Power of Becoming

Buffy the Vampire Slayer is not “just” a television show. It is part of the process whereby television as an artistic medium is finally coming into its own in the world of Great Literature.

So what is Great Literature? As we learn in our first high-school literature courses, to qualify as Great Literature the events of the story must cause the main character to change inwardly, emotionally, either to be shattered or strengthened by the events. The characters learn lessons and become different people.

Great Literature is also identified by the effect on the reader–that the reader feels the characters’ emotions and understands the impact of the lessons on the character–understands inwardly how it comes about that this kind of person becomes that kind of person because of the events in the story. Thus the work is memorable. The characters’ journeys of becoming are indelibly stamped upon the reader’s mind.

Beyond that, to … read more»