Read an Excerpt
Fan Phenomena
Buffy the Vampire Slayer
By Jennifer K. Stuller Intellect Ltd
Copyright © 2013 Intellect Ltd
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-299-71865-4
CHAPTER 1
A Brief History of the Best, Worst, Known, and Not-So Known, Pop Culture Influences on the Buffyverse (Or, Joss Whedon's Fandom: 101)
Jennifer K. Stuller
->I have a lot of influences. So many, in fact, that I can't even think of them all. I've sort of hodge-podged together my favorite bits of everything. I take what I need for the series'.
— Joss Whedon, quoted in The Watcher's Guide Volume 1 (1998)
Marvel Comics and B-movie action heroines, westerns and The Muppets, teen drama, The Simpsons (Matt Groening, 1989-) and genre changing vampire films – all and more have influenced writer, director and producer, Joss Whedon. From comics to television to genre to film, 'We know,' as David Lavery wrote for the journal Slayage in 2002, 'quite a lot about Whedon's influences,' and Whedon himself told the Official Buffy the Vampire Slayer Magazine in 2004 there are 'almost too many to name'. He even revealed to SFX Magazine in 2012 that 'professorial shout-outs are a weakness' as well as a slew of previously unmentioned inspirations, saying, 'I've tried to come up with people you might not be aware of. I do have a few'.
But Whedon's influences are more than just a pop cultural hodgepodge reflected in his work, because Whedon is himself a fan – an unabashed and vocal fan, sharing with his fans not just his plethora of influences but his pleasure, and where inspiration and delight might intersect by letting fans share in his joy for culture, pop or otherwise.
The true key to understanding his work lies not merely in exploring his influences. Recognizing, investigating and even sharing in his fandom, provides nuance to our interpretations of his works. As Roz Kaveney observes in her 2008 book, Superheroes! Capes and Crusaders in Comics and Film, creatives such as Whedon have 'an obsessive habit of popular culture intertextuality in their dialogue and plotting [...] and their core work tropes are often derived from the favorite reading and viewing of their youth'.
While staffers at Mutant Enemy, the production company behind Buffy, brought their own fandoms to the series, Buffy is Joss, and Joss is Buffy – as he acknowledged in a 2012 interview with Forbes, 'I didn't realize until after seven seasons of "Buffy" – literally, until after I was done with it – that I was writing about myself'.
To truly understand Buffy the Vampire Slayer and its impact, not just on popular culture, but on fan phenomena, we must not merely explore Whedon's influences, but make efforts to understand how his enjoyment of, and often reverence for, the source material is invested in his work, by exploring the source material itself. It is useful to have at least a working knowledge of where, as Kaveney says, Whedon's core tropes originated.
The series is filled with reference to often recognizable pop culture sources. From The X-Files (Chris Carter, 1993-2002) to Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977) – even 1970s sex symbol Burt Reynolds gets a mention. Each serve to further illustrate a point, emphasized by the viewer's familiarity with the referenced material. For example, Giles is generally the Fox Mulder-esque believer in the paranormal. When accused by Buffy of trying to 'Scully' her (Scully being Mulder's converse – the rational skeptic) audiences familiar with The X-Files are in on the joke. (See Chapter 'Buffyspeak' for more.) The Trio show an obssession for Star Wars and Bond-related minutia that parallels that of the Mutant Enemy writer's room – as Doug Petrie told the Official Buffy the Vampire Slayer Magazine in 2007, 'You could have put a tape recorder in the middle of the writers' room and recorded it verbatim, and you would have had the geeks dialogue. Their references were our references'. And Joyce, in full teenage mode after the consumption of magically dosed 'band candy' reveals that the epitome of male sexuality in her teenage dreams is Burt Reynolds.
An entire text (perhaps even encyclopedia or wiki) could be devoted to the characters referenced and narratives mined for Buffy – a series that Whedon once said he wanted to be 'My So-Called Life meets The X-Files'. One could even write at length on speculated references. (For example, is Anya's fear of bunnies a nod to Whedon's love of Monty Python's Flying Circus [Graham Chapman, John Cleese, Terry Gilliam, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, Michael Palin, 1969-74] and the bunny with horrifying teeth in Monty Python and The Holy Grail [Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, 1975]?)
Alas, this chapter must be restrained to a brief introduction to some of the key pop culture influences on the Buffy verse. While this book looks at aspects of fan phenomena and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Buffy the Vampire Slayer is itself an act of fan phenomena in which the tropes and material that influenced Whedon were used to create a new narrative.
