Buffy The Vampire Slayer

I’m baaack - with a conference report and with Birthday Greetings!` Back from The Slayage!

Had a great time - Lori (my good buddy and sister Whedon-scholar) and I both gave presentations and attended many sessions, and just had a great time: 4 days talking about fanfic, Our Darling Boys, and the Jossverse.

I’m tired and falling asleep, so not gonna write Deep Stuff, filled with Analytical Comments and Post-Modern Thought. Just giving you some rather terse statements about the conference as a whole.

Gordon College (http://www.gdn.edu/) hosted The Slayage - and they were fabulous - warm, welcoming, and highly supportive. The campus is beautiful - immaculate, harmonious buildings, equipped with up-to-date technology; it was a perfect venue for an academic conference.

The only glitches? the hotels were about 30-40 minutes away from the conference site; off-Campus eating was just about impossible for anyone who didn’t come in a car. Still: it was worth it to hear the presentations, see old buddies in the ’verses, meet new buddies in the ’verses, and feel the excitement of having 3-4 days to muse and opine about BtVS and Ats and Firefly and Serenity without stopping. IOW: Dudes, it was great.

The highlights, for me: Roz Kaveney ([info]rozk)spoke brilliantly on Joss Whedon and Superheroes (a chapter from her upcoming book, and she’s got a new one on Teen Films which I have to buy!!) Lynne Edwards’ presentation on Blackness in the Jossverse was just amazing. (And I’m looking forward to Lynne’s new book, as well.)

My favorite "regular" presentations included: Lori DelRossi’s presentation on The Importance of Alleys in Angel and BtVS; Madeline Muntersbjorn’s presentation on small spontaneous families of righteousness (Dude: this was The Bomb! Madeline makes philosophy exciting and dynamic.); Yael Sherman’s exploration of communal familes and the public/private dichotomy on the ship Serenity (not the movie; the TV series); Cynthia O’Hanley’s personal exploration of quasi-family; Asim Ali’s continuing examination of Bronzers; and Patricia Pender’s delightful analysis of Andrew in Storyteller.

I did a PowerPoint presentation on B/A ’shippers and B/S ’shippers and their fanfic preferences, based on the surveys I sent out to 14 fanboards in 2004. It went well, judging on the comments later and the numbers of folks who wanted more information.

Unfortunately, both Lori and I had to leave the conference early, but we did have a wonderful time. Here’s looking to the NEXT conference, which will probably be in 2008.