Buffy 5x11-5x13

[oyceter]

I ventured into a new corner of the store that I hadn't paid much attention to before, and now I have about ten more books on my to-read list ;). Lit crit! Whoo! And the store actually has some good, meaty academic stuff, unlike the Borders I keep checking out. I think it's because a good deal of Stanford students sell back their books here or

Comments

[angeyja]

I love season 5.. obvious that I would, I guess. 2&3 too but that's romantic love; 5 is more real to me.

But I found Alice Walker's In Search of Our Mother's Gardens and another book by her, along with quite a few by Carolyn Heilbrun. And something called Virginal Sexuality and Textuality in Victorian Literature.

I'll be interested to hear what you make of the first two (or rather the Walker and Heilbrun.) The next one reminds me, have you seen misia's journal?

[oyceter]

Eep, I just realized I never saw this comment!

I adore S5, and so far, watching new episodes and rewatching old S5 episodes are still immensely satisfying for me. I'm still amazed that the beginning few episodes of the season are so weighty! Plus, S5 holds a special place in my heart because they were the first episodes I started downloading ^_^.

Misia? No, not at all... is she/he on LJ? I just started on the Walker, but nonfiction takes me a while to get through, sigh...

[ponygirl2000]

I actually liked Riley in Into The Woods more than I ever had before, maybe because it struck me that he was failing so spectacularly. Even watching it the first time it didn't seem to me to be about one person being wrong or right, just two people being really wrong for each other. The Xander/Anya stuff I was also ok with (and at this time I couldn't stand Anya) because throughout the episode everyone was commenting on the wrongness of their relationship but Xander's speech at the end showed that they were actually two people who worked.

I agree Triangle's slapsticky approach to Buffy gets a bit grating. I see it as laying groundwork for Intervention and the Gift - she's more about questioning her ability to love rather than really mourning Riley so I'm ok with it.

And it's like ITW is this giant divide in S5 -- because suddenly, Spike is likeable again.

Oh yes! There's that moment after Spike shows Buffy where Riley has been and he follows her, clearly with a speech he'd been planning and then just stops when he sees the look

[angeyja]

And I liked Riley a good bit more than most seem to, at least, I thought the character made sense conceptually, and I never understood the negativity he seemed to evoke. (I mean I understood it theorectically, I just couldn't feel it.)

I actually liked Riley in Into The Woods more than I ever had before, maybe because it struck me that he was failing so spectacularly. Even watching it the first time it didn't seem to me to be about one person being wrong or right, just two people being really wrong for each other.*nod* And how you can rebound into the opposite, not seeing the person, and realize that still all wrong...it made a lot of sense to me in terms of having gone through one thing and thinking then that you wanted something different. I always felt for Riley as someone who was just way out of his depth, and I think if I had any disappointment it was in the Season 6 ep, as I would have liked the idea that as painful as the Buffy years ended up there might have been a change after that. And I did enjoy some of the early

[ponygirl2000]

Mmm. And Spike on the other hand was someone that I came to actually like and care about as a character (unlike Riley or Angel who I understood as characters but didn't really care about..*grin* well, I was pretty fond of Angelus and the whole gruesome foursome for that matter.)

Very well put. There are some characters I can appreciate the construction of completely but just not like them very much. Riley as the right guy who has it all together isn't someone I'd want to spend a lot of time on - Riley as the guy struggling to define himself and finding his inner life lacking, now that's interesting. The scene between Spike and Riley in ITW is probably my pinnacle of Riley-like. It was a moment of connection over seeing your own limitations. Part of the reason I disliked AYW so much is that it seemed to celebrate Riley's decision not to stretch his limits and ideas of self.

[angeyja]

*nod* Riley as plot device.

[oyceter]

It really did! And she wrote another book, Ethnomathematics, earlier as well. There have been a few giant math buys at the store lately so I've been looking up tons of math resources for high school teachers, and despite my complete lack of talent in the area, it's arousing my interest.