Blade the Vampire Slayer
Conceptualized by writer, Marv Wolfman, and illustrated by Gene Colan, Blade was a vampire hunter and one of the first black superheroes. He premiered in Marvel Comics' Tomb of Dracula issue #10 (1973). Half human, half vampire, his ultimate mission of vengeance was to kill Deacon Frost – the vampire that murdered his mother while she laboured in childbirth, and thus inadvertently created Blade's hybridity.
Influence on BtVS
Whedon has mentioned Blade the Vampire Slayer in the Marvel comic book, Tomb of Dracula, as an influence. In a 2001 interview with Westfield Comics, Whedon said of the 1970s subway flashback scene with Spike and Nikki Wood from the fifth season BtVS episode, 'Fool for Love' (Season 5, Episode 7) that there was 'much of the original Blade' in the sequence. (And arguably, in Season 7, there is an allusion to Blade in Robin Wood's quest to kill Spike – the vampire that killed his mother, as illustrated in 'Lies my Parents Told Me' [Season 7, Episode 17].)
Doug Petrie, who wrote 'Fool for Love' – as well as the Tales of the Slayers (2002) comic book tie-in, 'Nikki Goes Down!', with Tomb of Dracula artist, Gene Colan, is a self-proclaimed 'big 1970s Blaxploitation freak'. We can assume that certain heroines of the genre played into Nikki Wood's characterization and though women in Blaxploitation films were often the girlfriend of the hyper-masculine hero of the story, the genre also contributed the first films to feature black women in action hero roles, and even more revolutionarily, as lead protagonists.
Trivia
Blade was adapted into a film in 1998. According to a 2005 interview with Marv Wolf-man in Back Issue magazine, neither he nor Gene Colan was ever consulted on the Blade films, and even had to buy their own tickets to see a screening.
Fan influence seen in episodes/issues
'Fool for Love' (Season 5, Episode 7), 'Lies My Parents Told Me' (Season 7, Episode 17), 'Tales of the Slayers' (Dark Horse Comics, 2002).
Dark Phoenix Saga
A pivotal and highly influential X-Men story arc during the creative run of John Byrne and Chris Claremont (see section: 'The X-Men'), the Dark Phoenix Saga tells the tragedy of mutant Jean Grey as she realizes her full potential, succumbs to, and is corrupted by great power – resulting in the death of billions – before sacrificing herself to prevent the further destruction of the solar system, and possibly the entire universe.
Fan influence on BtVS
Jean Grey has been referenced in Willow Rosenberg's storyline and characterization. Or, rather more specifically, the woman Jean Grey becomes after bonding with the abstract cosmological principle known as Phoenix. Initially, this was a sacrifice Jean made to protect her teammates, but the Phoenix infused her with unimaginable power. Alas, Jean could not contain such power, it became unstable, and as with Willow, this intense amount of power corrupted her. (Though it's still debated in nerd circles as to whether Jean was actually corrupted, if she was possessed, or if she enjoyed the power.) Regardless, like Willow, Dark Phoenix's desires were an insatiable pursuit that made her dangerously destructive.
There are superficial similarities in the narratives and character evolutions of Jean and Willow. They are both telepathic, have red hair, have a strong father figure (which is actually true of most female heroes) and a dark side – one which, I would add, they both take immense pleasure in indulging.
Fan influence seen in episodes
The Dark Willow storyline mirrors the the Dark Phoenix Saga both visually and narratively, and is specifically referenced by Andrew in the Season 6 episode 'Two to Go' (Episode 21) when he says, 'She's like Dark Phoenix up there!'
Kitty Pryde
Kitty was created by John Byrne, subsequently developed by Chris Claremont, and debuted in January of 1980 in Uncanny X-Men #129. She was an adorable young teenager that could walk through walls – her mutant power being the ability to phase through solid objects.
Influence on BtVS
Whedon wrote in the introduction to the trade paperback of Fray (Dark Horse Comics, 2003) that Kitty Pryde was 'both a source of affection and identification' for him and 'was not a small influence on Buffy'.
Kitty went through all the adolescent trials we saw on BtVS: fear of change – especially in the people around her (and most alarmingly for a child, in trusted authority figures), insecurities about romantic relationships, the building of deep and meaningful friendships, rebellion and frustration (again, mostly with regards to authority figures – trusted or otherwise), rites of passage and the unique challenges associated with her gift. As with the Scoobies, readers got to watch Kitty grow up – some even grew up with her.
We know Kitty remains important to Whedon, as he agreed to write The Astonishing X-Men title only if he could use her character. (See the concluding chapter, 'Unlimited Potentials' for more.)
Trivia
While Kitty Pryde may be 'the mother of Buffy', as Whedon told Wired in 2012, she is also reflected in Willow Rosenberg, a character who shares with Kitty Pryde a talent for computer skills, as well as Jewish faith.
