Okay. Want to wrap this up and move on. Just a quick aside. If you're going to take the steps down to Tower Beach, give yourself more than 15 minutes to climb back up them. Seriously.
Started last day of Slayage with Keynote 3, Tamy Burnett. "I've Got These Evil Hand Issues": Amputation, Identity & Agency in Angel. Was a very interesting exploration, especially of the characters of Lindsey and Spike and how they differed in dealing with losing a limb/s, how a difference between them in levels of accepting responsibility and agency allowed Spike to shift from a villain to a champion while Lindsey could not follow suit. A lot of interesting ideas that I'm barely touching upon. And the author is working with others on a book to explore some of them more fully. I look forward to that.
My choice of morning panel turned out to be a nice one in terms of continuing on a theme. The Body and Sex in the Whedonverses. Bronwen Calvert talked about body swapping and links between identity and the body. Viv Burr spoke about the connection between imagery of torture, crucifixion and sex in Buffy and in general with reference to Sartre's ideas of subject/object. Lewis Call gave a great paper on "That Weird, Unbearable Delight": Representations of Alternative Sexualities in Joss Whedon's Astonishing X-Men. He talked about Kitty/Rasputin, Emma/Scott, and McCoy/Brand especially. Talking about small m minority sexualities and how they're given positive expression in these relationships. Really fascinating stuff. It was a fun panel.
Took the UBC film tour at lunch with Ian Klein, Nikki Stafford, Rhonda Wilcox, Dale Koontz, Ensley Guffey, Nancy Holder and Alysa Hornick. Then skipped the WSA meeting to eat lunch at a burger joint on campus. Their sweet potato fries had cajun seasoning. Perfect.
Afternoon. Made the hard decision to not watch Natstev present her Firefly paper because I really wanted to hear Stacey Abbott talk about Tim Minear. Was a good panel. I tweeted about it and, since she used Minear's twitter name in the title, he saw the tweet and responded to it. That was fun. And actually Mo Tancharoen tweeted at a couple of us about how Slayage went, so of course now I'm totally famous. Hobnobbing with the rich and powerful and all. Why am I talking to you people?
Back to reality. Also heard a talk by Tamara Wilson comparing and contrasting OMWF and Milton's Comus. Since I don't know Comus, it was hard to keep up, but a very interesting piece. And presenter made some witty jokes throughout as well. Abbott is one of a few people that after the fact expressed concern about live tweeting of paper presentations, so I won't go into detail here about her talk on Minear. I'm sure it will all come out in published form soon, hopefully in another wonderful book since I so enjoyed her previous ones.
Then we finished up with a quick talk with all the attending Whedon bookers. They talked about the books they have out and some that will be coming up that I can't wait to read. There will be a Joss Whedon Reader, a book on Fan Phenomena & Buffy, a book on TV Horrors, Buffy the Making of a Slayer retrospective, the Burnett book currently called something like Blood, Body & Soul I mentioned earlier and possibly a new edition of Conversations with new Joss interviews. Much to look forward to.
And that's it. I was at a loss of what to do now that everything was over, so I just lingered. That worked out well because everyone left trouped over to a bus and went to an Indian restaurant in town for dinner. I sat with Elizabeth Rambo (who is as cool in person as she is on twitter) and Tamy Burnett and Ami Comeford, editors of the Literary Angel. That was great. I really got to meet a lot of scholars whose work I admired, who turned out to also be very nice, cool people.
And that was that.
Friday, July 20, 2012
Slayage5 Day Two
Yeah, so not writing it up right away due to extreme tiredness might make this post short due to shoddy memoriness. But I'll give it a go.
Started out the morning with Keynote #2, Jonathan Gray on Joss Whedon as Undead Author. Was interesting talk about studying an author who is still producing work and participating in the discussion of his work to the public, helping shape how it's seen in paratextual forums. And much more. But very complex discussion of a field about which I'm only slightly knowledgeable. Along with discussions of the changing textual identity, the author in the text and the audience appropriation of imagery across texts, I mainly got from it some of the challenges faced by academics and critics trying to pin down a moving target like this.
