Veronica vs Buffy: Mind vs Emotion?

[james_davis_nicoll]

That's a grossly simplified summary of this entry over on resolute's LJ. Go read it.

If I were David Brin, I would use this as a springboard to show how this mean Veronica = Civilization and all that is good, whereas Buffy = the shadowy menace of irrationality. Note that Veronica and her father's snoopiness clearly is a metaphor for the Transparent Society.

Comments

[gjules.livejournal.com]

I... don't think I'd want to argue for Wallace as a thoughtful schemer. But the rest of it is right on. The bit about Willow, especially.

Come to think of it, it's amusing that Xander, the "heart" of the group, was possibly the most self-aware of the bunch, especially toward the end. (His talk with Dawn at the end of The Potential being one of the more obvious examples.)

[james-nicoll.livejournal.com]

I wonder if there is a subtext on Vernonica that unthinking reaction = finding one's self nose deep in excrement, with a case of the hiccups coming on, helps explain why VM's ratings are so awful? If I recall correctly, VM's best season was S1, with 2.5 million
viewers. Buffy, which embraces the feel but not the think [1], never was lower that 2.7 million and hit a high of 4.1 million.

1: See, for example, what happens to thinkers like Wesley.