Influence seen in episodes/issues
Seen throughout the series, and notably in a playful nod in issue #32 of Dark Horse Comics' Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 8 (2010). While testing out her new enhanced superpowers, Xander asks Buffy if she can 'phase'. Explaining that that means
'You can control your molecules ... and mess up machinery ... and - - and - - and - - and you're really cute, and you have this spunky personality and you're not afraid of the tough guys who everyone else is terrified of'. (Humorously, Buffy doesn't see the appeal.)
The Lost Boys
In The Lost Boys (Joel Schumacher, 1987), a recently divorced woman and her two sons move to the fictional beach town of Santa Carla, California to live with the family patriarch. Plagued by missing persons and gang activity, Santa Carla is the so-called 'murder capital of the world'. The truth, of course, just as it is in the fictional town of Sunnydale, is that the town is infested with vampires.
Director Joel Schumacher changed the original script from a story about young kids fighting vampires (presumably grade-school aged children as in The Monster Squad – also from 1987, [Director, Fred Dekker]) to a sexy movie about teenage vamps, making Lost Boys what he calls his 'Goonies go vampire' – referencing the adventure film about misfits seeking pirate treasure. But Schumacher's adventure was infused with 'exotic' gypsies and 'bad-boy' motorcycles.
Lost Boys, was, as he noted, a film liberally peppered with irresistible, if dangerous, young men – men who were terribly sexy monsters. Reflecting on the appeal of vampires over other traditional monsters (like those from Universal Horror films of the mid-twentieth century that influenced Mutant Enemy writer, David Fury), Schumacher declared in the 2004 documentary featurette, 'Fresh Blood: A New Look at Vampires', that: 'The werewolf is not sexy. Frankenstein is not sexy. The Mummy is not sexy'. He claims, 'Vampires are the most fun monsters to do because they're very, very, very, sexy'.
Fan influence on BtVS
As we know from Whedon, who originally didn't want sexy vamps, they are in fact so sexy, that even lack of blood flow doesn't preclude the ability to 'get it up'. As he told Jeff Jenson of Entertainment Weekly in 2002, even though they are The Undead, 'If vampires couldn't have erections, our show would have been 12 episodes long'.
So besides the elements of comedy, horror and family drama, pop culture and literary references, and The Sexy, what else of Lost Boys can we see in Buffy the Vampire Slayer? Or, where is the line from the 'Blood-Sucking Brady Bunch' to the 'Scooby Gang?'
We know from Whedon himself that the idea 'Vamping Out' came from Lost Boys, and that the vampire Spike has a little of Kiefer Sutherland's character, David, in him. Other similarities to Buffy the Vampire Slayer include: a fictional Southern California town (Santa Carla and Sunnydale), vamps living in a residence sunken by an earthquake, rock star look-a-likes (Jim Morrison via Jason Patric's Michael, and Billy Idol via James Marsters's Spike, respectively) and hoyay! (an internet fandom term, aka: 'homoeroticism – Yay!').
Seen in episodes
'Bumpy' faces, bumping naughty-bits and swanky cave-dwelling seen throughout the series run.
Muppets
The Muppets were a group of lovable, misfit characters, brought together by their oft-frazzled, but always supportive, leader Kermit the Frog. Kermit, created in 1955, appeared on Sesame Street (Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrisett, 1969-), in Muppet movies and The Muppet Show (Jim Henson, 1976-81), a television series that aired from 1976–81. The show featured Kermit as the stage manager of a vaudeville show filled with wacky performers.
Fan influence on BtVS
Jim Henson was a puppeteer, voice actor and Kermit the Frog's alter ego. As Head Archivist for the Jim Henson Company, Karen Falk, has said, he was 'a gatherer of talent'. And just as Henson is The Muppets, specifically Muppet Kermit the Frog, Joss Whedon is Buffy the Vampire Slayer, specifically, Buffy Summers.
Whedon's father, Tom Whedon, worked for the Children's Television Workshop – the company responsible for creating the edutainment programs Sesame Street and The Electric Company (1971-77). As detailed in Michael Davis's 2008 Street Gang: The Complete History of Sesame Street, the creators of Sesame Street regularly drank together after-hours. Sometimes this was at a bar, but often it was at the elder Whedon's apartment. Artists, writers, musicians and actors gathered to there to imbibe, and thus young Joss grew up surrounded, and no doubt formed, by lively creatives.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Fan Phenomena by Jennifer K. Stuller. Copyright © 2013 Intellect Ltd. Excerpted by permission of Intellect Ltd.
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