SLAYAGE NOTES - Day One, Part One
Day One
Keynote Speaker> Cynthea Masson (possibly the sweetest person on the planet, btw)
“Break Out the Champagne, Pinocchio”: Angel and the Puppet Paradox
- puppetry - giving up Shanshu in NFA
- Sesame Street masters @ Whedon home during childhood
- Cabin in the Woods - Marty would rather destroy than give up control
- Puppet-Theory
- Puppet as embodiment of living dead
- vampire
- Free Will and Determinism
- Relationship between puppet and puppeteer (especially the soul)
- puppeteer: “Inner demon” seeking to control puppet
- can be alternately demon OR soul
- vampire = negative space (Koontz)
- puppet exaggerates Angel’s condition (Smile Time)
- puppetry - type of necromancy
- puppet/puppeteer
- negative (Smile Time)
- positive - soul expressed through the puppet
- puppeteer: “Inner demon” seeking to control puppet
- Puppet = transformation
- “A Whole in the World” vs. “Smile Time”
figurative puppet vs. literal puppet
^ puppeteer destroys soul
^ Illyria haunted - striving for a unity with humans
“All worthy work is open to interpretation you did not intend” - Joss Whedon
Discussion:
- Angel as puppeteer
- puppets in OMWF
- Dawn is a puppet
- Shadow puppets enable access to realm of the dead
- Buffy and Firefly
- 6 characters in search of an author
- Joss refers to himself as a puppeteer but allows actors to influence -> aiming for shared productivity
- “The Actor and the Marionette”
- Kleist - work on puppetry and dancers
- Puppets and Popular Culture
- “Puppet: an essay on Uncanny Life”
- Pinocchio and the Gothic
- Gross “Puppets Paradox”
Kelpy’s Thoughts: Dude! Puppet Theory. It’s a THING! We should all read up on it! And think about the Salvatores! And the Winchesters! And all the ridiculous boys that we love to make dance.
Angel Panel
Matthew Hurd: “Nine Hundred and Ninety-Nine to Go”: An Analysis on the Unproduced Angel Episode “Corrupt”
- “Corrupt” written by David Fury > supposed to be episode 1.2 but production was halted and the show was re-tooled
- Angel “all grown up” (1) conceit: redemption (2) dark tone
- Pilote originally had Angel taste girl’s blood, deemed “too dark” and scene was dropped
- “Corrupt” - monster of the week: demon worshipping pimps
- girls at bar ending up dead; Kate strung-out; Angel defeats demon
- Show: 20 somethings and dark
- allegory a requirement - relies on intelligence of audience
- tried to pile Real Life problems on demon ones
- originally the “girls”/prostitutes were cocaine addicts who kill the “customers” and then disembowel themselves in a murder/suicide for the demon their pimps worship
- Cordy already knows Doyle is ½ demon, no scene - no fall-out
- Kate Lockley - originally LAPD detective
- undercover prostitute with cocaine addiction
- girl in distress, to proud to accept help
- in “Corrupt” more about vengeance than justice
- not a mirror for Angel - corrupted version of humanity, far from the version Angel is fighting to protect
- Cordy goes undercover with mixed results
- Penultimate scene full of Angel-isms
Kelpy’s Thoughts: I really disagreed with this guy’s presentation. He was an undergrad, so I tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, but he basically said that this unaired episode of Angel was too far removed from where the show ended up, which I disagreed with. I think they took longer to get there, but the “you can’t mix allegory with real world problems” argument really didn’t fly with me. Have you read my thoughts on “She”? HELLO Real World Problems disguised as demon-problems!!! Watch the show, dude. #feeling snarky today
I also asked him afterwards if he knew of anyone had ever made a fanvid of the script (he’s actually a Theatre Major/Director so I thought he’d be interested in something like that) … he didn’t know what a fanvid was! And then - told me it would be impossible. I beg to differ. SOMEONE MAKE THIS FANVID!
