{"id":30044,"date":"2015-02-03T05:00:13","date_gmt":"2015-02-03T10:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=30044"},"modified":"2020-08-07T09:36:18","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T13:36:18","slug":"a-biography-of-joss-whedon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2015\/02\/03\/a-biography-of-joss-whedon\/","title":{"rendered":"A biography of Joss Whedon"},"content":{"rendered":"

In City Journal<\/em>, Benjamin Plotinsky<\/a> talks about a new biography of the creator of Buffy the Vampire Slayer<\/em>, Firefly<\/em>, Serenity<\/em>, and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.<\/em>:<\/p>\n

Buffy the Vampire Slayer<\/em> premiered in March 1997. The show\u2019s name suggested either camp or children\u2019s programming, which was probably why the network had wanted to call it simply Slayer<\/em>. But Whedon insisted on the full name, Pascale writes. \u201cAs he explained, each word was crucial to understanding the show: \u2018One of them is funny, one is scary, one of them is action.\u2019\u201d It wasn\u2019t the last time that Whedon would make a questionable marketing decision. To this day, plenty of people who correctly point to The Sopranos<\/em> and The Wire<\/em> as high points of turn-of-the-century television don\u2019t realize that Buffy<\/em>, despite its name, was one of the most impressive products of that impressive period, which is to say, one of the best TV shows ever made.<\/p>\n

The show wasn\u2019t simply about a superpowered high schooler whose calling was to fight demons and periodically save the world. It was an allegory for American adolescence. The monsters and apocalypses represented \u2014 seldom so obviously as to induce cringes \u2014 many of the problems that teenagers routinely confront, and they forced the heroine to face problems that the rest of us must face sometimes, too: unpopularity, abandonment, fear, misery, loneliness, helplessness. Sometimes Buffy prevailed through simple self-reliance; more often, through the help of her friends, a group of smart misfits who distinguished themselves from others in their high school \u2014 and simultaneously endeared themselves to viewers everywhere \u2014 by speaking a clever, grammar-mangling patois that fans soon dubbed Buffyspeak. (\u201cPunishing yourself like this is pointless,\u201d Buffy\u2019s mentor tells her early in the show\u2019s second season. \u201cIt\u2019s entirely pointy,\u201d she retorts.) The wit of the dialogue balanced the pain of the plots, as Whedon put his characters through the emotional wringer with a perceptiveness seldom matched on the small screen \u2014 or the big.<\/p>\n

Buffy<\/em> ended in 2003, but Whedon was already running other projects and would continue to pilot more, most of them in science fiction or fantasy. They included a number of TV shows (Angel<\/em>, Dollhouse<\/em>, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.<\/em>) and movies (Serenity<\/em>, The Cabin in the Woods<\/em>, Much Ado About Nothing<\/em>), as well as an innovative, self-produced miniseries, Dr. Horrible\u2019s Sing-Along Blog<\/em>, distributed online. Deserving special mention is Firefly<\/em>, a hugely promising TV series that mixed country-Western and sci-fi plots while showcasing Whedon\u2019s trademarks: clever dialogue, perceptive psychology, and a motley crew of outsiders. The Fox network canceled Firefly<\/em> after just 14 episodes, citing low viewership, which Pascale blames chiefly on Fox\u2019s poor advertising for the show. Whedon may have deserved some of the blame, too. Firefly<\/em> opened with a contemplative, almost dismal theme song, composed by Whedon himself, that captured the series\u2019 spirit nicely but almost certainly put off many first-time viewers. Perhaps Whedon was once again insisting on artistic integrity at the price of practical success.<\/p>\n

Until 2012, it seemed likely that Whedon\u2019s name would be permanently associated with Buffy<\/em>. That year, however, the best of the recent crop of comic-book flicks \u2014 The Avengers<\/em>, written and directed by Whedon \u2014 became the third-highest-grossing movie of all time. Who better to helm a movie about a team of smart, squabbling mavericks who ultimately unite to save the world than the creator of Buffy<\/em> and Firefly<\/em>? The movie was classic Whedon: well paced, clever, and laced with dialogue at once witty and psychologically revealing. He\u2019s currently working on a sequel, which will hit theaters this May.<\/p>\n

Pascale\u2019s book is carefully researched and documented, and it gives the reader a good idea of Whedon\u2019s personality, thought process, and creative approach \u2014 no small feat for a narrative that, for the most part, must introduce its topics in chronological order. Pascale quotes Whedon often, and his insight about his own work makes the book a pleasure to read. After a conversation with composer Stephen Sondheim \u2014 who tells him, \u201cI will always write about yearning\u201d \u2014 Whedon starts wondering what his own chief motivation is. \u201cHelplessness was what I realized was sort of the basic thing,\u201d Whedon says. He varies the idea slightly in another context: \u201cWe, all of us, are alone in our own minds. … Loneliness and aloneness \u2014 which are different things \u2014 are very much, I would say, [among the] main things I focus on in my work.\u201d Even The Avengers<\/em>, Whedon says, is \u201ca film about lonely people, because I\u2019m making it, and my pony only does one trick.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n