(8) Highschool is Hell

After reading “Highschool is Hell,” I was impressed by the thoroughness and the depth of its analysis, and inspired to make my research paper just as deep. The article covered all relevant points of the writer’s main argument, and communicated them clearly. When I first watched Buffy, I was not too sure if I wanted to use one of its episodes for my academic research paper because I couldn’t really pinpoint the important argument it was making with all those vampires and demons. I didn’t immediately relate it to the real world problems that the article mentioned, but after reading it, it is a lot clearer to me now. I think that the science fiction genre serves as an outlet to indirectly tackle real life issues, but addresses them in a way that would entertain viewers, because of its incorporation of the supernatural elements. Some of the issues covered in Buffy were exaggerated or displayed in a way that metaphorically represented situations in real life, but was left to the interpretation of the viewers. Science fiction utilizes metaphors to get their message across, while still keeping the interest of the viewers. I plan to use this perspective when I tackle my own science fiction episode, and try to identify the real life issues being represented by the supernatural creatures, the metaphors used, and the situations that develop in the episode. As a viewer myself, my own interpretation of the episode would depend on how I relate to it personally because of my own experiences and knowledge.