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A review by trike
Joss Whedon: The Biography by Amy Pascale
3.0
I thought this biography was just okay. I don't do hero-worship of any kind, because no one -- and I literally mean no one -- is ever that good. That said, I do like quite a lot of what Whedon has done. I enjoy the way he crafts stories, I agree with his general outlook on life, I've liked most of the TV shows he's created and both films he's directed.
But even as a casual fan, I already knew most of the stuff in this book. There are no real revelations here, aside from his close ties to a former teacher. On that level, the book is a disappointment.
It's well-written, I'll give it that, but at the end of the book in her acknowledgements, author Pascale mentions she thought they wanted her to write a magazine article about Whedon and that is exactly what this strikes me as: a 500-page magazine article.
This is not a warts-and-all book. It's breezy and mostly surface stuff. While it is interesting to see how certain movies came together or fell apart, the interest is mild rather than intense. Disagreements are quickly swept away as if they were no matter.
It was also far less humorous than I would have expected. The humor is there in the interviews, but it's not expressed well. If you weren't already familiar with these people, you'd have no idea when they were being ironic or arch or merely jesting. That's a job for the author, to help underscore the nuance, to call out for the unfamiliar reader when an interviewee was being facetious.
If you need all this information in one place, this is the book for you. But something Whedon said about a fellow student in college applies to this book, "This guy's a puddle."
But even as a casual fan, I already knew most of the stuff in this book. There are no real revelations here, aside from his close ties to a former teacher. On that level, the book is a disappointment.
It's well-written, I'll give it that, but at the end of the book in her acknowledgements, author Pascale mentions she thought they wanted her to write a magazine article about Whedon and that is exactly what this strikes me as: a 500-page magazine article.
This is not a warts-and-all book. It's breezy and mostly surface stuff. While it is interesting to see how certain movies came together or fell apart, the interest is mild rather than intense. Disagreements are quickly swept away as if they were no matter.
It was also far less humorous than I would have expected. The humor is there in the interviews, but it's not expressed well. If you weren't already familiar with these people, you'd have no idea when they were being ironic or arch or merely jesting. That's a job for the author, to help underscore the nuance, to call out for the unfamiliar reader when an interviewee was being facetious.
If you need all this information in one place, this is the book for you. But something Whedon said about a fellow student in college applies to this book, "This guy's a puddle."