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octoberdad's review
4.0
Some good essays on various aspects of how Whedon's stories handle various philosophical ideas, areas of study that always intrigue me.
I have two relatively minor complaints. One is that a number of the essays cover the same ground, in particular existentialism and ethics. Granted, there is probably plenty to say on these topics, but there are few essays in this collection that don't mention either Nietzsche, Aristotle or Kant, and more than one mentions all three. Plato gets his share as well; the Ring of Gyges story pops up in several essays to make pretty much the same point multiple times. Props to those essayists who branch out into other areas, such as Amy H. Sturgis, who brings in Frederick Jackson Turner and Isaiah Berlin.
The second complaint is that some of the essays simply don't go deep enough, and a couple even seem to ignore obvious (to me) examples that could make a stronger argument. As an example, in the final essay on the Dao of Firefly, Roger P. Ebertz does some work to bring in evidence from extra materials, including deleted scenes from the show Firefly and the canonical comic, Serenity: Better Days. However, in looking at Shepherd Book and contrasting him to Mal's character, he completely fails to reference the equally canonical Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale, which came out more than a year before this book of essays was published.
All in all, though, this is a good resource for anyone interested in Whedon's work and the philosophical questions he asks through it.
I have two relatively minor complaints. One is that a number of the essays cover the same ground, in particular existentialism and ethics. Granted, there is probably plenty to say on these topics, but there are few essays in this collection that don't mention either Nietzsche, Aristotle or Kant, and more than one mentions all three. Plato gets his share as well; the Ring of Gyges story pops up in several essays to make pretty much the same point multiple times. Props to those essayists who branch out into other areas, such as Amy H. Sturgis, who brings in Frederick Jackson Turner and Isaiah Berlin.
The second complaint is that some of the essays simply don't go deep enough, and a couple even seem to ignore obvious (to me) examples that could make a stronger argument. As an example, in the final essay on the Dao of Firefly, Roger P. Ebertz does some work to bring in evidence from extra materials, including deleted scenes from the show Firefly and the canonical comic, Serenity: Better Days. However, in looking at Shepherd Book and contrasting him to Mal's character, he completely fails to reference the equally canonical Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale, which came out more than a year before this book of essays was published.
All in all, though, this is a good resource for anyone interested in Whedon's work and the philosophical questions he asks through it.
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