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brandysith's review
4.0
I had to wait for this book at work for a long time because of some sort of cataloging/record issue, but at long last after almost a year on order and then sitting in processing, Whedonistas! made its way to my library and into my hands.
I've been trapped in the Whedon-verse since I was twelve (fifteen years now) when my mother introduced me to Buffy because she thought it would help me get over my fear of vampires. How right she was. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel shaped who I was as a teenager. How I wrote, what I wrote, what I enjoyed watching or not watching. Like all of the writers in the collection, I don't know how my life would have turned out without the influence of Whedon and his characters.
As I read through essay after essay, I began constructing my own narrative of how Joss and his shows changed my life and what a great influence Buffy herself had been. I wanted to know where I could sign up to contribute to a Whedonistas! sequel, since we can now add The Avengers and (soon) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D to his line up.
Like any anthology (fiction or non) some pieces spoke to me more than others. The ones that touched me deeply were "The Browncoat Connection", "How an Atheist and his Demons Created a Shepherd", "Why Joss is More Important Than His 'Verse", "Something to Sing About", and "Malcolm Reynolds, the Myth of the West, and Me." Though the piece that spoke to me the most was "Shelve Under Television, Young Adult." I work in a library, with the YA collection (though I'm not a youth services librarian...yet), and it really spoke to me in terms of my profession and my love with the Whedon-verse.
This is an outstanding collection of essays that every Whedon fan should read; not just the ladies, I encourage men to come and join along as well.
I've been trapped in the Whedon-verse since I was twelve (fifteen years now) when my mother introduced me to Buffy because she thought it would help me get over my fear of vampires. How right she was. Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Angel shaped who I was as a teenager. How I wrote, what I wrote, what I enjoyed watching or not watching. Like all of the writers in the collection, I don't know how my life would have turned out without the influence of Whedon and his characters.
As I read through essay after essay, I began constructing my own narrative of how Joss and his shows changed my life and what a great influence Buffy herself had been. I wanted to know where I could sign up to contribute to a Whedonistas! sequel, since we can now add The Avengers and (soon) Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D to his line up.
Like any anthology (fiction or non) some pieces spoke to me more than others. The ones that touched me deeply were "The Browncoat Connection", "How an Atheist and his Demons Created a Shepherd", "Why Joss is More Important Than His 'Verse", "Something to Sing About", and "Malcolm Reynolds, the Myth of the West, and Me." Though the piece that spoke to me the most was "Shelve Under Television, Young Adult." I work in a library, with the YA collection (though I'm not a youth services librarian...yet), and it really spoke to me in terms of my profession and my love with the Whedon-verse.
This is an outstanding collection of essays that every Whedon fan should read; not just the ladies, I encourage men to come and join along as well.
robertcollins's review
3.0
One of my favorite pieces in the book is an appreciation of Firefly's Kaylee. It points out that though Kaylee is smart and a good engineer, she's also a young woman who likes to feel attractive and is deeply in love. This is an important point: female characters are often forced to be either smart or girly, rarely both. It's something I'm going to keep in mind as I write more about Lisa Herbert and her adventures.
The downside of this book is that it's not so much "warts and all" as CDTL. There wasn't that much criticism of the series or of fandom. I think both of these are due to the fact that Whedon's works only go back to the mid-to-late 1990s. Standards are higher for genre TV, and fandom has become more diverse. I would be curious to revisit this subject in another ten years.
That said, this is a good book to buy if you have any interest in Whedon's work.
The downside of this book is that it's not so much "warts and all" as CDTL. There wasn't that much criticism of the series or of fandom. I think both of these are due to the fact that Whedon's works only go back to the mid-to-late 1990s. Standards are higher for genre TV, and fandom has become more diverse. I would be curious to revisit this subject in another ten years.
That said, this is a good book to buy if you have any interest in Whedon's work.
artemishi's review
4.0
In all honesty, half of the essays I greatly enjoyed (they made me ponder, made me laugh, made me do some self-reflection of my own), and half were uninteresting (I don't actually care how Jane Doe came to adore Buffy and her memories about it, when there's no larger context for the information or way to relate it to something relevant in my life). I wish there were more essays about Whedon's other works, but apparently everyone is a Buffy fanatic (although, thankfully, there was a balance of a little bit of Angel, Firefly, Doctor Horrible, and Dollhouse...just not enough for a good balance).
I miss the Mad Norwegian Press pop culture books that were primarily educational and entertaining, as opposed to a collection of fond remembrances of strangers (or am I confusing them with PopSmart Books?), but for a Whedon fan, this is worth reading through once.
Standout essays include those from: Teresa Jusino, Sigrid Ellis, Elizabeth Bear, Sarah Monette, and Emma Bull
I miss the Mad Norwegian Press pop culture books that were primarily educational and entertaining, as opposed to a collection of fond remembrances of strangers (or am I confusing them with PopSmart Books?), but for a Whedon fan, this is worth reading through once.
Standout essays include those from: Teresa Jusino, Sigrid Ellis, Elizabeth Bear, Sarah Monette, and Emma Bull
writtendark's review
5.0
Sometimes books like these contain too many essays that follow a formula of "blah subject, plugs own project or book series, blah blah subject." Thankfully this one contained only one of those. The rest were entertaining and thought-provoking, and they all certainly made me want to go re-watch anything Joss has ever touched.
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