Buffy The Vampire Slayer

Captivated by the show’s mix of comedy, tragedy, tenderness and violence, almost 400 Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans came to Nashville this weekend for a three-day conference on the show at the Renaissance Hotel.

The audience

Fans came from 42 states and countries as far away as Singapore and Australia to attend the conference, which featured a series of discussions on academic papers about the show.

Conference topics

Heroism; existentialism; the horror of blood and family relationships; power; witchcraft; sex and pain; myths; religion; identity; madness; vampires; and masculinity.

The instigator

David Lavery, a Middle Tennessee State University English professor, founded the ’’Slayage Conference.’’ He teaches a course at the university about the show, which he calls ’’Buffy Studies.’’

’’Buffy is really the Shakespeare of television,’’ he said. ’’No other show can make you laugh and cry simultaneously.’’

Thoughts on slayage

Here’s what some of the fans had to say:

Kim Taylor, 47, of Nashville: ’’The reason the show still fascinates me is the characterizations are so strong,’’ said Taylor, who said she also enjoys the complexities and ’’Californiaesque’’ language of the show. ’’And there’s an ambiguity there. It’s not all good and evil, black and white. There’s a huge gray area.’’

Julie Penner, 30, of Winnipeg, Canada: ’’The surprise element is amazing, and I love the subversion of stereotypes,’’ said Penner, who rode 30 hours on a bus to get to the conference. ’’You have a young blonde woman who’s incredibly strong but also vulnerable and flawed. And she continues to evolve from season to season.’’

Penner said she also appreciates the positive depiction of lesbians on the show.

’’It’s wonderful to see lesbians depicted as being in caring relationships on par with heterosexual relationships,’’ she said.

Alissa Wilts, 31, of Winnipeg, Canada: ’’It’s nice to be in a room full of people who understand and don’t think this obsession is crazy,’’ said Wilts, who said she’s been hooked on the show since she saw the first episode in 1997. ’’The first thing I thought when I saw it was, ’I wish I’d written that.’ The writing was so fresh, funny and intelligent.’’

Mark Anderson, 54, of Rogersville, Ala.: ’’There’s always been an allure for me of the vampire and the whole vampire myth,’’ said Anderson, who teaches business law at Athens State University in Alabama. ’’Most horror stories have always been spiritual myths.’’

What’s next?

Lavery said he planned the convention as a one-time event, but some participants want it to become annual. Tune in next year.