The morning panel I chose was the Characters. Ana Carolina Gutierrez did a paper on signs of clinical depression in Buffy season 6, bravely relating it to her own struggles in that area, pointing out how the show gave the audience some hope that there can be an end to the depths of depression and that anyone, no matter how strong, can be susceptible to mental health issues. She said some of the things I've tried to articulate about why season 6 is so important to me.
Next up was Jessica Ratcliffe on Placing Giles in BtVS, talking about how Giles' character is defined by where he spends the most of his time and by his costuming, emphasizing the visual aspect of character definition. She argued that he became less Other/foreign and more normalized/Americanized over the series even when he moved back to England.
And we ended with Xander as Seer of the Self, Provider of Clarity, and Purveyor of Acceptance: Human Agency in BtVS. This paper focused on the importance of Xander as Everyman with the power of his humanity even while in the midst of so much supernatural, world-saving power.
Afternoon panels. Again, I had to miss Dollhouse stuff because it was up against Dr. Horrible and one Cabin paper that I really wanted to hear. Hopefully much more will be published on Dollhouse in the near future. Also, even though I never sought to go to the many fandom panels, from what I heard, they were all pretty great, so maybe I should have given more thought to them. In this case I missed Jen Stuller on Nerd Burlesque.
Kris Woofter spoke of Cabin in the Woods. He didn't think the film was a good commentary on the horror genre, that it spoke more to reality tv, and that it didn't have a lot of respect for its audience. He argued that horror audiences are generally pretty sophisticated with regard to the genre, and that that wasn't represented in the film. I think he was arguing that CiTW (and Dollhouse also) show a contempt for the idea of the watcher of a story, speaking to the parables these works contain of story/creator/fan dynamics. More that I didn't fully get, but should be interesting to read sometime.
Leigh A. Clemons did a paper on the Faustian Bargain in Dr. Horrible, just going through and highlighting some of the parallels with both Marlowe and Goethe's Faust and Dr. Horrible. It was an interesting paper and she has a theater background, which might speak to why her presentation was very witty and fun. Also brought up the question of whether Billy really wanted to rule the world or just wanted the girl, thinking ruling the world was the avenue to get the girl. We'll have to see where the character goes from here.
Jim Wilson spoke on parallels between Dr. Horrible and his namesake, Melville's Billy Budd. I never read that book, so I missed a lot of it, but I found it interesting how he highlighted Billy's naivete in regard to evil. He committed the sin of isolation and had the naivete that came from that. Also relevant in regard to internet persona of evil genius versus reality of the ELE.
Thank goodness the last presentations of the day were all together, no decisions to be made. First we heard from Alyson R. Buckman on viewer responses to Whedon works. An example of what I mentioned earlier, that the analysis of fandom at this conference was really well done. Followed well from Gray in the morning as well. Then Helene Frohard-Dourlent analyzed "Nobody's Asian in the Movies" from Commentary the Musical. It was a mixed bag, but ultimately seemed to absolve whites from feeling guilty about the racism it outlined by making it sound like that's just the way it is. But she went over it line by line and really had some good thoughts about its relation to real-world issues while not being harsh and accusatory. Hard line to walk.
Final speaker was Ananya Mukherjea on Mothering, Trust, and Hope in the Whedonverses. She talked on different displays of "mothering" and "fathering" in relation to Fray, Simon, Adelle and Boyd. It was really interesting. Talked about the privileging of the mothering aspect of family, interdependence driven by trust, as a way to a better future. Another one I want to read for the full impact.
I was going to try and drive somewhere for dinner, since we had a bit of time, but once I got halfway to the car without managing to even remember my keys, I decided I shouldn't be driving around someplace I've never been in that state. So I grabbed a couple slices of pizza and ate them in my room while watching an episode of Archer. Much safer and a nice breather.
At 7 was the screening of Dr. Horrible. It became a sing-a-long. Then we talked a bit about it, then watched it again with Commentary the Musical. Had fun sitting with Natstev and singing, but totally wiped out by the end. Can't remember much of the discussion. And phone was losing the battle with wifi so didn't tweet it. I think Samira did though. Long day. Good day.
