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Date Posted: 11:15:22 12/09/02 Mon
Author: cjl
Subject: When genre conventions go bad
In reply to: darvangi 's message, "Cliche vs. genre conventions" on 10:11:16 12/08/02 Sun

Interesting points, darvangi. Much to chew on...

"I agree that Joss is using well-worn cliches of Western film and television within the show, but I don't find that to be a necessarily negative thing. I see those Western aspects as a superficial coloring that, in a comical way, let the audience know that they are watching a band of likeable outlaws - characters drawn in a similar vein to those in classic Westerns such as "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid" and "The Wild Bunch." It reminds me of the way that Buffy Summers, in the first two seasons of BtVS, had many qualities of a stereotypical SoCal valley girl; cliches of language and mannerism that heightened the comic circumstance of a girl, who would otherwise be at the mall, heroically killing vampires in her spare time. In Firefly, the comedy of the situation is in seeing people who have the mannerisms of salt-of-the-earth frontier people fly through space in a futuristic setting. It's a comic irony that I can appreciate, though I wouldn't be surprised if the Western cliches of the show, much like Buffy's valley girlish behavior, dissipated a bit after a couple of seasons worth of episodes."

To me, the main problem with the Western motif as "superficial coloring" is that's precisely how it comes off on screen--superficial. I'm not a particular fan of Westerns, but they can have an enormous emotional impact (e.g., The Searchers, High Noon), if the genre is treated with the proper depth and respect.

Additional problem: the juxtaposition of the Western and science-fiction genres doesn't work for me because the science-fiction genre (in mass media, at least) has always been an extension of the Western. You know: last frontier, pioneer spirit, rewriting the rules outside of civilization, etc., etc. (When the West was won and there were no more frontiers to be explored on earth, it seemed only natural that pulp fiction inevitably turned to outer space for new territory to explore.) It's like painting an entire landscape with brown and....darker brown.

And, of course, this brings us to the other main point...

"I fail to recognize where the sci-fi cliche is to be found in that description. Certainly, many drama shows feature a group of characters who are on a journey of some kind, whether physical or emotional, and who depend on each other for support."

Science fiction novels and stories of the 1950s and earlier often had a rag-tag bunch of losers either on a star cruiser or a merchant vessel, slogging through their day-to-day living, just barely getting by--until the plot kicked in, and they were thrust into a sequence of events destined to change the fate of the universe, or defeat a pseudo-Commie alien menace. Star Wars picked up on this big time with Han Solo and Chewbacca, who (snerk) kind of remind me of Mal and Jayne. (cjl runs for the hills as Adam Baldwin traces his address through his server....)

As for Buffy, I think BtVS only proves my point. Buffy Summers IS the cliche of the perky blond victim in horror movies--only she turns out to be the ass-kicking heroine, staking the vamp rather than dying prettily or waiting for big strong manly man to come along and rescue her. Joss continually subverts the horror genre in fresh and interesting ways, even into the show's seventh season. (Buffy's encounter with the vampire psychologist is textbook genre tweakage.)

"War Stories" was excellent (an understatement), mainly because it flipped all of our usual assumptions about sex roles and codes of manliness in both subgenres. Wash's insecurity, the decidedly non-sexual (but no less powerful) bond between Mal and Zoe, Inara's gorgeous female client (and Jayne discreetly retiring to his bunk), the non-starter drama of Zoe's choice, and especially, "This is something the Captain feels he has to do alone." To which Mal responds, What are you, nuts?! Get this idiot offa me!

More of that please.

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