Slayage: Day 2 recaplet.

Second day at Slayage in Saint Augustine.  Okay it was a week ago, but things happen and people (named Kristen) get sinusitis from the airplane.

We missed Lorna Jowett's keynote on "Character, Narrative, and Time in the Whedonverses" in the morning because sleep had to happen for me and presentation preparation had to happen for David.  I did, however, hear that it was "epic."  The first session attended was the "Narrative" panel.  This included David's "From Beneath You, It Foreshadows: Why the First Season Matters" as well as Cynthia Burkhead's "The narrative function of dreams in Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and Marc McKee's "The Use of Meta-Fiction in Buffy the Vampire Slayer."  While I won't comment much on David's presentation, I will say that he really is an excellent speaker and made a great argument in favor of giving the first season of BtVS another look.

Burkhead's presentation had a fantastic full title: "Sometimes 'a dream is a wish your heart makes,' and sometimes it's a necessary nightmare..."  I loved it.  Dreams are tricky in television programming.  She said something along the lines of "...it runs the risk of endangering the fantasy by doubling it."  And if you're not careful, you end up with Dallas's "Bobby in the shower."  Much of the presentation focused on the fourth season finale "Restless" (a favorite) and how it displays both the past and the future.  McKee's presentation looked at the characters Jonathan and Andrew, specifically in the episodes "Superstar" and "Storyteller."  He said that those two episodes took direction from fan critiques and that Jonathan's 'Mary Sue' in "Superstar" was a response/critique to fan fiction.  He then moved into the more serious territory of "Normal Again" (what he called "an existential low point"), where we become aware of the 'it's all a dream' trope in BtVS.  This is where we were confronted with "Of course the real is crazy" vs. "Of course the crazy is not real."  The episode never really does resolve, does it?

The Firefly session was up next.  I had hoped that the first presentation in this set would help me come to terms with Wash's untimely demise.  It did not.  In "Curse Your Sudden But Inevitable Death," B.J. Keeton postulated that Wash had to die because he was expendable, and that the only role he fulfilled that couldn't be easily subbed-in was that of Zoe's husband.  The Alan Tudyk fangirl in me refuses to accept this.

Now, this next presentation I won't be able to do justice to.  Alyson Buckman couldn't attend the conference, but Rhonda Wilcox presented her paper "'Always...in an Alliance-friendly bar come U-Day': Chronotopes in Firefly and Serenity" to us.  This was an impressive paper and my note-taking pen was sluggish (though I do have a recording of it that I can go back to).  In a nutshell: There is a need to move on from one's past or one is doomed to live there forever.  Although the word "serenity" means "peace," it is rather a symbol of that doomed battle, forever following and carrying Mal through life and space.  Mary Anne Money next presented "Firefly's 'Shindig': Clashing Cultures in the 26th Century."  She explored the mingling of the Western with the Old Southern Gentry in the episode "Shindig," where Mal and the crew basically have an adventure in "Inara's world" on Persephone.

The next session was "The Laws and 'Mind' of Joss Whedon."  Unfortunately, this session's time was short because there were some technical difficulties.  However, the presenters did well with the time they had available to them.  I was particularly interested in Sherry Ginn's "Exploring Neurological Tampering in Firefly and Dollhouse," and in Sharon Sutherland and Sarah Swan's "The Watcher's Council as Lawmakers."  Ginn's presentation was like a short lecture on "Memory 101" (which is a good, fascinating thing as far as I'm concerned).  Because I have three full pages of notes on this, I'm going to try to condense.  River Tam's behavior and abilities in Firefly is attributed, in-show, to a stripped amygdala.  Ginn explained to us how River doesn't at all display characteristics of a person with a damaged amygdala (hypersexuality, lack of empathy, psychic blindness...all the time).  She postulated that rather than messing with the amygdala, that the Alliance may have been messing with River's pineal gland -- the gland that Descartes called "the interface of the body and the soul."  In fact, the famous images of River in the chair with a spike jammed in her forehead, is positioned correctly to hit the pineal gland.  Indeed, damaging the amygdala would have made River a perfect candidate for a supersoldier, but even though we see her become, basically, a killing machine, she isn't Jubal Early -- the very picture of the damaged amygdala.

Ginn brought us to the Dollhouse next, explaining episodic, semantic, and procedural memory and how these applied to the dolls/actives.  What I took away from this portion was: "We construct our memories every time we use them."  Just as an active's memory is constructed and "real" memories are actually false, our false memories are, technically, actual memories.  It was all very neat and sciencey.  I like having actual sci in my fi.

"The Watchers Council as Lawmakers" was very interesting as well.  Sutherland and Swan looked at the Council and it's use of Stare Decisis in its policymaking.  They invoke tradition and precedent when giving orders and they "stand by and adhere to decisions, and not disturb what is decided."  As the full title says, "It's not Council policy to cure vampires."  BtVS shows the difference, essentially, between the American and English law perspective on precedents.  And while Giles remains "sexy," he proves to be much less "fuddy duddy" than initially presented.

And that's where I will end Day 2's recaplet.  I did attend the featured speakers session, but my notes are hardly comprehensive.  I will say that I did quite enjoy Cynthea Masson's "Who Painted the Lion? -- Dollhouse's 'Belle Chose,'" which looked at the episode "Belle Chose" through a Chaucerian lens.  This English major approved.