Started out the morning with Keynote #2, Jonathan Gray on Joss Whedon as Undead Author. Was interesting talk about studying an author who is still producing work and participating in the discussion of his work to the public, helping shape how it's seen in paratextual forums. And much more. But very complex discussion of a field about which I'm only slightly knowledgeable. Along with discussions of the changing textual identity, the author in the text and the audience appropriation of imagery across texts, I mainly got from it some of the challenges faced by academics and critics trying to pin down a moving target like this.
The morning panel I chose was the Characters. Ana Carolina Gutierrez did a paper on signs of clinical depression in Buffy season 6, bravely relating it to her own struggles in that area, pointing out how the show gave the audience some hope that there can be an end to the depths of depression and that anyone, no matter how strong, can be susceptible to mental health issues. She said some of the things I've tried to articulate about why season 6 is so important to me.
Next up was Jessica Ratcliffe on Placing Giles in BtVS, talking about how Giles' character is defined by where he spends the most of his time and by his costuming, emphasizing the visual aspect of character definition. She argued that he became less Other/foreign and more normalized/Americanized over the series even when he moved back to England.
And we ended with Xander as Seer of the Self, Provider of Clarity, and Purveyor of Acceptance: Human Agency in BtVS. This paper focused on the importance of Xander as Everyman with the power of his humanity even while in the midst of so much supernatural, world-saving power.
Afternoon panels. Again, I had to miss Dollhouse stuff because it was up against Dr. Horrible and one Cabin paper that I really wanted to hear. Hopefully much more will be published on Dollhouse in the near future. Also, even though I never sought to go to the many fandom panels, from what I heard, they were all pretty great, so maybe I should have given more thought to them. In this case I missed Jen Stuller on Nerd Burlesque.
Kris Woofter spoke of Cabin in the Woods. He didn't think the film was a good commentary on the horror genre, that it spoke more to reality tv, and that it didn't have a lot of respect for its audience. He argued that horror audiences are generally pretty sophisticated with regard to the genre, and that that wasn't represented in the film. I think he was arguing that CiTW (and Dollhouse also) show a contempt for the idea of the watcher of a story, speaking to the parables these works contain of story/creator/fan dynamics. More that I didn't fully get, but should be interesting to read sometime.
Leigh A. Clemons did a paper on the Faustian Bargain in Dr. Horrible, just going through and highlighting some of the parallels with both Marlowe and Goethe's Faust and Dr. Horrible. It was an interesting paper and she has a theater background, which might speak to why her presentation was very witty and fun. Also brought up the question of whether Billy really wanted to rule the world or just wanted the girl, thinking ruling the world was the avenue to get the girl. We'll have to see where the character goes from here.
Jim Wilson spoke on parallels between Dr. Horrible and his namesake, Melville's Billy Budd. I never read that book, so I missed a lot of it, but I found it interesting how he highlighted Billy's naivete in regard to evil. He committed the sin of isolation and had the naivete that came from that. Also relevant in regard to internet persona of evil genius versus reality of the ELE.
Thank goodness the last presentations of the day were all together, no decisions to be made. First we heard from Alyson R. Buckman on viewer responses to Whedon works. An example of what I mentioned earlier, that the analysis of fandom at this conference was really well done. Followed well from Gray in the morning as well. Then Helene Frohard-Dourlent analyzed "Nobody's Asian in the Movies" from Commentary the Musical. It was a mixed bag, but ultimately seemed to absolve whites from feeling guilty about the racism it outlined by making it sound like that's just the way it is. But she went over it line by line and really had some good thoughts about its relation to real-world issues while not being harsh and accusatory. Hard line to walk.
Final speaker was Ananya Mukherjea on Mothering, Trust, and Hope in the Whedonverses. She talked on different displays of "mothering" and "fathering" in relation to Fray, Simon, Adelle and Boyd. It was really interesting. Talked about the privileging of the mothering aspect of family, interdependence driven by trust, as a way to a better future. Another one I want to read for the full impact.
