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The Avengers
The Avengers combined pop art, fashion, tradition, modernity, high Englishness, feminism, espionage, sadism, fetishism and much more. Here Toby Miller focuses upon the texts of the series, their broadcast contexts and the interpretations that followed.
199 pages, Paperback
First published September 26, 1997
About the author
Toby Miller
85 books8 followersChair of the Department of Media and Cultural Studies at University of California, Riverside. His research interests include film and TV, radio, new media, class, gender, race, sport, cultural theory, citizenship, social theory, cultural studies, political theory, cultural labor, and cultural policy. He is editor of Television & New Media and Social Identities, editor of the book series Popular Culture and Everyday Life (Lang); he has also been chair of the International Communication Association Philosophy of Communication Division; editor of Journal of Sport & Social Issues; and co-editor of Social Text, the Blackwell Cultural Theory Resource Centre, and the book series Sport and Culture (Minnesota) Film Guidebooks (Routledge) and Cultural Politics (Minnesota). Miller has taught media and cultural studies across the humanities and social sciences at the following schools: University of New South Wales, Griffith University, Murdoch University, and NYU.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 4, 2017
When I bought this book, a British friend (Hi, Neil!) warned me that the British Film Institute was pretty snooty. If this book is an example of the Institute's output, then he’s not wrong. Author Toby Miller examines the legacy of the popular 1960s British cult TV show (NOT about the Marvel super heroes, I hasten to add) in chapters labeled “History,” “Pop,” “Fashion,” “Sex,” “Genre,” “The Postmodern” and “Following.” When you see a chapter on “The Postmodern" (I HATE that term!), I guess you should know what you’re getting into, and indeed, there are a lot of five dollar words and pedantic analyses here. To give some examples, we learn in the “Postmodern” chapter that “In TV terms, the postmodern deposits us in a superfluity of screen palimpsests that are excessive for the needs and capacities of a single story” (Page 119) and that the show’s “mixing of generic conventions plays with the spatial resonances of popular fiction, pointing out their arbitrariness in the process…”(Page 130). I tell you – that Toby Miller: He shure do talk purty!
What’s odd – and, frankly, downright hilarious in my mind – is that all this intellectual hot air is devoted here to a cult TV show! Wouldn’t snooty intellectuals consider THE AVENGERS beneath notice? Why didn’t Toby Miller write his book on MASTERPIECE THEATER or on British theatrical adaptions of Shakespeare?
My own guess is that Toby Miller wrote this book, because Toby Miller is a fanboy nerd. He may be a fanboy nerd who likes to show off his fancy vocabulary, but he’s a fanboy nerd nonetheless. He backs up his assertions with examples from episodes, always providing the episode title, and demonstrates a pretty thorough knowledge of the show's history and fan base. In fact, I suspect that Miller is displaying some self-awareness when he writes the following about fan followings of cult TV shows: "Recent attempts by the professoriate to rehabilitate fans include numbering themselves among the group, lending academic textual interpretation a quaint demotic quality, licensing their own pleasures as professional acts of theory and critique, and claiming that the process is risky, even academically death defying. A vast array of conference papers, books and speaking fees suggest otherwise." (Page 146).
It may seem that I'm mocking Toby Miller and his book - and I suppose I am - but it's also true that I enjoyed reading the book quite a bit. As I noted, Miller provided plenty of concrete examples from episodes to back up his assertions, and really, the points he makes are often discussed in one form or another by many Avengers fans. Your average fan discussion just doesn't typically invoke the same type of academic language. In essence, though, this is just another way to talk about many of the same things. As I noted above, the academic presentation amused me, and if I had to look up a word definition here and there, so what? It's fun to learn new words.
Now quick - someone ask me what "palimpsest" or "demotic" mean. I know, Teacher, I know! :)
What’s odd – and, frankly, downright hilarious in my mind – is that all this intellectual hot air is devoted here to a cult TV show! Wouldn’t snooty intellectuals consider THE AVENGERS beneath notice? Why didn’t Toby Miller write his book on MASTERPIECE THEATER or on British theatrical adaptions of Shakespeare?
My own guess is that Toby Miller wrote this book, because Toby Miller is a fanboy nerd. He may be a fanboy nerd who likes to show off his fancy vocabulary, but he’s a fanboy nerd nonetheless. He backs up his assertions with examples from episodes, always providing the episode title, and demonstrates a pretty thorough knowledge of the show's history and fan base. In fact, I suspect that Miller is displaying some self-awareness when he writes the following about fan followings of cult TV shows: "Recent attempts by the professoriate to rehabilitate fans include numbering themselves among the group, lending academic textual interpretation a quaint demotic quality, licensing their own pleasures as professional acts of theory and critique, and claiming that the process is risky, even academically death defying. A vast array of conference papers, books and speaking fees suggest otherwise." (Page 146).
It may seem that I'm mocking Toby Miller and his book - and I suppose I am - but it's also true that I enjoyed reading the book quite a bit. As I noted, Miller provided plenty of concrete examples from episodes to back up his assertions, and really, the points he makes are often discussed in one form or another by many Avengers fans. Your average fan discussion just doesn't typically invoke the same type of academic language. In essence, though, this is just another way to talk about many of the same things. As I noted above, the academic presentation amused me, and if I had to look up a word definition here and there, so what? It's fun to learn new words.
Now quick - someone ask me what "palimpsest" or "demotic" mean. I know, Teacher, I know! :)
July 30, 2019
If you are like me, when you think of The Avengers you have no thought of Marvel Comics. Instead, it means John Steed and Mrs. Peel, and it always will. This book recounts the history of the show as it aired in England, and is a nice companion piece for the fan. And if The Avengers makes you think of a bunch of comic book heroes, skip this book because you will be disappointed.
December 11, 2007
read 10.15.05
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews