Abstract
Faërian Drama is a term developed by J.R.R. Tolkien in his essay “On Fairy-stories,” which he describes as plays which the elves present to men, with a “realism and immediacy beyond the compass of any human mechanism,” where the viewer feels he is “bodily inside its Secondary World” but instead is “in a dream that some other mind is weaving” (63-64). Smith of Wootton Major is a prime example from his own writing; other examples of the genre include A Christmas Carol or the movie Groundhog Day. When we read or view a work containing an example of faërian drama, we add a metafictional layer to the story: we are (or become) aware that the actor or character is experiencing the faërian drama, and part of our engagement as an audience rests in the tense anticipation of whether the character will realize she is in a faërian drama or not. A number of episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer exhibit some characteristics of faërian drama: for example, “The Wish” (3.9) takes Cordelia into a world where Buffy never came to Sunnydale; “The Replacement” (5.3) lets Xander see what his life might be life without his insecurities; in “Hell’s Bells” (6.16) Xander is granted a distorted vision of his future life with Anya, and Anya experiences an opposing vision in “Selfless” (7.5). In this talk I will concentrate on “Normal Again” (6.17), a problematic episode which takes the Faërian drama idea in unexpected directions. Buffy is presented as an institutionalized mental patient lost in delusions of being the Slayer and being pressured to give up this fantasy life and join the “real” world. The ambiguity of the ending presents an unusual twist: the participant in the faërian drama chooses to stay within the fantasy world.