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“Hey, Respect the Narrative Flow Much?”: Problematic Storytelling in Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- Syracuse University Press
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84 “Hey, Respect the Narrative Flow Much?” Problematic Storytelling in Buffy the Vampire Slayer R I C H A R D S . A L B R I G H T Buffy the Vampire Slayer is replete with scenes that depict characters telling stories to each other, stories embedded within the narrative arc of the series itself.1 Series creator Joss Whedon has said that “stories are sacred” and that he believes in a “religion in narrative” (Lavery and Burkhead 2011, 57, 28). He has also said that “stories are made of other stories,” so it is fitting that he would embed stories within stories, in the tradition of Boccaccio’s Decameron , Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, and the Thousand and One Nights (Whedon 2005b, 30).2 Yet despite their frequency in Buffy, a surprising number of these narrative situations are problematic, with their stories narrated reluctantly or not at all, marred by interruption, openly disparaged, or resulting in adverse consequences.3 The series seems to exhibit a noticeable lack of respect for narrative flow, to borrow Willow’s words when she protests Anya’s interruption of her story in the teaser to “Doublemeat Palace” (6.12); or perhaps Whedon’s respect for narrative is more akin to that of Laurence Sterne, who famously mocked narrative conventions in Tristram Shandy. Narrative in Buffy has previously been analyzed at the level of the episode, multiepisode story arc, season, and series, most notably by David Lavery. Applying Frank Kermode’s theories of narrative, in which we use fiction as one means of satisfying our desire for “the sense of an ending” that is missing 1. An early version of this essay was presented at SCW2: The Slayage Conference on the Whedonverses, Gordon College, Barnesville, Georgia (May 26–28, 2006). 2. See Wilcox, this volume. 3. Of course, interruptions and disparagements are common in some of the classic narratives I mentioned, as for example, the conflict between the Miller and the Reeve in The Canterbury Tales. Problematic Storytelling ✴ 85 from our lives, Lavery has analyzed the different levels of closure attained by the endings of various Buffy episodes, using categories such as “Cliffhangery,” “Partial Closurey,” “Foreshadowy,” and “Set-Uppy” (2003, para. 4). As Lavery argues, the series as a whole provides an ending that satisfies our expectations . But below this macro level, the stories that the characters tell each other are often fragmented and lacking coherence, just as beneath the apparent order of the material universe lies the subatomic world of quantum uncertainty. The embedded stories in Buffy provide a realistic texture; they resemble the kind of narrative incoherence that often characterizes our own lives, contributing to our desire to impose order upon chaos; and they remind us that any sense of closure we might enjoy at the level of the episode or series is a construct. I want to explore the way Buffy the Vampire Slayer employs acts of storytelling within episodes in order to contest the narrative coherence that is achieved at the episode or season level, as well as to advance plot elements and develop characters, and to examine some of the features of the language that the characters use in their storytelling. I am not concerned with simple flashbacks, such as the depiction of Angel’s backstory in Parts 1 and 2 of “Becoming” (2.21–2.22) or Anya’s backstory in “Selfless” (7.5), because those past events are not narrated by the characters themselves, or with the voice-overs that occur in a limited number of episodes.4 As a means of gaining insight into the nature of Whedon’s narrative religion, I will focus on four episodes that emphasize, and raise important questions about, storytelling: “Faith, Hope, and Trick” (3.3), written by David Greenwalt; “The Zeppo” (3.13), written by Dan Vebber; “Fool for Love” (5.7), written by Douglas Petrie; and “Normal Again” (6.17), written by Diego Gutierrez. Although these episodes were written by different authors, we must remember that Joss Whedon is very much the auteur of the series, remarking that “once the writers are done, I rewrite every script” (quoted in Lavery 2002b, para. 10). “Faith, Hope, and Trick”: Good Storytelling “Faith, Hope, and Trick” is best remembered for introducing Faith. Yet this episode is also remarkable for its emphasis on storytelling. Not only are the narrative instances numerous, but the Scoobies frequently comment on the 4. Obvious examples are the “In every generation” voice-overs used at the beginning of Season...