I was going to try and drive somewhere for dinner, since we had a bit of time, but once I got halfway to the car without managing to even remember my keys, I decided I shouldn't be driving around someplace I've never been in that state. So I grabbed a couple slices of pizza and ate them in my room while watching an episode of Archer. Much safer and a nice breather.
At 7 was the screening of Dr. Horrible. It became a sing-a-long. Then we talked a bit about it, then watched it again with Commentary the Musical. Had fun sitting with Natstev and singing, but totally wiped out by the end. Can't remember much of the discussion. And phone was losing the battle with wifi so didn't tweet it. I think Samira did though. Long day. Good day.
Friday, July 13, 2012
Slayage5 Day One
The day started with an opening address by an elder of the Musqueam nation, welcoming us to their land, giving us a little info on the first people here. Then the admin of the law school welcomed us. He's a Buffy fan too, so that was cool.
Then we got a terrific talk on puppets in Angel. Break Out the Champagne, Pinocchio: Angel and the Puppet Paradox. I really never noticed how very many references there are to puppets in Angel (and Buffy) aside from Smile Time and the Puppet Show. So many references to pulling someone's strings and being a real boy, etc. Cynthea Masson gave us a lot of information on puppet theory and how it relates to questions of the undead, inner demons, and souls, puppets and puppeteers and free will and much more. It was really great. I'm now seeing Smile Time in a whole new light, and it seems an extremely important thematic episode instead of/as well as just a fun romp.
To my mind, part of what she was saying is that since Angel as a puppet was able to take control of his own strings, that led to him no longer being Wolfram & Hart's puppet or the PTB, which led to the end of the season's attack on Black Thorn and signing away of the Shanshu. And there was much more to it that I'm not recalling right now. Will be looking for that paper.
The first session I went to after that was the panel on Law and Language. Erma Petrova analyzed Buffy's use of state of emergency justification of the suspending of the usual democratic processes in season 7 and how that was not validated as a good solution to the war with the First. (I'm Declaring an Emergency: Leadership and the State of Exception in BtVS.) Sharon Sutherland and Sarah Swan spoke on issues of law in the Whedonverse (Vampires, Reavers, and Lawyers: Joss Whedon's Lens on Law.) They spoke of doing more work on the presentation of legal questions and methodologies in non-law shows regarding morality vs. justice, the inadequacy of legal institutions, and the development of new systems of law. And they played clips from Buffy, Angel, Firefly and Dollhouse.
Rhonda Wilcox, pretty much the reason I chose this panel, spoke on A Soliloquy by Any Other Name: Speech-Making in the Whedonverses. She highlighted a few of the memorable speeches given by characters in the four shows and also spoke of the history of the soliloquy/monologue, as well as its definition. That's another one where I'll need to read the paper to fully process everything she was saying, but it was really enjoyable. She asked people to speak to her about instances in other TV of affective speech-making, how common or rare it is, and of course she defined that, but I'll have to wait for the paper to remember the details.
Then was lunch. Went downstairs of the student union and got a sushi roll. Agonized with Natalie over what session to see next.
I finally chose Music in the Whedonverses over the Dollhouse panel. Sadness. But the musical info was great. Neil Lerner spoke on Spike's Musical Motif in Season Seven. He identified its starting point in Beneath You when he handed Buffy the flashlight and she flashed back to the attempted rape and he said he understood why she was skittish around him. He made a great point about Spike calling it a torch. Hold the torch, he told Buffy, when he had sung about holding a torch for her that was scorching him. Later in the episode as he talked about the spark he now had inside, the music gained fuller expression. Then of course, he died in fire from the amulet interacting with his soul, with the music again. Great word motif to go with the music. His question was whether it was a love theme since it only appeared when he was with Buffy. There was no consensus on that, but some good discussion.
Steven Halfyard then spoke about the theme song to Dollhouse and the significance of there being no lyrics. It was really interesting, and again I want the paper so I can understand the intricacies of the argument. Basically the lyrics are Caroline's and become Echo's but then also still signify Caroline. The loss of words at the end representing the loss of memory leading to childishness. So the fact the lyrics are excised from the theme song due to their being to specific about what the show is perhaps, means that Caroline is absent from the text too. Generally. Like I said, need to see the paper to understand it fuller, but looking forward to it.
