I apparently like "Anne" a lot more than fandom does - and in fact I might even love it (1/?))

[red_satin_doll]

The first time I watched "Anne" a few months back (which I apparently enjoy more than the general fandom does?  With possible exception of norwie2010, I dare say) I remember seeing a blink-and-you'll miss it image of Buffy with a hammer and sickle and thought "Did I just see what I thought I saw?"



I didn't take it to mean that JW was espousing communism, but in the context of the imprisoned workers throwing off their masters in the factory, it was simply a clever steal and a bit of a joke.  (Or painfully obvious and on the nose, depending on your POV.) But I still love that ridiculously and I think Buffy's fight in that factory is one of her most awesome, kick-ass battles in the entire series. I hadn't been able to find a screencap of that moment until today, from http://twitter.com/whedonesque/

Of course there's the emotional context of the episode, that of Buffy is fighting to reclaim her identity after the tragedy/trauma of Becoming: "I'm Buffy, the Vampire Slayer.  And you are?" SMG is wonderful in that episode, parsing through all the layers of Buffy's emotions: numbness, grief and despair giving way to fierce determination, hope and love, leaving behind a self-imposed hermitage to reconnect with friends and family. "Anne" packs into a single episode what Season 6 takes 22 episodes to unspool; the final image of Joyce embracing her prodigal daughter will be called back in Buffy and Dawn's embrace in "Grave".

Glorious Buffy, indeed. (With apologies to norwie for stealing the phrase, and to readerjane for finding the photo.)



I have so much love for this episode I cannot contain it to one post, so....Part two of my "Anne" meta HERE.

Comments

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Great cap.

I don't think Joss is much of a marxist in political terms (though his storytelling depends a lot on Hegel and Marx with the constant thesis-antithesis-synthesis and focus on alienated and disenfranchised characters, but then whose doesn't these days). But that said, I always liked the idea that the season starts with Buffy in worker's clothes, wielding the hammer and sickle, and then features both the Mayor and the Council extensively (Buffy becomes politically aware) and ends in a people's revolution as the graduating class throw off their shackles robes (with a reversed Battleship Potyemkin homage shot, no less!). As unsubtle as the above image makes it look, it really is quite clever. And of course, the next season then makes it obvious that utopia isn't quite that easy...

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

I don't think Joss is much of a marxist in political terms

Agreed, but then again that's pretty much what "post-modern" culture has become anyway: a grab-bag, where the past is sort of a buffet to be picked over regardless of context, and sometimes it makes sense and sometimes it doesn't: "ooh lets throw this in, this works!" I'm very much reminded of Baz Luhrmann: I loved Moulin Rouge very much (and am trying to remember now why) but his work has that same grab-bag, throw it on the wall and let's see what sticks feel to it. (I personally think the final scene in the original Star Wars in much the same way: I had no idea the imagery came from Leni Riefenstahl until I was much older. But Lucas clearly wasn't saying "the rebels are fascists"; it was just an effective visual to use there, which tells me more about Lucas & Co than about the film itself.

Then again, Eisenstein said as much in his essays on film theory in the 1920's, didn't he? That the juxtaposition of shots created meaning that did not reside in individual images, therefore meaning could be altered for propaganda purposes. (though how his work is any less "propaganda" than the capitalist films he decried is beyond me, and neither here nor there anyway.)

I always liked the idea that the season starts with Buffy in worker's clothes, wielding the hammer and sickle, and then features both the Mayor and the Council extensively (Buffy becomes politically aware) and ends in a people's revolution as the graduating class throw off their shackles robes (with a reversed Battleship Potyemkin homage shot, no less!)

I hadn't really analyzed S3 to any extent, so I may need to do a rewatch in light of your comments. Something I noticed rewatching "Anne" this morning is this is the first time, that I recall, that BtVS touches on issues of class and priviledge (For instance, Xander may be "working class" compared to Buffy and Willow and Cordy, but compared to the kids on the street in LA he's extremely privileged in ways he doesn't realize.) And this theme is played out through the season via the arrival of Faith.

Visually I also noted some homages to Metropolis, which pretty much set the standard for our filmic template of "oppressed workers as cogs in the wheel of modern industry".

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Agreed, but then again that's pretty much what "post-modern" culture has become anyway: a grab-bag, where the past is sort of a buffet to be picked over regardless of context, and sometimes it makes sense and sometimes it doesn't

Agreed - and it's also part of the reason why a lot of the time, pop culture not only fails to make any truly subversive point, it cannot do it. Some iconic images have been used and re-used so many times that they have no context beyond emotional resonance and can be used for any purpose (see also the abundant use of religious imagery in Buffy). No, Lucas doesn't mean to hint that the rebels are fascists (nor did Jackson in LoTR, despite all the focus on Free Men Of The West With Pure Bloodlines), but the point is that if they had wanted to make that point, nobody would have gotten it. (See also Starship Troopers.) We identify with the lead characters, therefore they are good and right, and therefore any imagery that tells us this makes us cheer. You could argue that that in itself is a subversion, that it helps defuse the very idea of propaganda, but I'm not entirely sure that's always true, if it doesn't blind us to it instead (which is a whole other discussion, really). BtVS partly avoids that trap, at least IMO, with the (comparatively) consistent storytelling that the imagery, but...

