The E-Sylum:  Volume 5, Number 8, February 17, 2002, Article 10

BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU READ

  E. Tomlinson Fort writes: "Recently I acquired the DVD
  set of the first season my favourite TV show  -- Buffy the
  Vampire Slayer [Those snobs among you may laugh, but
  the show is regularly rated on TV critics' top 10 lists, and
  once you try it for a couple of episodes you will find yourself
  quickly hooked. New episodes are on Tuesday nights on
  UPN, the repeats are on FX weeknights].

  At any rate, the episode "I Robot ... You Jane" involves a
  demon known as Moloch the Corrupter who seduces
  innocent young teenagers to become his followers and do
  his bidding with promises of power and/or love. Naturally,
  after the followers have served their purpose he destroys
  them.   Moloch is a soulless demon, after all.

  At the beginning of the show Moloch is imprisoned in a
  book in the early fourteenth century.  He cannot be freed
  unless the book is read.

  In the late 20th century the book is scanned into a computer
  (the person doing the scanning does not know what the book
  is) and finds himself on the internet where through email he
  "seduces" some of the lonely computer Geeks at Sunnydale
  High School and a failed computer start-up to become his
  followers.

  Naturally, Buffy and the rest of Scoobies rid the beast from
  the machine and end his brief reign of terror. By using a spell
  from another book, they are able to get him out of the
  internet to the physical world where Buffy can pulverize
  him.  But, the episode points to one of the show's constant
  themes, that books can contain powerful ideas (though in this
  case ones that are not always good) and that by reading them
  one gains knowledge that can often be of great help."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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