Supernatural. tv

This collection of essays about the TV show Supernatural was published (or at least all of the essays were written) after season three but before season four, so it's *really* early in the show's run and thus some of the points made are laughable now (one essay makes a point about how the SPN universe contains demons but no angels. whelp.). But on the whole I really enjoyed this and found many of the essays really insightful. One on Dean as a mothering figure is great; another fascinating essay discusses how SPN uses "masculine characters to traverse a female landscape." A couple on the Impala as a third main character are interesting (apparently the state of the Impala (clean or dirty) usually reflects Dean's state of mind--neat). A few of the essays felt like filler, and one or two were just terrible--one, about Dean as the character we want to be and Sam as the character we really are, I think seriously misreads Dean, unless you stopped watching at about the midpoint of season one, and is written in a way that I think is supposed to be clever but which just made me cross. But generally I was thrilled to spend two afternoons with this, and it learned me a few things.… (altro)

In the Hunt: Unauthorized Essays on Supernatural, ed. Supernatural.tv: Okay, I’m clearly more forgiving because I’m still so in love with the show, but this collection is decent, with the kind of meta that approaches the cream of what you get on LJ. You won’t find much feminism or critical race analysis or anything like that—there are nods to the show’s expressions of homophobia and some authors admit that there might be something slightly problematic about the show’s terrible gender issues, but this collection shies away from criticism in the name of love.

I liked the essays about objects best—one on the role of the Impala, and the other on the role of the Impala, the Colt, and Ruby’s knife. They made me think about what I see as the key Impala moment, when Dean beats the shit out of it/her. That’s such a powerful moment, and those of us who like to anthropomorphize her have a hard time with it. (Here's the best I've seen done.) Dean's attack is (a) expressing self-hatred; (b) expressing his anger at his father (who gave him the car and the hunting life); (c) expressing his resentment that all he has in life is the hunt (the car is the only stable home he has, except it only works if it’s not stable, by definition, so that doesn’t work so well); (d) expressing his misogyny (we, like Dean, generally identify the car with a woman—he is attacking an object/person who cannot fight back and, we probably think, wouldn’t if she could; and of course he’s sorry after and fixes her up nice); (e) some even more complicated combination. Dean and his car concretize Dean’s issues with his father/masculinity as well as his issues with caretaking/femininity; I think that’s why to love Dean is also to love his baby.… (altro)