The next panel I chose was The Grotesque Across the Whedonverse. Cynthia Burkhead and her students were presenting on fairy tales in Buffy, carnival masks in Firefly, and cute grotesque in Angel & Dollhouse. There was interesting stuff here, but my lack of sleep caught up with me at this point and I had trouble paying attention. Cute grotesque definition and discussion related to manga and kawaii, twee and moe, and other things Japanese, which was tied to Angel puppet and certain Echo Active costumes. Hush, Killed By Death and Gingerbread were analyzed for signs of the grotesque in their fairy tales, and the masks/personas that Mal puts on throughout Firefly were also discussed. The students pretty much just read their papers, which was fine but with my lack of sleep problem, really hard to stay on focus. I did hear about a show scheduled for 2013 called Happy Time Murders that would be a puppet noir kind of deal. A world of puppets and humans interacting. Will have to check that out.
Last panel of the day was brilliant. I got caffeinated just in time to hear Matthew Pateman speak on the importance of TV directors to the art of TV and the discipline of television studies and K. Dale Koontz on the similarities between Cowboy Bebop and Firefly, and the history of the space western and its ghettoization by some schools of science fiction. Very interesting, both of them. Almost asked a question or tried to participate in the discussion, but felt pretty sure I'd be nervous enough to sound like a trembling ninny, so didn't. Plus, plenty of discussion was had by all anyway. I was very sad Jes Battis was ill and couldn't be there. I really enjoy his work and was looking forward to hearing him talk about River.
I was also sad to miss the Comics panel. I really wanted to hear Elizabeth Rambo talk about Sugarshock!, but I guess I'll have to wait for the paper to appear somewhere. A day of tough decisions.
So I really need to watch Cowboy Bebop. Aside from seeing the theme here and hearing about the story, it also came up several times in Ready Player One as I was listening to the audiobook on the way here. Universe is definitely telling me to see it.
The evening ended with a banquet, presentation of Mr. Pointy awards, and a speech by Nancy Holder. Dinner was good, I met some more new people at my table, and the speech was interesting about the world of tie-in novel writers and what Joss meant to her in her career. But coffee had worn off and it was stuffy and hot in there, so started losing the gist again and just wanted the evening to be done. I left before the sing-along. So good day.
Then we got a terrific talk on puppets in Angel. Break Out the Champagne, Pinocchio: Angel and the Puppet Paradox. I really never noticed how very many references there are to puppets in Angel (and Buffy) aside from Smile Time and the Puppet Show. So many references to pulling someone's strings and being a real boy, etc. Cynthea Masson gave us a lot of information on puppet theory and how it relates to questions of the undead, inner demons, and souls, puppets and puppeteers and free will and much more. It was really great. I'm now seeing Smile Time in a whole new light, and it seems an extremely important thematic episode instead of/as well as just a fun romp.
To my mind, part of what she was saying is that since Angel as a puppet was able to take control of his own strings, that led to him no longer being Wolfram & Hart's puppet or the PTB, which led to the end of the season's attack on Black Thorn and signing away of the Shanshu. And there was much more to it that I'm not recalling right now. Will be looking for that paper.
The first session I went to after that was the panel on Law and Language. Erma Petrova analyzed Buffy's use of state of emergency justification of the suspending of the usual democratic processes in season 7 and how that was not validated as a good solution to the war with the First. (I'm Declaring an Emergency: Leadership and the State of Exception in BtVS.) Sharon Sutherland and Sarah Swan spoke on issues of law in the Whedonverse (Vampires, Reavers, and Lawyers: Joss Whedon's Lens on Law.) They spoke of doing more work on the presentation of legal questions and methodologies in non-law shows regarding morality vs. justice, the inadequacy of legal institutions, and the development of new systems of law. And they played clips from Buffy, Angel, Firefly and Dollhouse.
