I'm at the third biennial SLAYAGE conference, which is three days devoted to the academic discussion of all things Joss Whedon. While many people - both in and out of academia - have a hard time taking this field of study seriously, news of the conference did get picked up on both the Associated Press and CNN. Maybe as a bit of a "fluff freak show" sort of story, but any publicity is good publicity, right?As Buffy would say, "Whatever." We're doing good work and, being a fan of the concept that the truth is where you find it, I say our job is just to keep on crying in the wilderness.
Actually, my job is to do a bit more than that. I'm a "superchair" at this conference, which basically means that I go around to various sessions and make sure all the speakers have arrived and that the room is suitable for the discussion that's about to take place. So far, so good. It's quite a change for me - I missed the first SLAYAGE conference and, at the last one two years ago, I was a shy, wallflower academic who was too introverted to even present a paper. Now my book's on the shelf in the college bookstore, I've seen more than a couple of people with copies tucked under their arms, and I'm not only presenting, I'm helping smooth the way for others to do so.
I'll get into specifics about what I've seen and heard here tomorrow - it's late and the whole show starts again early tomorrow.
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