The Joss Whedon Post

The next few blog posts are going to be out of order. Between being ill and flying all over the place (literally) I’ve not had time to sit down and view a computer screen. However, one thing I do want to post about is the experience I’ve just had, attending Joss Whedon at the Opera House. I was hoping for awesomeness. Awesome is an understatement.

I’m one among many who find Joss their hero and inspiration. He has been behind many projects. The most well known would be Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Those in the know also revere Firefly (& the movie Serenity). His more recent shows have been Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along-Blog and Dollhouse. As he mentioned on Sunday, it’s a cult (& an awesome cult at that).

The talk on Sunday was hosted by comedian Wil Anderson (recently of The Gruen Transfer & Gruen Nation) who as a fan ‘got it’. The afternoon ran as follows. Joss talks, Wil & Joss chat, Q&A with audience. In the end it ran about 20ish minutes overtime though I’m sure the audience would’ve happily stayed much longer. I know I certainly would have.

Joss mentioned he was switching his format as a result of other experiences including the recent Melbourne talk. So, he started to talk about essentially ‘why’. The why he writes/does what he does. He did it in the context of his shows and how a ‘small adolescent girl with superpowers’ is a recurring character for him. He explained how this works for him – what he is doing when he does this. He calls it going to The Dark Place. You need to capitalise it with the way he says it and as a writer it resonated. Deeply. He did admit that not all writers have this (though I think admitted or not, it happens) but it is what he needs to do. Essentially, it is that place that terrifies the bejeebus out of you but as a creative person you know that is exactly where you have to go.

The Q&A portion of the session brought up a variety of topics. Specifics for shows (Firefly, Goners, The Avengers, and Dr Horrible being the main ones), the writing/creative process and a few very heartfelt thank-yous for what he’s done.

There were a lot of other things discussed and I even managed to write a few handwritten notes (by the light of my phone) which I’m sure will be referenced in future posts.

I’ve really only skimmed what was talked about – if I went into minute details this post would be a novel in itself (& really I have my own stories to tell). I have to go delve into my own Dark Place now…before I head off to AussieCon4 on Friday.

If you’re interested in some of what was talked about, go here for an interview done straight afterwards for Triple J and also read Mel Scott’s Crossed Wires for her wrap of the Melbourne talk.

Blogging & online life

Developing a blog is an interesting experience. I’ve enjoyed online life for over ten years and yet it’s only a little over a year since I decided to start blogging.

I can remember posting until the wee hours of the morning many nights for years on message boards discussing Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and when they started Angel and Firefly. Yes, I’m a Joss Whedon fan. It took those shows for me to explore the whole world of forums, message boards and the online world in general. Have made some awesome friends from the experiences. In fact it was on a dare to write something for an online friend who noticed way before me that perhaps I was a storyteller. I told her I’d last 6 sentences. Instead I was looking for an ending 16,000 words and original characters later. I was wrong and bam the beginning of my passion for writing flared brighter than a bonfire.

Yet, blogging is something I am only beginning to embrace and I’ve been trying to understand why it is one of the last aspects of the internet I’ve utilised. Driving home after visiting a friend (yes, visiting people in real life is still something  people do even with the digital avalanche) I understand what it is. Interactivity. With message boards, Yahoo messenger, MSN, ICQ, Facebook, Twitter, emails, MySpace etc the level of interactivity is much higher and direct. Not surprising how social networking has taken off. It’s quick and immediate. Message boards can be busy and quiet, with notes being followed at the reader’s request.

Blogging feels personal. Private. I write a journal and have done so ever since I can remember (the fact I didn’t tie this to any side of my once-repressed writer is another matter). I find blogging a little like journaling and working out what I want to ‘put out there’ and what is going to stay private has been a new juggling act.

I’ve had these thoughts about facebook and twitter too. I watch and follow some very successful writers, actors and musicians and wonder how they feel juggling the private and the public. Once it’s out in the interwebs it’s there. Doesn’t matter if you take it down, somewhere out there your words are recorded. 

Twitter is being catalogued in Library of Congress, which amuses me no end. Imagine it, a millennium from now, someone reading the archival material (assuming they retain the technology to read said material) and wondering why it was kept. As a classics student, years ago (and even today) I wish I had access to the general day-day chatter, styles and mores of an era. Cicero is wonderful to learn Latin, but really he can be very dry. Assumptions about the why behind reasons create much scholarly debate. Will that be our culture in a thousand years?