Yes. I agree. Sort of and with qualifications. For now I'll just say this:
There are some really great artists who just see the world well and are very good at creating a mirror of it. I actually think that does go with the complexity -- which is often the reflection of the fact that the writer fully inhabits the POVs of the various characters and doesn't try to impose an omnicient POV on anybody. That doesn't mean they aren't building meaning into their work. But it does mean that they are not likely to be building in meaning the way this debate is talking about -- namely trying to say in the text that it was good that Buffy listened to Xander and a tragedy that she missed the helicopter. Indeed I think one of Joss's main meanings is that we should never expect writers to tell us what to think of their characters. The goal is a polysemic text which completely goes against a text aimed at getting the audience to root for certain characters in certain ways.
As Rebcake points out -- the vast majority of us don't buy the "meaning" of ITW -- which makes it a bit hard to see that this was the meaning they were trying to shovel into their world.
no subject
There are some really great artists who just see the world well and are very good at creating a mirror of it. I actually think that does go with the complexity -- which is often the reflection of the fact that the writer fully inhabits the POVs of the various characters and doesn't try to impose an omnicient POV on anybody. That doesn't mean they aren't building meaning into their work. But it does mean that they are not likely to be building in meaning the way this debate is talking about -- namely trying to say in the text that it was good that Buffy listened to Xander and a tragedy that she missed the helicopter. Indeed I think one of Joss's main meanings is that we should never expect writers to tell us what to think of their characters. The goal is a polysemic text which completely goes against a text aimed at getting the audience to root for certain characters in certain ways.
As Rebcake points out -- the vast majority of us don't buy the "meaning" of ITW -- which makes it a bit hard to see that this was the meaning they were trying to shovel into their world.