Riess, Jana. San
Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2004. xviii + 183 pp., $14.95 (USD). ISBN:
0-7879-6922-2 (paper).
[1] No one would be surprised to
hear that a television show like Joss Whedon’s Buffy the Vampire Slayer has a strong cult following. Some might be
surprised, however, to find out just how many academics are members of this
particular cult—confirmed by even a cursory glance at the contents of Slayage:
The Online International Journal of Buffy Studies. Jana Riess is herself a scholar of religion, and so she brings her
knowledge of various religious traditions to bear on seven seasons’ worth of
happenings in the Buffyverse, with an occasional reference to the Buffy
spin-off, Angel. Readers of her What
Would Buffy Do? will be struck by her love
and appreciation for Buffy the Vampire Slayer as well as by her many spiritual insights and her
clear and witty prose. First and foremost, this is a book for Buffy fans who
want to think more deeply about the show and about how it might connect to
their moral and spiritual lives.
[2] Riess’s book is organized in
three section. The first (“Personal Spirituality”) addresses spiritual
journey, using the lives of the dramatis personae of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to discuss the nature and importance of self-sacrifice, change, death,
anger, and humor. Riess focuses on how something we might regard negatively
can be a valuable feature of human life: we should embrace the changes life
brings; anger and sarcasm are sometimes good things; and death does not ruin
our lives, but rather provides life with meaning and purpose. Given the
drastic changes undergone by some of the show’s characters, and given that they
risk their lives in nearly every episode, Buffy and her friends give Riess
plenty to talk about here.
[3] One of the enduring themes of Buffy
the Vampire Slayer is that Buffy cannot do
her job by herself. When she tries, she often fails and inevitably makes
herself and her friends miserable. Buffy gradually comes to realize this, and
in the series finale she has Willow cast a spell to share her slayer power
among a whole new generation of slayers. Naturally, then, in the second part
of the book (“Companions on the Journey”) Riess argues that we ought to move
through life not individually but in community. She analyzes the complicated
web of relationships between the show’s dramatis personae and explores the idea of spiritual mentoring by
examining Buffy’s relationship with her Watcher and sometimes father-figure,
Giles.
[4] Buffy’s tombstone at the end
of Season Five famously reads “She saved the world. A lot.” Thus, the third
part of Riess’s book is called “Saving the World.” Predictably, Buffy and her
friends save the world from various “Big Bads,” including vampires, demons, and
gods. But as Riess points out, our heroes also battle with the darkness inside
themselves. Riess points out that Whedon’s characters are forced to face the
consequences of their actions and that they must atone for their mistakes by
doing good deeds. No vicarious salvation here. For example, both of the
show’s “good” vampires, Angel and Spike, see their fight against evil as a way
of atoning for centuries of wrongdoing.
[5] Riess’s work is wide-ranging;
nearly every interesting question about human life shows up somewhere. And she
effectively demonstrates how Buffy’s world is like our own in many ways,
vampires, werewolves, demons, and witches notwithstanding. People are
complicated; it is both inaccurate and unsafe to think of someone as simply a
hero or a villain. Life is hard, and messy, and sometimes it just does not
make sense, but friendship goes a long way in helping one to get through.
These are not revolutionary ideas, of course, but they are important ones and
they are close to the heart of the show.
[6] While organized religion is
often one of Whedon’s targets—as Buffy famously quips in one episode,
“Note to self: Religion freaky”—Riess observes that this is a very
spiritual show. In fact, as Riess helps us to see, Buffy the Vampire Slayer does quite a nice job of depicting the
tradition-less, eclectic, and moralistic spirituality that characterizes many
people today.
[7] What Would Buffy Do? concludes with various supplementary materials, most
notably an episode guide and a character guide that might prove helpful to
those who have been away from the Scooby gang for a while. These guides are
especially valuable because of their approach: Riess’s narrative accounts of
each season and each major character focus carefully on the spiritual themes
she traces throughout the book. Also included is an interview with Eliza
Dushku, the actor who portrayed the character of Faith, who begins as a
replacement Slayer—during one of Buffy’s two (temporary) deaths—and
who at various points serves as Buffy’s friend, rival, and even her enemy.
Riess’s book is fundamentally about Buffy the Vampire Slayer; the television show is not at all a mere pretext
for Riess to talk about her religious beliefs, as is unfortunately the case
with some books in this genre.
[8] The title of Riess’s book (a
play on the infamous WWJD formula) is somewhat unfortunate, since it may
wrongly suggest to some people that what they will find within is an
evangelical Christian treatment of Buffy. In fact, Riess makes more Buddhist
connections to the show than Christian ones. But anyone interested in thinking
about how a popular culture phenomenon can shed light on the struggle to live
an admirable and meaningful life—especially anyone with any interest at
all in Joss Whedon’s world of Sunnydale—has a very good reason not to
judge this book by its cover.
Randall M. Jensen
Northwestern College
(IA)
rjensen@nwciowa.edu