Visually I also noted some homages to Metropolis, which pretty much set the standard for our filmic template of "oppressed workers as cogs in the wheel of modern industry".

...Anne still ends with the Shiny Special One freeing all the uneducated serfs from their subterranean hell. ;)

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

Agreed - and it's also part of the reason why a lot of the time, pop culture not only fails to make any truly subversive point, it cannot do it. Some iconic images have been used and re-used so many times that they have no context beyond emotional resonance and can be used for any purpose.

100% agreement back on this entire post. I'm not in academia, haven't been in some time, and don't know all the latest theories - but it seems to me our current era, the "post-modern" era, has very little in the way of paradigms, ideas, guiding principals that we can all our own, other than "Reuse, renew, recycle"? Even our architecture nowadays looks like someone digested all past styles, chewed it up and spat it all out.

I wonder if the internet isn't part of the problem? I love the possibilities of it - obviously or I wouldn't be writing here - but everything is just out there, totally devoid of context (like post-modern architecture). Of course, TV was there first - and I found it ironic, when I was studying film history in college (a million years ago) that the filmaking techniques that Eisenstein espoused as a reaction against capitalism have become the techniques used primarily in commercial advertising. Images strung together in quick succession, removed from their original contexts, to create an emotional response

You could argue that that in itself is a subversion, that it helps defuse the very idea of propaganda, but I'm not entirely sure that's always true, if it doesn't blind us to it instead

I think a lack of awareness, of history, and unwillingness (or inability) analyze imagery or ideas is a huge problem (to be incredibly vague and non-eloquent about it.)

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

Well, it's a tricky thing. I'm a huge fan of post-modernism in fiction, but there's no denying that it demands a lot of responsibility both of the creator and of the reader/viewer. There needs to be a critical eye on both sides for it to work.

the filmaking techniques that Eisenstein espoused as a reaction against capitalism have become the techniques used primarily in commercial advertising.

But of course. It's one of the central tricks of marketing: sell something mass-produced to people by convincing them that it makes them individuals, tell them to be rebels by following your narrative. (One of the scariest commercials I ever saw was for running shoes. It had a futuristic marathon race, where every runner was exactly alike, looked exactly alike, ran exactly alike, dressed exactly alike, all in grey in a black depressing rain... And then one of the runners suddenly started growing colours, and we saw that he was wearing THOSE running shoes, and he grew a face, and he grew his own clothes, and he smiled into the camera, every inch the superior being to the other faceless peons. ...AND THEN HE KEPT RUNNING IN THE SAME RACE. Ghaaaaa.) Hell, Eisenstein himself was selling the revolution.

[red-satin-doll.livejournal.com]

it demands a lot of responsibility both of the creator and of the reader/viewer. There needs to be a critical eye on both sides for it to work.

Very true. And it terms of critical eyes - on the audience/viewer side, I think that's harder to find than we might think. Thanks to VHS tapes, DVD's, cable TV and now the internet, we know a lot more pieces of information, we have access to a lot more of the cultural products of our age (films, pictures, recordings, etc) than any generation before us. But without context (back to that word) or an ability/willingness to analyze. And not that it's entirely our fault? Or rather, the rush and amount of images, the speed of the computer, are addictive (or why else do I sit here so many hours?), and beyond the brain's ability to process. Which I guess is the point? Don't think about it, just consume it, soak it in. (As with political ad campaigns and commercials.)

I'm actually pretty stunned by the amount of analysis fans do regarding BtVS (hell, I'm surprised how much I have to say about it). But that's just one fandom, not the general public. If religion was the opiate of the masses in Marx's day, I guess "entertainment" (video games, internet, etc) are ours.

It's one of the central tricks of marketing: sell something mass-produced to people by convincing them that it makes them individuals, tell them to be rebels by following your narrative.

The other trick is the one Betty Friedan wrote about in The Feminine Mystiqu, which is actually related, that of preying on people's negative self-esteem, on their fears and their desires to be better, to be respected, to be loved "if ONLY you use such and such a product" otherwise your life will be incomplete.

Hell, Eisenstein himself was selling the revolution.

*nods* And denial is not just a river in Egypt.

[beer-good-foamy.livejournal.com]

We identify with the lead characters, therefore they are good and right, and therefore any imagery that tells us this makes us cheer.

Quick thought ETA: This is part of the reason I love The Sopranos. The entire last season of that show turned into the writers basically telling the audience "Yes, Tony is the villain. No, he won't get caught or killed. Yes, you've been cheering for a murderous sociopath the whole time. No, we won't let you rationalise that."

[norwie2010.livejournal.com]

...Anne still ends with the Shiny Special One freeing all the uneducated serfs from their subterranean hell. ;)

Nah, you're falling victim to your own hubris. :-P

Buffy is the avantgarde of the working class, the revolutionary bolshevik (bolshe-chick? ;) party which leads the proletariat to freedom and bread...

... the "Shiny Special One" is "Metropolis" - which in itself is a product of social democratic hubris and delusions of self importance: The main failure of the social democracy has always been the wish to serve the capitalists while staying the leaders of the working class. ;-)

See? You just need to squint "right" and everything makes sense, again! :D