Ami Comeford: “Lost Without Her: Cordelia Chase as Team Audience Angel’s Narrative Heart”
- Human connection to the audience
- Cordy of narrative chorus
- Has role because of speech acts
- blend of Joyce/Giles/Xander
Kelpy’s Thoughts: This is one of those times where good presentation =/= lots of notes. Ami Jo is AWESOMESAUCE! Seriously. I’m totally in love with her. The one thing I said to her (during discussion, which was fun!) was to ask if maybe Cordy was the “heart” and not Fred - because Fred is a sexualized object for two members of the team. Even though Cordy is “sexy” - that power is in her hands, vs. Fred who is made into a sex-object by the team, it gives her very little power - and what power she could have from that, she rejects. Basically, I suggested that Fred stays an object of desire - but Cordy doesn’t, and that’s why she is the “heart” and not Fred. AND AMI JO THANKED ME FOR MY COMMENTS! AND BROUGHT THEM UP LATER IN FRONT OF IMPORTANT PEOPLE! SHE IS MY HERO!
Fandom Panel
David Kociemba “Surveying Online Friends”
- Cabin survey takers talked the most about Denotation vs. Conotation
- Not featured: Equality, Intellect, Beauty
Kelpy’s Remarks: This guy was basically just sharing data. It was interesting - but impossible to write down all the numbers and follow his train of thought. There was really no conclusion other than: We should do more surveys, because numbers are neat. Which is basically what Sociologists say, so that’s not surprising. I’m making him smaller than I should, he’s a total asset to the field and a hoot to talk to, but I just couldn’t jot down numbers fast enough :(
Parricia J. Pender “Parsing the Sexual Politics of Buffy vs. Edward”
- Critical Media Literacy = mash-up
- Transgressive metalepsis
= story and inner story | story and meta story (Tisha Turk)
- in fanfic and fanvids “are extratextual: they employ the actual real world, not just a representation of it”
- Fanworks Breaks: Border of text - author from audience
- metavid - visual essay with interpretation of text
- Reconfigures readerly and writerly roles
- Fandom is community
Kelpy’s Remarks: This presentation basically took the fanvid Buffy vs. Edward and talked about it. It was fun. I have no other remarks other than: watching that fanvid in a room with academics and Brits was WAY more fun than streaming it on my laptop at home.
Tanya Cochran: “By Beholding, We Become Changed: Joss Whedon, (Anti)Fandom, and Lived Religion
- Fan-Activism
- Whedonesque “Let’s Watch a Girl Get Beaten to Death” 2007
- Captivity linked to Honor Killing - representational linked to literal vilence
- Representational Life is connected to Real Life
- “A Rapist’s View of the the World: Joss Whedon and Firefly”
- STORIES MATTER
- I saw myself
- I like - but don’t implicitly trust
- Joss is a rapist
- Transubstantiation (“bread is flesh”) of Narrative
- John 1:1> word - logos - mythos
- If who we are and how we act in and on the world matters then the stories we find important become part of who we are
Joss: All this time I thought I was Xander. I’m not. I’m Buffy. She’s the least likely person to save the world.
[Personal Remarks are Personal]
Kelpy’s Remarks: I’m still not really sure how I feel about Tanya’s presentation. All of the work is interesting and I like her inquiry (I love the idea of mythos/story being taken more seriously as part of our construction of identity)... the part that squicked me was, well... this research is all based on her “discomfort” in being a Religious Person who Studies Joss Whedon - as if these two things are mutually exclusive. She is looking for a way to express herself as a Christian through her academic research. And that - I think - is going to create an interesting discussion, but possibly not one she’s going to like? It was squicky for me, anyway... the personal context. Not the research. The research/topic seems interesting.
Okay. There were two more Panels on Friday, but I want to do them separately - because this is a lot, and I actually want there to be (possible) discussion in the comments for these posts. I thought doing one post for each day would split it up enough - but it’s just not. There’s too much. ALSO! The next two panels I went to on Friday were “The Intertextual Whedonverse” (where I fell in love with a doctorate student from Montreal) and "Genre and Narratology" ... you can see now, why I need these two to have their own entry - hopefully they'll be posted later this week.
Final notes - upupa_epops I haven't forgotten about Buffy in Translation - It happened in the first morning on Saturday, so those notes/discussion should be up by next week! eilowyn & pocochina I hope you like all the panels I chose! At the end, I'll let everyone know what I had to give up... it'd be too depressing to do that first, and choices HAVE to be made.