From Salisburypost.townnews.com
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
Letter : No virtue in ’Buffy’
By Richard Nash Creel
Friday 21 May 2004, by Webmaster
The article extolling the spiritual virtues of the heroine of the show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" is one more example of the ability of speakers to say the most ludicrous things and the press to publish them.
This pathetic, infantile attempt at turning another sitcom into something with dramatic character by the injection of action and violence does nothing to allay my suspicion that TV entertainment and much of the rest of that "industry" strongly resembles pornography, according to a past definition, in having no redeeming merit, none whatsoever. There is no literary base, as with older films, nor is there any metaphoric content, such as in "Salem’s Lot," nothing other than the same silly, hollow lot of people so prominent in TV shows: loud, unattractive, stupid and unbelievable.
Of course, for those given to fantasies, the moral of this show is that, while not hanging out, all the little men in America who secretly long to be heroic in some more meaningful manner than speeding down the highway can also be supermen, even those adolescents who do not even know where Europe lies. After all, entertainment is a substitute for education, media messages for hard information and the overall trivia generated by this trash a substitute for culture. No wonder education seems to be a present-day version of the labor of Sisyphus. 18
Forum messages
-
21 May 2004 13:05, by david:P
Wow....someone’s getting very hot and bothered without actually watching the show
-
21 May 2004 14:25, by June
Oh, go back and watch your "reality" shows! It’s people like you who proliferate the *MAKING* of that disgusting drivil that someone’s decided to call "entertainment" these days!
See online : > Letter : No virtue in ’Buffy’
-
21 May 2004 15:02, by Deb.
Buffy was a sitcom?
Geez, who’da thunk it! Perhaps if Mr. Creel actually *watched* an episode or two of Buffy, he’d have known it wasn’t a sitcom.
What a dolt.
-
21 May 2004 15:16, by Brady
Wow. For a guy who is complaining about people who think they can be heroes without "even knowing where Europe lies," he has no problem spouting off without knowing a thing about BtVS.
There’s no metaphoric context? What show was he watching? Oh wait. He wasn’t watching! So it’s hard to know where Europe lies, when you barely glance at the map.
-
21 May 2004 15:20, by Martin
Now that was funny! I can’t believe anyone would bother to write into a newspaper or whatever and write such drivel! This is probably from someone who wastes their life watching soap operas... that really did make me chuckle :)
-
21 May 2004 15:59, by BlueSuzanne
Pfft.
That’s all I have to say.
No wait, also:
Crack a book sometime, rather than stewing in your own sad, self-involved, arrogant, ignorant and miserly juices.
There.
Done.
-
21 May 2004 16:23, by Anonymous
You are obviously trying to extoll your own intellectual merit by bashing those of the Buffy-writers, etc. and the reference to Sysiphus is so obvious and shallow its sad.
If you actually watched Buffy, you would know that the characters are frequently seen displaying an impressive vocabulary, as well as demonstrating a keen knowledge of literature and culture. In this age of garbage television and empty pop-culture, I am proud to be a fan of Buffy and Angel, as they represent the last vestiges of intelligent, creative entertainment.
Hey, the Greek tragedies and the writings of Shakespeare were entertainment, education and culture, but I don’t see you running them to the ground.
-
21 May 2004 16:25, by Anonymous
Well sir, everyone is entitled to their opinion, even if it is contrary to yours. It’s called Freedom of Speech!
-
21 May 2004 16:26, by Mike
"The article extolling the spiritual virtues of the heroine of the show "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" IS ONE MORE EXAMPLE OF THE ABILITY OF SPEAKERS TO SAY THE MOST LUDICROUS THINGS AND THE PRESS TO PUBLISH THEM."
Sounds kinda familiar.
-
21 May 2004 17:01, by Anonymous
Ok, whatever. This guy takes the show way to serious.
-
21 May 2004 18:00, by Anonymous
I should have said in my earlier post that I was addressing Richard Creel from Salisburypost. I am a HUGE Buffy fan, but the author IS correct, the series did extol pornography and witchcraft. Some people believe that is wrong, I am one of them, but I loved other aspects of the series. Just because someone disagrees with your opinion doesn’t make them automatically wrong, and, you don’t have to resort to getting personal and name calling. That is simply immature. None of us are right 100% of the time. Again, I love Buffy, but I am one of those who believe that you don’t have to have sex in everything to make it good. Look at Second Hand Lions, that was excellent! There was no sex or obscenity and it was a great film.
-
21 May 2004 19:04, by Brandi
Hello? Buffy is not a ******* sitcom. It is a drama that happens to have much better humor in it than most of your situationa comedies.
-
21 May 2004 19:43, by Anonymous
he’s from north carolina, what does he know??
-
21 May 2004 20:16, by Anonymous
In Buffy, both sex and especially witchcraft had consequences, sometimes dire. The show doesn’t extol it, but simply presents a world where it exists. An IMAGINARY world. The show "extols vampirism" too, I suspect? Anyway, Secondhand Lions was a terrible movie and I can’t believe you’re comparing it to Buffy. And Free Speech is open to everyone, including "j**k**ses". That’s kinda the point.
-
I have to agree that much of this is nonsense. Many, many episodes of Buffy and Angel featured strong and often obscure literary, philosophical and metaphorical references. I also very much doubt they could be classified as sitcoms. Buffy and Angel most certainly did not centre around the themes of violence and action but did feature complex emotional themes. This letter reads as if the writer has never actually watched more than five minutes of one episode. However, it does take time to build up a thorough understanding and empathy with the characters and their deep complexities, so I can understand the mistake of thinking B+A are shallow if one had seen very little of the shows.
-
21 May 2004 23:33, by Anonymous
ah, the frustrated, easily annoyed intellectual...an uncommon species, but easily as irritating as the more common dumb loudmouth. i think mr. creel needs to relax a little bit and be a little less judgmental about things that he’s rather obviously never seen.
-
22 May 2004 03:07, by DurangoKid
Pearls before swine?
-
22 May 2004 17:48, by Anonymous
Three Words;
Go to Hell!
|
|
Sitemap XML