Defending the Slayer

I’m here to praise not to bury the slayer. I scoff at your peevish dismissals of the glories of Buffy, that tiny blond creature, the defender of civilisation and humanity itself, who beset with all the feminine adolescent doubts and fears, simultaneously battles the horrors of high school and the creatures of the night. All this and her lip gloss is always perfect. It’s no wonder some people find her irritating. I diagnose a tragic case of envy and have no pity. Go look in the mirror and try persuading yourself you would not like to be a woman warrior with super powers and a cute undead lover. You re not convincing me otherwise.

And then of course there is the show itself. I need hardly point out what a serious fan base it possesses. However what is worthy of note is the diversity in age and situation amongst these fans, teachers, financial advisors, computer programmers, schoolgirls, Christians and pagans. This ability to please so many is an indication of the special qualities Buffy holds.

So what have we got? Bernard F Dick in his ‘Anatomy of Film’ discussing myth as an element of film subtext describes how

‘Myths are ultimate truths about life and death, fate and nature, God and humans. For this reason they can never be false even though the characters they portray may never have existed.’

Buffy amusing, entertaining and tear jerking in turn, is truly imbued with this mythic quality with its themes of love and death, good and evil, the dark against the light. These groupings present primal mythic conflicts which occur within the mythology of mankind and the individual unconscious. The search for meaning and ethical validity within the chaos of existence is an ever present human quest. Drown out your fears in a squalid heap of consumerism and greedy entertainments – the cracks will still show. Humanity is a nobler and far more terrible creature than this, not to be satisfied by trinkets. We hunger for wisdom and understanding in our lives. Buffy reminds us of this. The relentless defence of the world against ever increasing and new evils is a core element of the show. The striving against the dying of the light, the belief that good must overcome the nightmares of the world, or at least die trying is too a myth, a dream worth cherishing.

And myths have power – Carl Jung believed the spirit of Wotan reigned in wartime Germany. How marvellous it would be if every fearful young woman could put aside her self criticism and anxiety, face herself inspired by the spirit of Buffy and become all that she truly could be. Surely that was the final lesson of the show, perhaps a little cheesy but still beautiful, that all little girls are not just princesses but also warriors, each special though she might not know it till a little goddess magic told her so.

Parker Taylor described film as the ‘daylight dream.’ It allows us away from the fabulous realms of sleep to examine our anxieties and needs and attempt to subdue or satisfy them in our waking hours.’ A television show cannot work miracles but it can try to make us think. Buffy illustrates significant human concerns in an imaginative and dramatic context. Take for example the nature of regret. When one has done terrible unforgivable things as Angel has, how can one face the future – is there any possibility of redemption or self acceptance. We have all done things we regret, caused pain and anguish to those we those we love. This is a genuine common grief which Buffy magnifies and attempts to deal with in a hopeful and sophisticated way. For Buffy despite the shows monsters and maniacs does not demonise those perceived as evil. It recognises the monstrous in humanity and the humanity in what we may deem monstrous, demonstrating that we are all capable of love and hate, good and evil and that simplistic definitions of human nature fail to recognise its complexity.

Those we despise cannot be defined in black and white terms in the world of Buffy. They laugh and cry like us, become frustrated at failure like us and become broken hearted like us. Spike bewailing his abandonment by Drusilla is no less worthy of compassion than Buffy mourning her star crossed separation from Angel. Emotional loss is a wound which lacerates all hearts equally. Indeed it is when we forget or deny the emotional validity of our fellow creatures it becomes all too easy to slaughter them and ourselves become the monsters. Recall Willow's rage at her lover’s death transforming her and almost destroying the world.

It seems pertinent here to affirm that Buffy is not some big white hunter who kills all she encounters – her purpose is to destroy those who commit evil. Spike is a good example of this. Once he becomes incapable of harming others he ceases to be a target, whilst Angel once more becomes Angelus transforms from the object of her love to a killer who must be stopped at whatever cost. The emotional subtexts of Buffy are enough to make one’s head and heart spin with painful recognition. Who has not believed themselves safe and happy in the arms of love only to have the mask ripped off, and discover ourselves callously abandoned? We may not have been stabbed through the heart by those we have trusted, our old loves do not necessarily turn out to be fiends from hell but frankly it can feel like it. And that is what I love about goths. Why take emotional distress on the chin when you can drink a whole bottle of tequila and write a six page poem about Cupid being a vampire.

I have digressed gentle reader, but the ebb and flow between life and death, love and hate which pervades the world of Buffy inevitably brings this meditation to the classical world of gothic literature. A world filled with strange sorrows and delights. I shall quote Tennyson just because I can

Love art thou sweet, then bitter death must be:

Love thou art bitter, sweet is death to me:

O Love if death is sweeter, let me die.

Sweet Love, that seems not made to fade away,

Sweet Death, that seems to make us loveless clay,

I know not which is sweeter, no not I.

Braver souls than I have tried to pin down the mysterious fascination which gothic literature holds and it would take a great more time than I can give to attempt to even sketch its charms. Suffice to say that Buffy has the right to claim fellowship alongside Edgar Allen Poe, Bram Stoker and Sheridan La Fanu. Our superstitious belief that the dead just live in another country, have generally better dress sense and can haunt our dreams poetically and physically litters Buffy the show with morbid and darkly erotic motifs.

And don’t those erotic motifs cling to one’s imagination. To quote an old adage reformed rakes make the best husbands, and in a similar vein who better to explore ones burgeoning sexuality with than a centuries old lover who has to put it delicately been around the block a few times. Buffy’s vampire lovers are Georgette Heyer regency heroes made undead. We know they re really, really bad men but we just can’t help fancying them anyway. There is something about coffin chic which is more universally appealing than one might first presume judging by the number of apparently conventional people with crushes on the shows undead darlings. Unfairly I have not mentioned the vampire women but I attended a sci fi convention and the actresses who played Drusilla and Darla were treated like rock stars.

I find it cheering to my liberal sensibilities that Buffy managed to get through college with two sexual relationships(one undead)and a one night stand under her belt whilst still very much being defined as a nice girl. Willow her friend also portrayed as a thoroughly nice girl until provoked beyond endurance, had what appeared to be a dream romance with another woman. Xander dated a demon, and Giles had a mixed race relationship –all these examples show Buffy championing love as a basic human right – whatever form it takes. And in a world all too full of prejudice and fear of the outsider I am glad at least one popular television show affirmed the freedom to follow the dictates of ones heart. Not I must add that it promoted careless snogging or trusting a potential lover too soon – far from it. Faiths callous one night stands were used to demonstrate her damaged state and similarly Buffy’s own disastrous date with a college stud show that prudence and caution are as necessary in relationships as in vampire hunting.

Lucy B

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