The methods of Breaking bad : essays on narrative, character and ethics

225 Pages·2015·1.23 MB·English

by  Jacob Blevins

The Methods of
Breaking Bad
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The Methods of
Breaking Bad
Essays on Narrative,
Character and Ethics
Edited by JACOB BLEVINS and
DAFYDD WOOD
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina
LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA
The methods of Breaking bad : essays on narrative, character
and ethics / edited by Jacob Blevins and Dafydd Wood.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-7864-9578-8 (softcover : acid free paper) ♾
ISBN 978-1-4766-1935-4 (ebook)
1. Breaking bad (Television program : 2008– ) I. Blevins,
Jacob, 1970– editor. II. Wood, Dafydd, editor.
PN1992.77.B74M48 2015
791.45'72—dc23 2014042489
BRITISHLIBRARYCATALOGUINGDATAAREAVAILABLE
© 2015 Jacob Blevins and Dafydd Wood. All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form
or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying
or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publisher.
Front cover images © 2015 iStock/Thinkstock
Printed in the United States of America
McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com
For Carol Wood
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction(Jacob Blevins) 1
Flies and O ne-E yed Bears: The Maturation of a Genre
(Dafydd Wood) 11
Flies in the Marketplace: Nietzsche and Neoliberalism in
Breaking Bad(Jeffrey R. Di Leo) 26
What Writers Can Learn from Breaking Bad: The Risks and
Rewards of Deliberate Disorientation (Neil Connelly) 47
Our “word … is half someone else’s”: Walt and the Literary
Echoes of Whitman (Miguel E.H. S antos-N eves) 62
“Round the decay / Of that colossal wreck”: Pride and
Guilt as Narrative Emotions (Pablo Echart and
Alberto N. García) 78
Say My Name: The Fantasy of Liberated Masculinity
(Jason Landrum) 94
Patriarchy and the “Heisenberg Principle” (Philip Poe) 109
Walter White: The Psychopath to Whom We Can All
Relate? (Meron Wondemaghen) 122
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viii Table of Contents
Breaking Bad Stereotypes about Postpartum: A Case for
Skyler White (Rebecca Price Wood) 132
Breaking Health Care (Matthew A. Butkus) 147
Scientific Ethics and Breaking Bad(Ron W. Darbeau) 165
Talking ’bout Some Heisenberg: Experimenting with the
Mad Scientist (Cheryl D. Edelson) 183
Bibliography 201
About the Contributors 209
Index 211
Acknowledgments
Jacob Blevins would like to express specific thanks to his wife Alison and
his friend Lisa Tauzin for providing support during the trauma of Breaking
Bad’s final season. He also owes thanks to three graduate students, Robert
Beard, Luci Mireles and Katya Cummins, all of whom wrote research papers
on Breaking Badand at least partially planted the seeds for putting together
a volume of essays.
Dafydd Wood would like to thank his children for frequently giving him
time to work on the volume and watch the series. And, most important, he
would like to thank his wife with whom he watched the series, from the pilot
episode to “Felina.”
Together, the editors would like thank all the contributors for their hard
work, insight, and willingness to put up with (and largely adhere to) the dead-
lines and consider the editorial comments we have made through the process
of putting this manuscript together. We really could not be happier. Finally,
as coeditors of this volume, we are also both very pleased and feel very fortu-
nate to have had the opportunity to work with one another on this book. It
has been a tremendous partnership and an editorial relationship we hope leads
to other projects.
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