Slayage Day 2

Another day at Slayage, at which we gave our "Sacrificial Virgins" paper, a day early, when I realised this morning that I was going to be on a bus for the airport when our session began tomorrow.  (I'd misread the program).  Fortunately they could fit us into another session at short notice.  Some good questions on inversion, and one excellent point on how the massive plotting mess in the second season of Dollhouse, when Boyd was suddenly and inexplicably retconned (impossibly) into the Big Bad, it was  on the model of the sacrificial virgin (Echo) being sacrificed by her father/protector, which might have been why Joss thought of it, since he likes that pattern (and the pattern of the corruption of mentor figures, perhaps because they always represent authority, thus corporations, thus evil badness, in the Whedonverse).  Though in this particular case that pattern just did not work.

Excellent papers on humour in BtVS vs "Everyone Loves Raymond", "Runaway Heroines" in romance, Buffy and Twilight (BtVS comes off pretty well by comparison with Twilight, in this as in every single other possible comparison - Buffy runs off and is held sternly to account by her friends and family for being selfish and unkind, and her friends and family get on with their lives while she's gone.  Bella runs off and is wildly self-destructive and self-endangering, and the entire damn town runs out to find and save her, and eventually as a result of her spectacular self-destructive emotional blackmail she gets - every single thing she has ever wanted.  So by all means try this at home, girls!)  

Also excellent papers on racism in Hollywood generally, even in St. Joss, and on parenting in the Whedonverse (where Boyd came up again, this time as someone whose model of parenting failed to change from 'fathering' to 'mothering').  I still think the real problem with the Boyd arc is that it was a mistake in the first place, but am intrigued that some readers are trying valiantly to explain it.  There is a lot of interest in Dollhouse generally at this conference; many good papers, and a lot of engaged conversation.  I think perhaps it's been long enough since it ended that we're willing to engage with all of the things that were good about it, and there were a lot, rather than trying to blot the whole thing out of memory because of the catastrophic plot defects in the second season.  Or perhaps that's just me. Nobody has produced a "Dollhouse" collection of papers but it is clearly time someone did.

  And then we all watched Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog, and sang along, and then watched the Singalong Commentary, which I had never heard before and it is phenomenal.  I shall use Joss' song in the commentary ("Heartbroken") to begin my film course next year.  

Well, possibly.  I could hardly live up to that level of cool for the rest of the course, so perhaps best not to raise their expectations.

Off to England tomorrow, where I will, I am sure, work on Oswald every day.