The Philosophy of Joss Whedon

by Dean A. Kowalski (Editor), S. Evan Kreider (Editor)

Overview

Every generation produces a counterculture icon. Joss Whedon, creator of the long-running television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer, is famed for his subversive wit, rich characters, and extraordinary plotlines. His renown has only grown with subsequent creations, including Angel, Firefly, Dollhouse, and the innovative online series Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog. Through premises as unusual as a supernatural detective agency run by a vampire and a Western set in outer space, Whedon weaves stories about characters forced to make commonplace moral decisions under the most bizarre of circumstances. The Philosophy of Joss Whedon examines Whedon's plots and characterizations to reveal their philosophical takes on the limits of personal freedom, sexual morality, radical evil, and Daoism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780813139975
Publisher:	University Press of Kentucky
Publication date:	01/27/2012
Series:	The Philosophy of Popular Culture
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	248
File size:	2 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Dean A. Kowalski, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha, is editor of The Philosophy of The X-Files and Steven Spielberg and Philosophy: We're Gonna Need a Bigger Book. He lives in Waukesha, Wisconsin. S. Evan Kreider, assistant professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Fox Valley, is a contributor to The Philosophy of The X-Files. He lives in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Dean A. Kowalski is associate professor of philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha. He is editor of The Philosophy of The X-Files and author of Classic Questions and Contemporary Film: An Introduction to Philosophy.

Table of Contents

Firefly and Freedom
Just Get Us a Little Further': Liberty and the Frontier in Firefly and Serenity
The State of Nature and Social Contracts on Spaceship Serenity
Dollhouse and Consensual Slavery
Plato, Aristotle, and Joss on Being Horrible
Aristotle, Kant, Spike, and Jayne: Ethics and Character in the Whedonverse
Companions, Dolls, and Whores: Joss Whedon on Sex and Prostitution
Fashioning Feminism: Whedon, Women, and Wardrobe
Heroes and Villains: Morality, The Will to Power, and the Overman in the Work of Joss Whedon
Seeking Authenticity in the Whedonverse
'Look What Free Will Has Gotten You': Isolation, Individuality, and Choice in the Whedonverse
Aiming to Misbehave at the Boundary between the Human and the Machine: The Queer Steampunk Ecology of Joss Whedon's Firefly and Serenity
Shepherd Book, Malcolm Reynolds, and the Dao of the Firefly

Editorial Reviews

"A significant contribution to the popular culture and philosophy genre in focusing, not on a single show or movie, but on the mastermind behind a number of creative works."—Sharon Kaye, editor of Lost and Philosophy: Think Together, Die Alone

From the Publisher

"Joss Whedon's work isn't merely a useful vehicle for teaching philosophy; it is philosophy. The authors in this collection exploit this fact by both using Whedon's work to explicate major philosophical themes, while also delving into the Whedonverse to find new answers to perennial questions."—Jacob M. Held, editor of Dr. Seuss and Philosophy: Oh, the Thinks You Can Think!

Jacob Held