The Philosophy of Joss Whedon by Dean A. Kowalski

The Philosophy of Joss Whedon Reviews

• 
  Eric

  I received a copy of this to review for
  Extrapolation. Below is an excerpt of my review, which was published in Issue 54.1:
  

  
  The Philosophy of Joss Whedon, which was published before the releases of The Avengers and The Cabin in the Woods, features thirteen essays that focus mostly on Whedon's post-Buffy television period, as the introduction notes "there already exist various scholarly books about Buffy." The issue of saturation does not stop the contributing authors from focusing on the 'Verse that comprises Firefly and Serenity -- which is also a well covered scholarly topic in speculative fiction -- in more than half of the essays. Despite the heavy-handed focus of Firefly, there are essays highlighting each of his works, from 'Dollhouse and Consensual Slavery,' to "'Look What Free Will Has Gotten You' / Isolation, Individuality, and Choice in Angel," and even nods to Pixar's Toy Story, the screenplay for which Whedon co-wrote...
  
  The introduction to
  The Philosophy of Joss Whedon claims it is for "Scoobies, Champions, Browncoats, and Echo-inspired former Dolls only," and while this is true, this volume is also only for serious scholars of those topics, as it is not, for the most part, written in a way to include a wider audience. Further, even scholarly readers should watch -- or, more likely, rewatch -- Joss Whedon's canon before reading it, as the essays, at many points, deconstruct the Whedonverse to a near-atomic level.
• 
  Curtis

  Some good essays on various aspects of how Whedon's stories handle various philosophical ideas, areas of study that always intrigue me.
  
  I have two relatively minor complaints. One is that a number of the essays cover the same ground, in particular existentialism and ethics. Granted, there is probably plenty to say on these topics, but there are few essays in this collection that don't mention either Nietzsche, Aristotle or Kant, and more than one mentions all three. Plato gets his share as well; the Ring of Gyges story pops up in several essays to make pretty much the same point multiple times. Props to those essayists who branch out into other areas, such as Amy H. Sturgis, who brings in Frederick Jackson Turner and Isaiah Berlin.
  
  The second complaint is that some of the essays simply don't go deep enough, and a couple even seem to ignore obvious (to me) examples that could make a stronger argument. As an example, in the final essay on the Dao of Firefly, Roger P. Ebertz does some work to bring in evidence from extra materials, including deleted scenes from the show Firefly and the canonical comic, Serenity: Better Days. However, in looking at Shepherd Book and contrasting him to Mal's character, he completely fails to reference the equally canonical Serenity: The Shepherd's Tale, which came out more than a year before this book of essays was published.
  
  All in all, though, this is a good resource for anyone interested in Whedon's work and the philosophical questions he asks through it.
• 
  Karl

  I do love Joss, and I do enjoy philosophy, but much of this book is just overstated drivel. Let me quote, "With the rejection of a metanarrative postulating a transcendent source of moral authority, and the resultant loss of conviction in human teleology, it's not altogether clear that the modern existentialist-inspired conception of freedom will prove able either to sustain itself or to provide the bulwark against moral abuses and tyrannies that some think it will."
  
  That pretty much sums up my feeling that much of academia exists only as self serving rhetoric.
• 
  Jenna

  This one was a little too heavy on the philosophy and a little too light on the Whedon for my tastes. Still, there are three essays that I may end up using in my class (although I hope the students don't ask for clarification on the philosophy part!).