Hell on Earth
| Date | 01 December 2009 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0010836709344446 |
| Published date | 01 December 2009 |
| Author | Stephanie Buus |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Hell on Earth
Threats, Citizens and the State from Buffy to Beck
STEPHANIE BUUS
ABSTRACT
A number of security scholars and policy-makers now approach the
fictional narratives of popular culture as both a source of and a tool
for imagining current and future threats and risks following the ‘failure
of imagination’ that was 9/11. Building on this line of thought, this
article assumes that contemporary popular fiction may be important to
explorations of national and global security not only because elements
of the security community have begun to turn to popular fiction in
security scenario thinking and planning, but because people themselves
have long turned to the popular cultural works that surround them as
a particularly accessible source of security scenarios, thinking and even
security practices. With the help of critical literary and cultural theories
around the supernatural and crime narratology, as well as existing critical
security studies scholarship, this article examines two contemporary
popular cultural narratives, ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ from the United
States and the Martin Beck series from Sweden, and asks how each
narrative can be said to depict the new global security environment and
the notion of borderless threats. How does a popular cultural fantasy
narrative about energetic teens and demons in America’s low-welfare
‘Ownership Society’ represent the internal–external security boundary
as compared with a long-standing popular realist narrative about tired
cops and crime in Sweden’s high-welfare ‘People’s Home’? Although
such a comparison may at first seem far-fetched, in this article I argue
that comparing apples and oranges in this instance proves valuable,
since the differing fictional modes at work in ‘Buffy’ and ‘Beck’ not only
have much to say about the kinds of internal–external security images
and actors that are presented in each, but also the kind of ‘security
imagination’ that each narrative makes possible.
Keywords: culture; imagination; literary studies; security; Sweden;
United States
I designed the show to create that strong reaction, I designed Buffy to be an
icon, to be an emotional experience, to be loved in a way that other shows can’t
be loved ... I wanted people to internalize it, and make up fantasies where they
Cooperation and Conflict: Journal of the Nordic International Studies Association
Vol. 44(4): 400–419. © NISA 2009 www.nisanet.org
SAGE Publications, Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore, and Washington DC
www.sagepublications.com
0010-8367. DOI: 10.1177/0010836709344446
BUUS: HELL ON EARTH 401
were in the story, to take it home with them, for it to exist beyond the TV show
... I wanted people to embrace it in a way that exists beyond, ‘Oh, that was a
wonderful show about lawyers, let’s have dinner’.
– Josh Whedon, creator of Buffy the
Vampire Slayer, quoted in Lavery (2004)
The new crime novel demands psychological balance, realism, sociological
analysis and even social consciousness. As a result, the modern crime novel can
often be a very uncomfortable read for the person who would rather not know
how his or her society looks behind the scenes.
– Maj Sjöwall and Per Wahlöö, creators of the
Martin Beck series, quoted in Lundin (1998: 46)
Introduction
A number of security scholars and policy-makers have begun to focus more
on the ways in which the fictional narratives of popular culture, or popular
fiction, have become a source of and tool for imagining future threats and
risks following the ‘failure of imagination’ that was 9/11 (Cordesman, 2001;
Der Derian, 2001; Friedman, 2002; Weldes, 2003; 9/11 Commission, 2004;
Grusin, 2004; Nexon and Neumann, 2006; de Goede, 2008: 156, 158; Muller,
2008: 201). This turn towards pop culture suggests, on the one hand, that
popular fiction may be better equipped to evoke Rumsfeld’s ‘unknown
unknowns’, flesh out possible actors and envision potential actions than
other more traditional and recognized forms of disaster and crisis scenario
planning (Cordesman, 2001; Petro and Martin, 2006; de Goede, 2008:
157– 8; Muller, 2008: 201).1 On the other hand, such a turn suggests that
popular fiction is not merely entertainment, but is in fact capable of inducing
change in the audience — a change of mindset, a change of behaviour, or
both — when it comes to questions of risk and security (Campbell, 2003;
9/11 Commission, 2004: 346; Muller, 2008: 203–4; de Goede, 2008: 159).
This article builds upon earlier work examining the impact of culture(s)
on the formation of security policy as well as work that has applied critical
literary/cultural studies approaches to the fields of International Relations
and Security Studies, positing in this case that contemporary popular fiction
may be important to explorations of national and global security not only
because elements of the security community have begun to turn to popular
fiction in security scenario thinking and planning, but because people them-
selves are likely to turn to the popular cultural works that surround them
as a particularly accessible source of security scenarios, security thinking
and even security practices (Katzenstein, 1996; Weldes, 1999, 2003;
Der Derian, 2001; Petro and Martin, 2006; Nexon and Neumann, 2006;
de Goede, 2008; Ringmar, 2006).2 Specifically, in this article I am interested
in whether the new global security environment that scholars and policy-
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