Just Looking ...

Early on in the series Spike is portrayed as a ruthless vampire who seeks to fulfill his mechanical death drive. He desires to kill Buffy in particular, except he is not able to do so as a result of a chip that is implanted in his brain. Since this chip renders him incapable of killing humans, he is stripped of his drive and hence goes on to project his desire on another object in order to continue to exist. This object turns out to be Buffy herself, whom he now comes to love. Unfortunately, Buffy does not share the same sentiment and once again, Spike is devoid of desire. He then goes on to project his death drive onto himself and seeks closure in being able to rest peacefully in his grave. According to Zizek, the living dead arise “because they were not properly buried”, and in this context, it is not far-fetched for Spike to desire being buried six-feet under. With a sudden twist of events, Buffy does reciprocate his feelings and his vampire drive for death is subdued.

Buffy, a human, who dies while trying to protect her sister, is revived in order to fulfill her role as the vampire slayer. Since she only does as she is told by her mentor, Giles, who is a member of an organization that combats malevolent supernatural entities, it would be safe to say that she plays an important role in maintaining the order of things in the symbolic world. She is very well aware that she is being used for a purpose and since she does not know much about Giles’ organization, she finds it difficult to remain motivated.

While Buffy would be considered a living dead as per Lacan, she does not possess the drive which is characteristic of one “between the two deaths”. Although she is expected to combat and slay supernatural entities, she does not exist by the death drive. She wants to fill in that void in her life and seeks something of an objet petit a so that she can continue to exist. Since she functions as part of the symbolic order, it appears that she desires something that has nothing to do with the symbolic order and this would explain her attraction to Spike.

Thus, while Spike and Buffy would be expected to live again only to fulfill their persistent drive, neither of them do so. Both of them are actually driven to seek an object of desire, and in achieving so, they continue their existence.

# posted by Vorcus @ 1:45 AM