Joss Whedon, Anarchist?
Joss Whedon, Anarchist?

Author: James Rocha

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2019-08-07

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 1476673837

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 Joss Whedon has created numerous TV series, movies, comics and one sing-along-blog, all of which focus on societal problems in the metaphorical guise of monsters-of-the-week and over-arching big-bads. The present work examines structural violence through interdimensional law firm Wolfram & Hart's legal representation of evil. We explore the limits of consent through the Rossum Corporation's coercion and manipulation. We rehearse the struggle to find meaningful freedom from the crew of Serenity. This book traces a theme of anarchist theory through the multiple strings of the Whedonverse--all of his works show how ordinary heroes can unite for the love of humanity to save the world from hierarchy and paternalism.

Joss Whedon, Anarchist?
Joss Whedon, Anarchist?

Author: James Rocha

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2019-07-25

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 1476637458

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 Joss Whedon has created numerous TV series, movies, comics and one sing-along-blog, all of which focus on societal problems in the metaphorical guise of monsters-of-the-week and over-arching big-bads. The present work examines structural violence through interdimensional law firm Wolfram & Hart's legal representation of evil. We explore the limits of consent through the Rossum Corporation's coercion and manipulation. We rehearse the struggle to find meaningful freedom from the crew of Serenity. This book traces a theme of anarchist theory through the multiple strings of the Whedonverse--all of his works show how ordinary heroes can unite for the love of humanity to save the world from hierarchy and paternalism.

Sexualities in the Works of Joss Whedon
Sexualities in the Works of Joss Whedon

Author: Lewis Call

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2020-05-26

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 1476675066

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Joss Whedon's works, across all media including television, film, musicals, and comic books, are known for their commitment to gender and sexual equality. They have always encouraged their audiences to love whomever, and however, they wish. This book is a history of the sexualities represented in the works of Joss Whedon and it covers all of Whedon's genres, including fantasy, horror, science fiction, westerns, superhero stories, and Shakespearean comedy. Unique for its consideration of the entire arc of Whedon's two-decade career, from the beginning of Buffy the Vampire Slayer's first season in 1997 through the conclusion of its twelfth (comic book) season in 2018, this book examines in detail both better-known queer sexualities of the LGBTQ+ spectrum, and lesser-known non-normative sexualities. The book includes chapters on Whedon's sexually dominant women and submissive men, sexual pluralism on Firefly, disabled sexualities in Whedon's superhero narratives, zoophilia in Buffy, queer and heteronormative sexualities in Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, the subversion of the sexual tropes of slasher films in The Cabin in Woods, and dominance and submission in Whedon's Much Ado About Nothing.

Organizational Communication Approaches to the Works of Joss Whedon
Organizational Communication Approaches to the Works of Joss Whedon

Author: Andrew F. Herrmann

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2019-12-02

Total Pages: 181

ISBN-13: 179360486X

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In Organizational Approaches to the Works of Joss Whedon, Andrew F. Herrmann offers an in-depth analysis of the connections between communication, organization, gender, discourse, and ethics in the works of Joss Whedon. Herrmann examines how characters go to work in organizations, how characters fight against organizations, and how some organizations themselves are characters. Whedon’s works offer both popular and scholarly appeal, often including portrayals of organizations, such as The Union of Allied Planets in Firefly and Serenity and S.H.I.E.L.D. in The Avengers and Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Herrmann argues that by looking at how Whedon portrays these organizations—including the ways in which employees are impacted by their organizations and how decision-making is affected by gender, masculinity, and economic discourses—we can gain fresh insights into our own working lives. Scholars of film studies, organizational communication, gender, rhetoric, and ethics will find this book particularly useful.

Re-Entering the Dollhouse
Re-Entering the Dollhouse

Author: Heather M. Porter

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2022-05-10

Total Pages: 303

ISBN-13: 1476679908

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Premiering on Fox in 2009, Joss Whedon's Dollhouse was an innovative, contentious and short-lived science fiction series whose themes were challenging for viewers from the outset. A vast global corporation operates establishments (Dollhouses) that program individuals with temporary personalities and abilities. The protagonist assumes a different identity each episode--her defining characteristic a lack of individuality. Through this obtuse premise, the show interrogated free will, morality and sex, and in the process its own construction of fantasy and its audience. A decade on, the world is--for better or worse--catching up with Dollhouse's provocative vision. This collection of new essays examines the series' relevance in the context of today's social and political issues and media landscape.

