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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Wayside" data-source="post: 4609863" data-attributes="member: 8394">I think TV, movies, comics, video games, etc. just literalize some of the problems all academic critics are (or should be) dealing with at this point. Instead of a philosophical critique of the subject that makes Joe Everydude go "hwha?", we actually have multiple independent creators involved at all levels of the process,* which forces us to reexamine how we value and what we value about these texts in a more concrete and practical way. If nothing else it's a fantastic remedy to the Romantic notion of art as the spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings, the overflowing of the soul, and other such trite nonsense.The issue I see with something like the "Espensode," though, is actual document evidence of who's responsible for what. How can you be sure the characteristics you identify as Espensonian aren't really the work of Whedon or one of the other writers, actor improv, something else? (Which also makes me wonder whether one day some library will have a Buffy collection, allowing you and others to puzzle such questions out.)*Which is less common in literature, though there are still examples, like The Waste Land.Absolutely. I was thinking of production, direction, acting, editing, etc. in addition to the writing.</blockquote>