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Date Posted: 16:23:42 12/08/02 Sun
Author: JM
Subject: Re: OK, I'm in.
In reply to: cjl 's message, "OK, I'm in." on 08:43:47 12/08/02 Sun

I put my take on the genre mixing in my so-so essay/letter posted below. I think that the important part of mixing the Western and sci-fi genres is that it allows Whedon to use the culturally powerful Western genre tropes without having to be deliberately anachronistic or ironical. That's one of the problems I've noted with recent attempts to revive the Western genre. If you want diversity and empowerment of traditionally oppressed groups, which modern audiences really do, you've either got to choose great silliness like "Maverick" or anachronisms shoehorned in like in "Young Riders" (TV series from about ten years ago). You could still have characters like Zoe, strong, ex-soldier, black woman in an inter-racial marriage, but you'd have to give some kind of explanation, and you wouldn't have the rest of the cast and everyone they come into contact with accepting her for who she is without even blinking. With the sci-fi setting, Joss can have his empowering examples of diversity, like Zoe, Wash, Kaylee, and even Book, without having to self-consciously fanwank history. In the Firefly verse people around see Zoe as a tough, scary, commanding woman who you don't argue with because she can and will kill you (unless you are Mal or Wash). Which is just the way our world should work, but doesn't yet.

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