Blood, Body and Soul
Blood, Body and Soul

Author: Tamy Burnett

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2022-04-01

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 1476646279

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The ever-popular "Whedonverse" television shows--Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly and Dollhouse--have inspired hundreds of articles and dozens of books. Curiously, the focus of much of the scholarship invokes philosophical, ethical, metaphysical and other cerebral perspectives. Yet, these shows are action-adventure shows, telling stories through physical bodies of many varied and unique forms. Characters fight and die, suffer grave injuries and traumas, and are physically transformed. Their bodies bear the brunt of their battles against evil, corruption and injustice. Through 17 insightful and captivating essays, this collection centers the physical spectacle of these televisual series. Chapters examine how both disabled and super-powered individuals navigate their differing levels of ability; how the practice of medicine and medical practitioners are represented; and how wellness is understood and depicted, both physically and mentally. Other essays focus on storylines involving specific body parts, the intersection of literal and metaphorical trauma and the processes of recovery from injury, illness and impairment. Each author offers a unique and thought-provoking analysis in an area previously under-explored or altogether missing from existing scholarship on the Whedonverse.

Slaying Is Hell
Slaying Is Hell

Author: Alyson R. Buckman

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2022-12-16

Total Pages: 197

ISBN-13: 147664750X

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The films, television shows, and graphic novel series that comprise the Whedonverse continually show that there is a high price to be paid for love, rebellion, heroism, anger, death, betrayal, friendship, and saving the world. This collection of essays reveals the ways in which the Whedonverse treats the trauma of ordinary life with similar gravitas as trauma created by the supernatural, illustrating how memories are lost, transformed, utilized, celebrated, revered, questioned, feared, and rebuffed within the storyworlds created by Joss Whedon and his collaborators. Through a variety of approaches and examinations, the essays in this book seek to understand how the themes of trauma, memory, and identity enrich one another in the Whedonverse and beyond. As the authors present different arguments and focus on various texts, the essays work to build a mosaic of the trauma found in beloved works like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Dollhouse, and more. The book concludes with a meta-analysis that explores the allegations of various traumas made against Joss Whedon himself.

Philosophical Reflections on Black Mirror
Philosophical Reflections on Black Mirror

Author: Dan Shaw

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2021-12-16

Total Pages: 225

ISBN-13: 1350162191

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Black Mirror is a cultural phenomenon. It is a creative and sometimes shocking examination of modern society and the improbable consequences of technological progress. The episodes - typically set in an alternative present, or the near future - usually have a dark and satirical twist that provokes intense question both of the self and society at large. These kind of philosophical provocations are at the very heart of the show. Philosophical reflections on Black Mirror draws upon thinkers such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Pierre Hadot and Michel Foucault to uncover how Black Mirror acts as 'philosophical television' questioning human morality and humanity's vulnerability when faced with the inexorable advance of technology.

Firefly - What Makes Us Mighty
Firefly - What Makes Us Mighty

Author: M.K. England

Publisher: Titan Books (US, CA)

Published: 2023-06-27

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 178909836X

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A breakneck adventure for the Serenity crew in the seventh original novel tying into the much-missed Firefly series from creator Joss Whedon. A simple job Serenity is bound for the planet Kerry with a hold full of sealed, unidentified cargo for the planet’s highest-ranking nobleman. The duke is a surprisingly genial man whose court brings all the fanciness and fun of Persephone’s high society but little of the pretension—and, most importantly, he’s got the promise of more work. Some fine hospitality Obliged to stick around while Inara is with a client—and hoping to score future employment—the crew settles in. The liquor flows freely at court, and there’s food, entertainment, and comfortable lodgings to enjoy. Everyone is thrilled but Zoë. Her gut says something is off. A vicious massacre When the duke’s estate is attacked in the middle of the night, Mal sends Serenity to safety while he and Zoë investigate. What they find turns the whole story of Kerry upside-down. Revolution is brewing, and each of them will have to decide where to make their stand, even if it lands them on opposite sides…

The Half-Made World
The Half-Made World

Author: Felix Gilman

Publisher: Hachette UK

Published: 2013-12-12

Total Pages: 374

ISBN-13: 1472112857

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The world is still only half-made. Between the wild shores of uncreation, and the ancient lands of the East lies the vast expanse of the West---young, chaotic, magnificent, war-torn. Thirty years ago, the Red Republic fought to remake the West---fought gloriously, and failed. The world that now exists has been carved out amid a war between two rival factions: the Line, enslaving the world with industry, and the Gun, a cult of terror and violence. The Republic is now history, and the last of its generals sits forgotten and nameless in a madhouse on the edge of creation. But locked in his memories is a secret that could change the West forever, and the world’s warring powers would do anything to take it from him. Now Liv Alverhuysen, a doctor of the new science of psychology, travels west, hoping to heal the general’s shattered mind. John Creedmoor, reluctant Agent of the Gun and would-be gentleman of leisure, travels west, too, looking to steal the secret or die trying. And the servants of the Line are on the march.