Rhonda Wilcox, pretty much the reason I chose this panel, spoke on A Soliloquy by Any Other Name: Speech-Making in the Whedonverses. She highlighted a few of the memorable speeches given by characters in the four shows and also spoke of the history of the soliloquy/monologue, as well as its definition. That's another one where I'll need to read the paper to fully process everything she was saying, but it was really enjoyable. She asked people to speak to her about instances in other TV of affective speech-making, how common or rare it is, and of course she defined that, but I'll have to wait for the paper to remember the details.
Then was lunch. Went downstairs of the student union and got a sushi roll. Agonized with Natalie over what session to see next.
I finally chose Music in the Whedonverses over the Dollhouse panel. Sadness. But the musical info was great. Neil Lerner spoke on Spike's Musical Motif in Season Seven. He identified its starting point in Beneath You when he handed Buffy the flashlight and she flashed back to the attempted rape and he said he understood why she was skittish around him. He made a great point about Spike calling it a torch. Hold the torch, he told Buffy, when he had sung about holding a torch for her that was scorching him. Later in the episode as he talked about the spark he now had inside, the music gained fuller expression. Then of course, he died in fire from the amulet interacting with his soul, with the music again. Great word motif to go with the music. His question was whether it was a love theme since it only appeared when he was with Buffy. There was no consensus on that, but some good discussion.
Steven Halfyard then spoke about the theme song to Dollhouse and the significance of there being no lyrics. It was really interesting, and again I want the paper so I can understand the intricacies of the argument. Basically the lyrics are Caroline's and become Echo's but then also still signify Caroline. The loss of words at the end representing the loss of memory leading to childishness. So the fact the lyrics are excised from the theme song due to their being to specific about what the show is perhaps, means that Caroline is absent from the text too. Generally. Like I said, need to see the paper to understand it fuller, but looking forward to it.
The next panel I chose was The Grotesque Across the Whedonverse. Cynthia Burkhead and her students were presenting on fairy tales in Buffy, carnival masks in Firefly, and cute grotesque in Angel & Dollhouse. There was interesting stuff here, but my lack of sleep caught up with me at this point and I had trouble paying attention. Cute grotesque definition and discussion related to manga and kawaii, twee and moe, and other things Japanese, which was tied to Angel puppet and certain Echo Active costumes. Hush, Killed By Death and Gingerbread were analyzed for signs of the grotesque in their fairy tales, and the masks/personas that Mal puts on throughout Firefly were also discussed. The students pretty much just read their papers, which was fine but with my lack of sleep problem, really hard to stay on focus. I did hear about a show scheduled for 2013 called Happy Time Murders that would be a puppet noir kind of deal. A world of puppets and humans interacting. Will have to check that out.
Last panel of the day was brilliant. I got caffeinated just in time to hear Matthew Pateman speak on the importance of TV directors to the art of TV and the discipline of television studies and K. Dale Koontz on the similarities between Cowboy Bebop and Firefly, and the history of the space western and its ghettoization by some schools of science fiction. Very interesting, both of them. Almost asked a question or tried to participate in the discussion, but felt pretty sure I'd be nervous enough to sound like a trembling ninny, so didn't. Plus, plenty of discussion was had by all anyway. I was very sad Jes Battis was ill and couldn't be there. I really enjoy his work and was looking forward to hearing him talk about River.
I was also sad to miss the Comics panel. I really wanted to hear Elizabeth Rambo talk about Sugarshock!, but I guess I'll have to wait for the paper to appear somewhere. A day of tough decisions.
So I really need to watch Cowboy Bebop. Aside from seeing the theme here and hearing about the story, it also came up several times in Ready Player One as I was listening to the audiobook on the way here. Universe is definitely telling me to see it.
The evening ended with a banquet, presentation of Mr. Pointy awards, and a speech by Nancy Holder. Dinner was good, I met some more new people at my table, and the speech was interesting about the world of tie-in novel writers and what Joss meant to her in her career. But coffee had worn off and it was stuffy and hot in there, so started losing the gist again and just wanted the evening to be done. I left before the sing-along. So good day.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)