The Painful Nowning Process

—get it? Oh, never mind. But I just had to note that even a relatively small conference like the third Slayage Conference on the Whedonverses doesn’t happen without a LOT of advance planning, hard work, and organization, chronicled here by philosophy professor Kevin Durand of Henderson State U. and his band of dedicated and reliable volunteers (apparently in some cases “volunteer” was a term to be applied loosely). Anyone thinking about hosting an academic conference can learn from him:

It’s unclear where Slayage 4 is going to be. At least two universities have made mention that they are interested. Here’s my advice to them (I’ve given it directly, but I offer it here as well). Make d*** sure that you have a large, capable, and dedicated team of people. You can do the conference with a team of 10-15 people that you can absolutely depend on. You can also do it with 100 folks who will flake on you. But, it’s better to have that dedicated cadre of people. We had that and because of that, Slayage 3 worked.

Durand then goes on to put our type of pop-culture scholarship in its philosophical context, ably defending against the usual suspects who decry the decline in academic standards:

[T]he PR folks at Henderson . . .had gotten a call from the newspaper in Chattanooga, Tennessee asking how many tax payer dollars had been used on the conference. As the answer to that question is a big, fat ZERO, it was kinda fun to nip that in the bud. But, geez, people. Get a life. Let me point out that Plato was fond of the theater [but he] wasn’t fond of those who interpreted plays and the like without systematic and analytic thoroughness.

Thanks again to Prof. Durand and all who helped make this conference happen, both behind the scenes and behind the lecterns, and behind the pies.

Check out Nikki Stafford’s conference blog-posts, starting here. Don’t miss her recaps of Rhonda Wilcox’s paper on B7.7 “Conversations with Dead People” in the post on “day two” and Jeanine Basinger’s keynote address—Nikki’s professional note-taking skill far outstrips mine!

OK, I’ll stop blathering on about Buffy after this—probably—and get back to supposedly more serious things like . . . well, I’ll let you know when I think of something.

It’s a little known fact that many “pop culture” scholars actually began their academic careers specializing in something “respectable” such as literature, history, philosophy, education, physics, or religious studies; many even maintain parallel careers. As one of the keynote speakers at this past weekend’s SC3 Conference, Matthew Pateman, noted, no one in the “real world” seems to care much when one of us publishes or presents our work in those fields. “Oh, another academic conference? Ho hum!” But a conference on something as wacky as Buffy gets us on CNN.

And on blogosphere. Somebody wonders whether analyzing TV stops you from enjoying it? In the case of BtVS (and I’d say, any really good work of art)–No. Another writer notes Buffy’s philosophical credentials. And synchronicitously, bloggers engage in some of the same debates BtVS scholar/fans do: favorite episodes (your list may vary), and Joss Whedon’s brilliant but agonizing willingness to follow Faulkner’s advice to writers: “kill your darlings.”

OK, this one was posted last month, but I’m noting it now, so we can plan the refreshments for next time: BtVS themed party, with decorations, favors, and recipes.

We’ve just concluded the second day of the third Slayage Conference on the works of Joss Whedon, which include TV shows Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, the film Serenity, scripts for other movies, and comics. This year, it’s in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, and the group was too large for the room designated for the first keynote session, so this morning’s presentation was moved to a larger auditorium.

Why are academic types from all over the USA, Canada, Britain, and elsewhere still talking about Buffy, a show that’s been in reruns since 2003?

“It has staying power,” [conference organizer] Durand said. “It’s like I tell my students in philosophy a lot of times: We’re not so much about necessarily finding all the answers as wanting to ask better questions. `Buffy,’ I think, does that. `Buffy’ never really leaves you with nice, pat answers. You have even more questions than when you started.”

So far, almost all of the papers I’ve heard have been thought-provoking and often entertaining as well. It’s also been great to meet friends from past conferences again. Several of us had the pleasure this evening of dining with guest of honor Jeanine Basinger, who is perfectly charming, and reminds me of my favorite author, the late Dorothy Dunnett. (I got into “Buffy studies” when I presented a paper on Dunnett’s historical fiction at PCA, where I discovered other academics taking BtVS seriously.)

The last event tonight was a workshop analyzing one of the key episodes, season 4’s dream finale, “Restless,” led by Rhonda Wilcox. I’ve seen it three or four times, at least, and I still found new insights.

More tomorrow. Conference website.

Who’s your hero? Of course, the “right” answer is “my mother!” or “my father!” or some historical figure, or a saint. But if you grew up reading books and/or watching movies and television, fictional heroes may have inspired you as much or more. And why not? Sir Philip Sidney famously argued in The Defense of Poesy that imaginative literature could be superior to both philosophy and history at teaching virtue:

Now therein of all sciences—I speak still of human, and according to the human conceit—is our poet the monarch. For he doth not only show the way, but giveth so sweet a prospect into the way as will entice any man to enter into it. Nay, he doth, as if your journey should lie through a fair vineyard, at the very first give you a cluster of grapes, that full of that taste you may long to pass further. He beginneth not with obscure definitions, which must blur the margent with interpretations, and load the memory with doubtfulness. But he cometh to you with words set in delightful proportion, either accompanied with, or prepared for, the well-enchanting skill of music; and with a tale, forsooth, he cometh unto you, with a tale which holdeth children from play, and old men from the chimney-corner, and, pretending no more, doth intend the winning of the mind from wickedness to virtue

Put that in 21st century language by checking out NPR’s In Character series and its

profiles of some influential but imaginary characters — fictional figures who have had a deep and lasting impact on Americans’ lives.

