sort, the easiest thing is to show how it works with superheros.
The other coolest thing in my plan is to use this as a demonstration to what simulacra is.
The Guild itself, or the video? Presumably gaming as an example of simulacra has been written about somewhere, although The Guild is one step further into Disneyland-style unreality.
Just the video, but there will be a few sentences on The Guild itself (problem is, perfect example, but I'm not sure how much sci-fi/fantasy it is...).
Shir,
re: Durkheim...
Don't you think that Durkheim's analyses are best when focused on a community rather than on the individual? This is not a critique, but a musing. So looking at a superhero in context of the society in which that person exists would be relevant here.
Batman and Gotham in "Dark Knight" for example vs. Tony Stark.
le nubian, you're right, and your critique makes me phrase myself better. Like Durkheim, I'm trying to focus on a community while using examples of superheroes. And I must say - these heroes change. Buffy's reasons to sacrifice herself in 1x12 aren't the same as in "The Gift" (at least, the way she puts it). I hope to show why, with the greater context of society.
it was a musing! not a critique. :-)
Well since it inspired, you not only were musing. You were a muse. And since you phrased it entertainingly, you were also amusing.
I have a question related to a conversation I'm having elsewhere on the interwebs (Jess, it's rm's LJ).
After Buffy died in The Gift, did you (any of you) mourn? And if so, did you do something specific to mark your mourning? If you mourned, did the fact that she was obviously going to return (show called "Buffy") affect how you mourned?