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2003-05-21 - 8:52 a.m.

Fangs and Farewell

Last night was the final episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Yes, I am a rampant Buffy fan. Don�t be shocked. Like Hermoine, I love books and cleverness.

In fact, listening to NPR last week, I learned there is a wide following among academics, so much so there is a rapidly increasing work in 'Buffy Studies', including an international online journal called Slayage.

Gen, can you believe there are college textbooks written on Buffy?

Hmmm, says Gen patiently.

It does make a certain amount of sense, I suppose, for a show that constantly deals with mythic themes. The pop culture of the 17th century is now our great literature. And the great American novel is certainly waning in the 21st century as more and more writers turn to the richer storytelling medium of tv and film.?

Hmmm, says Gen patiently.

Poor Gen.

She still let me watch Buffy with her and debate subtexts. What a good friend. She makes me laugh and smacks me down when I need it.

There is more thought, humor, pathos and depth in Buffy than almost all the shows on television - writing like this has certainly ruined me for the endless sitcoms churned out by the networks.

Take interesting characters, with strengths and flaws. Toss them into intense situations to test their metal. Add iconic characters representing the darkness and light of human psyche (you usually need a sociopath to do this in regular drama). Give those characters depth and philosophy, and what was parading about as a witty horror show is casually and cruelly dissecting our species. And making you laugh you ass off.

It also avoided two of Star Trek�s oft fatal errors � the lack of consequences (Everyone will be fine by the beginning of the next show, except for a few nameless security officers) and preaching that the human way was always the best way. (I don�t think they ever stopped to notice the prime directive, not when they could convince a race that their entire society would be improve with the infection of a bit of humanity. Maybe they just had good music they needed to put with all those emotional Trek finishes.)

Yes, my high school English teacher did, in fact, try to get me to date her son.

Don't knock it till you've watched it. BtVS certainly enjoys a wide fan base.

Get this bit from yesterday�s Washington Post:

"...devotees were nevertheless shocked when they discovered that national security analyst Anthony H. Cordesman had written a treatise on "Biological Warfare and the 'Buffy' Paradigm." "We thought it was mind-boggling that he had watched 'Buffy,' much less heard of the show," Lavery adds.

Cordesman, chairman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a regular pundit on ABC News, says, "I was trying to explain modern warfare to people who seem to be incapable of understanding the subject. It is a fairly esoteric, difficult topic, so I thought if I related it to something in pop culture, it would be more easily understood."

His point: We don't have the slightest idea what threats might be coming our way. " 'Buffy' deals with uncertainty and the grim side of life better in some ways than many experts in national security," he adds."

I will miss the show immensely, but it had reached a natural endpoint.

And the ending kicked ass.

And they are releasing them all on DVD.


Anyway, back to the rigid body dynamics and jitter estimate, cause there is the coolest paper about power spectral density estimation of command quanitization on my desk. Probability theory is so adorable when it�s useful.

Scribble to Theo

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