The existential Joss Whedon : evil and human freedom in Buffy the vampire slayer, Angel, Firefly and Serenity

Overall a good analysis of Whedon's Buffyverse and Firefly 'Verse from an understanding of existentialist philosophy, especially in terms of ethics and individual freedom. Given Whedon's own statements about the influence of Sartre's [b: Nausea|30660963|NAUSEA|Audit Chaos|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1466479870l/30660963.SX50.jpg|51206956] and Camus' [b: The Myth of Sisyphus|10486925|The Myth of Sisyphus/The Outsider/The Plague/The Rebel|Albert Camus|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1356458415l/10486925.SY75.jpg|15392441], the premise isn't a terrible stretch to begin with, but Richardson and Rabb do a good job of fleshing it out.

I was a bit perplexed by the authors' occasional disparaging remarks about "rugged individualism" and the claim, with little discussion, that Whedon's works critique it in favor of a communitarian existentialist ethic. In general, I object because, despite their careful and succinct definitions of various philosophical viewpoints throughout the book, the authors decline to define "rugged individualism" in any meaningful way, instead leaving it to the reader to make some guesses as to what they mean through the application of a few examples. But these very examples lead to the particular objections I have, which is that they do not actually exemplify any kind of "rugged individualism" of which I am aware. Take, for example, the example "Bad Faith" in Buffy Season 3, whom R&R call "almost a paradigm of the American rugged individualist" because she "is totally self-reliant, needing no one, doesn't let the rules or authority figures get in the way, and receives an almost erotic pleasure out of practically anything she does" (p. 52). Faith's destructive rampage and callous attitudes toward the human death(s) she causes is certainly not in line with any sort of rugged individualism with which I am familiar; indeed, it has much more in common with Ethan Rayne's worship of Chaos than anything else. Faith's "individualism," if that is what it is, also is clearly unsustainable, in that she almost immediately chooses to place her power and responsibility in the hands of Mayor Richard Wilkins III—the Big Bad of the season and a symbol of corrupt and absolute authority in Sunnydale—which hardly seems like something a "totally self-reliant" person, someone who "need[s] no one" and "doesn't let the rules or authority get in the way," would do. Whatever the "rugged individualism" is that R&R see as incompatible with existentialist ethics in Whedon's, at best it can only be a base caricature of any real individualist philosophy.

(I would also argue out that "communitarian" and "rugged individualism" are not necessarily wholly incompatible. Even that perennially divisive epic of individualism, Ayn Rand's [b: Atlas Shrugged|16161799|Atlas Shrugged Again|Louella Nelson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1353648975l/16161799.SX50.jpg|22003763] [of which I am not particularly a fan], is in distillation a story about a group of societal misfits and rejects who come together to form their own community where they can live how they see fit. It is, in this light, not far from the Whedonesque idea that family is who we choose, rather than who we are born to.)

One other minor annoyance was the oft-repeated description of The Master, Buffy Season 1's Big Bad, as an übervamp, which is clearly just incorrect.