Aristotle. Nietzsche. Buffy? The television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as well as other works by director and writer Josh Whedon, was the focus of a three-day academic conference held at Henderson State University earlier this month. The series starring Sarah Michelle Gellar won cult fame and critical praise during its seven seasons on the WB and UPN networks.
Since it ended, the series has spawned enough academic books on the philosophy surrounding the roles of friendship and feminism to fill a bookshelf stretching 4m at the college in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, US, said Kevin Durand, an associate professor of philosophy at the school.
“It has staying power,” Durand said. “It’s like I tell my students in philosophy a lot of times: We’re not so much about necessarily finding all the answers as wanting to ask better questions. Buffy, I think, does that. Buffy never really leaves you with nice, pat answers. You have even more questions than when you started.”
Durand said more than 90 academic papers were discussed at the conference. About 150 people attended and discussed the vampire slayer and Whedon’s other works, like the television series Firefly and Angel. Another point of discussion was a lesser-known part of Whedon’s work — his screenplay for the hit animated film Toy Story.
Durand, who has also contributed an academic paper at each of the two previous Buffy conferences, often focuses on how power plays into the Buffy series. He said much of the fictional heroine’s strength came from others and her willingness to work with friends in her fight against creatures of the night.(AP)
亞里斯多德、尼采還有芭菲？本月稍早，韓德森州立大學舉辦了一場為期三天的學術研討會，研討會主題是電視影集《魔法奇兵》和其他同樣由導演兼編劇喬許．威登創作的作品。由莎拉．蜜雪兒．吉蘭領銜主演的《魔法奇兵》在華納及派拉蒙電視網播出了七季，除了廣受影迷喜愛外，評論家也讚譽有加。
Buffy: What’s going on? I’ve been waiting on this corner for the last two hours, ready to slay the beast.
Sid: I think he’s still at the movie.
Buffy: It should have ended a long time ago. It was really dumb; I had to leave.
Sid: He stayed for the second showing. You shouldn’t have left the target.
Buffy: Well I didn’t know that I needed to factor in that he’s a thundering loony.
巴菲：怎麼搞得啊？我已經在這裡等了兩個小時，準備好好教訓那混帳一番。
席德：我想他還在看電影。
巴菲：電影早該結束啦。那電影真的很蠢，所以我就先出來了。
席德：他又留下來看第二次，你應該緊盯著目標才是。
巴菲：我不曉得他有這麼蠢啊。
loony 蠢蛋
A loony (or looney) is someone who is very foolish and silly. For example, “He held the balloon to his ear and popped it. Now he’s complaining that he can’t hear anything. What a loony.”
「loony」（或looney）就是一個非常愚蠢、糊塗的人，例如：「他把氣球放到耳朵旁弄破，然後才在那邊抱怨說他聽不到，真是個蠢蛋」。
美國阿肯色州阿卡德爾費亞市韓德森州立大學哲學系副教授凱文．杜蘭說，這部影集播完後，從哲學觀點探討劇中角色友誼和女權主義的學術書籍如雨後春筍般出現，數量之多足以放滿校內一排四公尺長的書架。
杜蘭說：「這部影集的熱潮持續不退。就像我常告誡我哲學系的學生說：『問好問題比得到所有答案重要得多，我認為《魔法奇兵》就是這樣；這個影集決不會乖乖幫你解謎，而是讓你看了之後產生更多疑問。』」
杜蘭說，研討會中討論了超過九十份的學術論文，將近一百五十人齊聚一堂討論《魔法奇兵》及威登的其他作品如：電視影集《螢火蟲》和《夜行天使》。會中討論的另一個重點，是威登較鮮為人知的作品──熱門動畫電影《玩具總動員》的劇本。
杜蘭自己在前兩次《魔法奇兵》研討會中各發表了一篇論文，他的論文大多著重在影集中權力的安排。他說，這位虛構女英雄的力量來自旁人，而她也樂於和朋友攜手合作，打擊暗夜妖魔。（美聯社�翻譯：袁星塵）
RSS