Weeks 10 and 11 – Buffy.

1) Q. Wilcox and Lavery (2002) identify 9 defining characteristics of 'quality TV' - can you apply any of these to other television series that you have viewed recently? Are there any other characteristics that you could add to their list?

2) What role does Hills (2004) suggest the fans play in the construction of cult TV? How is new media central to this?

3) Hills (2004) lists a number of defining characteristics of cult TV that contain similarities to the defining characteristics of pop genres (e.g. fantasy, science fiction) discussed earlier in the Pop Genres paper. Can you identify these and discuss why you think that these characteristics are repeatedly viewed as underpinning popular genres?

4) Buffy The Vampire Slayer (Cult TV Show) - How does Buffy deconstruct traditional literary notions of good and evil?

 

5) In what way is Buffy influenced by the romantic gothic tradition? Yet how does Buffy also provide a contemporary critique of this tradition?

How to construct a fanfic that doesn’t fall apart in five minutes.

1)      Know the world you set your story in well. It will show in the quality of your story

2)      Use a single point of view rather than jumping between characters. Your space to develop multiple points of view is too limited.

3)      A good way to being your story is with a sign or herald. This can be a dream, or a vision, or an unexpected event. A portent. It foreshadows later events.

4)      If your story has a mentor, try to break from the now cliché old man with beard image. Be imaginative with your mentor force.

5)      A good way to finish a story is to return in some way to the beginning, the starting point.

6)      Never finish a story with the words ‘She/he woke up and it was all a dream!’ That’s a serious let down!

7)      Use your short introduction to sketch in the context of your story (especially if it is a part of an imaginary longer story) and your approach to archetypal story patterns (Vogler)