Among the characters: The Lone Ranger, Charlie Brown, Holden Caulfield, Nancy Drew, Virgil Tibbs (the detective played by Sidney Poitier in In the Heat of the Night), and today, my own fictional hero, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, who helped a journalist keep things together while she was reporting from Iraq.

More stories of how BtVS influenced various people–some more than others–are archived here.

In the south, it’s “lhude singe mockingbird,” even though we have “cuccu”s, they aren’t nearly as remarkable as the English ones. So, exams and final papers are done, grades are filed, graduation and its celebrations have passed. We said farewell to several of our finest English majors, as we do every year. Some have plans, some–are still planning, but we expect they’ll do well whatever they do.

I’ll be cleaning up my office (or at least organizing the clutter a bit), preparing the courses I’ll be teaching this coming fall, and writing a paper for a conference in June. Not necessarily in that order.

What are you doing this summer?

We’re wrapping up our semester and the seniors will be commencing out into the dreaded Real World. I turned my calendar over to May and found these words of advice for those entering new cultures (such as high school, college, or full-time employment) from Buffy’s sister Dawn:

People may say something to you you don’t understand. Just don’t be afraid to keep your mouth shut and pretend like you know what they’re saying. . . . People may say something like “My protein window closes in an hour.” Just smile and nod. Mm-hmm. (”Selfless” BtVS 7.5)

As a Third Culture Kid, I must say that this approach has brought me success in many, many situations. Sometimes, of course, you do have to ask questions.

CU classes began on Wednesday, which means students and professors met each other at least once before Friday afternoon’s Drop/Add free-for-all. Actually, it’s not a free-for-all—there are some rules (for example, when a classroom is full, the class is full)—but when the fortieth beagle-eyed young person is asking if you haven’t got just one more space in your [name of course here] section at 10:00 a.m., because [insert heart-rending tale of woe here]…the day can get pretty long. I imagine the students find it trying as well.

Eventually, somehow, almost everyone seems to end up with a schedule they can live with. The real work begins next week.

To make this entry more edifying, I’ll end by linking to an essay on poetry in films, “The Well-Versed Movie.” Because, as Willow once said, “It’s all connected.” (”Lessons,” Buffy 7.1). And as E.M. Forster instructed, “Only connect.”

…and a lot of other TV shows are not. This question came up Thursday in conversation with the university curriculum media librarian. I hope she won’t mind if I try to answer it.

Evidently the seven seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer are among the most popular DVD items in the university’s collection, which pleases me—people watching BtVS—definitely a Good Thing. The problem is, now people are asking for more of what they see as entertainment: “Can we have One Tree Hill? Dawson’s Creek?” Um—probably not. Here’s why.

1. BtVS, and in fact, all the more or less “entertaining” videos and DVDs in the University Library, are part of the collection called “Curriculum Materials/Media.” The operative word is “curriculum”—audio-visual media and other materials that support the university’s teaching mission. A few years ago, I co-taught an Honors course that examined popular culture. The Library acquired a number of movies and TV series to support that course, including Buffy. I and a few other professors occasionally use episodes from BtVS in our other classes. And we’re not alone—other colleges and universities have offered entire courses devoted to Buffy. Which leads to

2. BtVS is, as far as I know, the only television show that has had three or four international scholarly conferences devoted entirely to discussing it. Another will take place in Istanbul(!) this fall, and another (including Joss Whedon’s other shows, Angel and Firefly) is planned for next summer. Academic conferences, not fan conventions where people dress up and get autographs from actors. It has its own peer-reviewed journal—not a fan-magazine—Slayage (yes the title is a little tongue-in-cheek, just like the title of the TV show. The academic area designated “popular culture” is broad, and if you check the program of the Popular Culture Association or table of contents of the Journal of Popular Culture, you’ll find many TV shows referenced, but (so far) none of them have their own conferences/journals.

In conclusion, if you want to find your favorite film or TV show in the University media center, convince your professor that it offers worthy material for study or academic discussion. Otherwise, there’s a reason for the existence of services such as Netflix, which has certainly made living in Harnett County much more entertaining for my husband and me.

(One in a continuing series—I’ll get those archives up soon.)

You can write cult-TV-series tie-in novels, like Kirsten Beyer. Hey—it’s a living!

Ms. Beyer’s reading recommendations:

SL: Can you tell us what books are on your reading list right now? And which authors do you recommend to people?
KB: I’ve always got too many books going at the same time. I’ve just finished my final re-reading of Harry Potter books 1 to 6 in joyful anticipation of July 21. I’m positively dying to get the final book into my hot little hands. I’m reading two novels at the moment for research purposes, as well as the new biography of Einstein by Walter Isaacson, and Al Gore’s THE ASSAULT ON REASON. If I had the money I’d buy a copy for every single American citizen, and if I had the time I’d sit with each and every one of them while they read it so we could discuss it as they went along. It’s not that I think everyone needs to agree with all of the conclusions, but many of the premises are well taken. I’ve got an old biography of Henry VIII by my bed on top of HOMER’S ILIAD, both of which are slow going. I realized a couple of years back that despite my English degree, my background in some of the classics is too weak so I’m working to remedy that. Authors I recommend: A.S. Byatt, John Irving, Leif Enger, Jane Austen, and Sharon Kay Penman.