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.
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!
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.
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 :)
"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."
It’s good that this person actually WATCHED Buffy before commenting on it. Otherwise, they might have said something blatantly incorrect about it. I mean, metaphor and a literary base on "Buffy"? That would be ridiculous....
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.
"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."
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.
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.
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.
Um.... No, this guy really is wrong. It’s not about the sex; he said there’s no "metaphor" on Buffy and that it doesn’t have a "literary base", despite the fact that those two things are obviously driving forces behind the show. :)
By the way, can someone atriculate PLEASE write a letter to the Silisbury Post just to set them straight?? :D This is too funny, this guy whining about the show and being blatantly, absolutely 100% incorrect about it. ^-^ They have lots of email addresses on their page.
Freedom of speech is tinged with a right not to offend. And the Blasphemor (sp?) has offended!!
Just kidding, about the blasphemor bit anyway. I mean, can you just go on national television, and call the leader of your country a ...really..rude word...
What about calling Black people ’n***ers’ or Gay people peadophiles? A diasabled person a sp***er?
While i totally don’t agree with any of these views, and will smack anyone who has them (apart from that it’s good to insult Tony Blair every now and again :p), it is obvious that freedom of speech does not exist in reality. Just most aspects of it are allowed.
I just realised i’m going a bit off topic here.
Anyway,This guy can spout off all he likes, it just annoys me that he hasn’t took the time to properly watch the show(which i admit is hard if you just don’t like it) and is talking complete rubbish.
Also, apologies for crankiness of previous post, it just struck a nerve for some reason. It helps that i haven’t re-read the letter just now. No more calling people "j**ka**’s", except maybe tony :p
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