Investigating Firefly and Serenity Science Fiction on the Frontier

by Wilcox, Rhonda V.; Cochran, Tanya R.

• ISBN13: 9781845116545
• ISBN10: 1845116542
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-09-15
• Publisher: I. B. Tauris

Summary

The first definitive guide to both the remarkable Space Western Firefly and its major film spin-off Serenity , this book offers an in-depth and comprehensive look at the TV phenomenon kept alive by the fans. The brain child of Joss Whedon--of Buffy the Vampire Sl ayer and Angel fame-- Firefly ran for twelve hour-long episodes before being cancelled by the network. But this premature burial had a remarkable outcome: resurrection. The fans--self-named Browncoats--kept multiplying, the DVDs kept selling and the show forged a new life on the internet, sustained by blogs, fan-fics and podcasts. Films, meetings and conferences ensured their numbers increased, as did the release of the major Firefly motion picture Serenity . From detailed chapters on scenes and themes, through to explorations of the characters, actors, music, and, of course, the fans, Investigating Firefly and Serenity tells readers everything they need to know about the show and more. With contributions from over twenty of the best international Whedon scholars, TV & film critics, and writers, it will become the must-have book for followers of the series/film, for fans of Joss Whedon and his work, and anyone with an interest in the modern phenomenon of cult TV and the remarkable power of the internet.

Author Biography

Rhonda V. Wilcox is Professor of English, Gordon College, Barnesville, GA and author of Why Buffy Matters: The Art of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (I.B. Tauris, 2005). She is co-editor, with David Lavery, of Fighting the Forces: What's at Stake in 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and online editor of the International Journal of Buffy Studies, Slayage.



Tanya Cochran is both a doctoral candidate at Georgia State University and Assistant Professor of English at Union College, Lincoln, NE.  She is currently Vice Chair of Science Fiction and Fantasy for the American Popular Culture Association.

Table of Contents

Introduction
'Good Myth': Joss Whedon's Further Worlds	p. 1
'They Tried to Kill Us, and Here We Are': Episode and Film Guide	p. 11
Language and Rhetoric
'But She Was Naked! And All Articulate!': The Rhetoric of Seduction in Firefly	p. 19
Representing the Future: Chinese and Codeswitching in Firefly	p. 31
'Much Madness is Divinest Sense': Firefly's 'Big Damn Heroes' and Little Witches	p. 41
Gender
The Threat of the 'Good Wife': Feminism, Postfeminism, and Third-Wave Feminism in Firefly	p. 53
The Companions and Socrates: Is Inara a Hetaera?	p. 63
'I Aim to Misbehave': Masculinities in the 'Verse	p. 76
Genre
'The Alliance Isn't Some Evil Empire': Dystopia in Joss Whedon's Firefly/Serenity	p. 89
Back to the Future: Retrofuturism, Cyberpunk, and Humanity in Firefly and Serenity	p. 101
Firefly's 'Out of Gas': Genre Echoes and the Hero's Journey	p. 114
Social and Cultural Themes
Reavers and Redskins: Creating the Frontier Savage	p. 127
A Geopolitical Interpretation of Serenity	p. 139
Religion and Morality
'I Do Not Hold to That': Joss Whedon and Original Sin	p. 155
Humanity in a 'Place of Nothin": Morality, Religion, Atheism, and Possibility in Firefly	p. 167
Music
Music, Race, and Paradoxes of Representation: Jubal Early's Musical Motif of Barbarism in 'Objects in Space'	p. 183
Marching Out of Step: Music and Otherness in the Firefly/Serenity Saga	p. 191
Visuals
Between Past and Future: Hybrid Design Style in Firefly and Serenity	p. 201
Deathly Serious: Mortality, Morality, and the Miseen-Scene in Firefly and Serenity	p. 212
Fans, Transition, and the World Outside
'Can't Stop the Signal': The Resurrection/Regeneration of Serenity	p. 227
The Browncoats Are Coming! Firefly, Serenity, and Fan Activism	p. 239
Notes	p. 251
Works Cited	p. 267
Index	p. 283
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.