Joss Whedon. The man. The legend.
Last week, when it was announced on facebook via one of the many "intellectually enthused" (i.e. geek) organizations that I follow, that Joss Wedon had given a commencement address, I immediately found a transcript and read it, then later with time permitting I watched the video. More than once. This King of the Geeks proved to me once again why he holds that place in the ever allegiant world of fandom. From Buffy to Firefly to Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog to the main-stream Avengers, the man can seemingly not make a wrong step.
Side-note: If you became a Joss Whedon fan post-Avengers, I have one question for you.... Who is Vera? If you can answer that you may have the status and title of a Whedonite.
He talked about the contradictions within us all. The tension that is created by these contradictions. And how decisions based on this tension and contradictions becomes identity.
Or in the words of J.M Barrie, “To die would be an awfully big adventure.”
Joss Whedon also has a history of defying the pressures of convention and doing things his way. When the writer's strike shut down much of television and entertainment production, he produced "Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog", bypassing the studio structure and releasing it on-line. He is the rebel to Darth Vadar's Empire. This man is not only a genius because of the quality of his work, but because he consistently is true to his own identity. I very much look forward to watching that identity actively progress. Thank you, Mr. Whedon for your inspiring words.
I love the idea of fluid identity, that it is an active, dynamic process. As Alice told the Caterpillar, on his inquiry as to her identity, "I--I hardly know, sir, just at present-- at least I know who I was when I got up this morning, but I think I must have been changed several times since then." I know I feel this way most days, the process of successfully making it through a day a monumental achievement, akin to the development of cold fusion. In other words, I'm not happy with a static situation. I never have been. I wonder sometimes if this is a piece of social dogma that I've somehow missed in my indoctrination, I mean education. Should I accept the concept of settling down and just living the life I've ended up with? Be a happy little proletariat, content to sell my time to the bourgeoisie?
Identity... the idea of constant change and growth, development, is the antithesis of stagnation and passive acceptance of a situation. People can and MUST change. If you are not changing, identity developing, you are dying. A concept also discussed by Joss Whedon, our bodies' ambition is death. As in Shakespeare's immortal Hamlet soliloquy:
To die,—to sleep,—
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to,—’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die,—to sleep;—
To sleep: perchance to dream:
No more; and by a sleep to say we end
The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to,—’tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d. To die,—to sleep;—
To sleep: perchance to dream:
Joss Whedon also has a history of defying the pressures of convention and doing things his way. When the writer's strike shut down much of television and entertainment production, he produced "Dr. Horrible's Sing-A-Long Blog", bypassing the studio structure and releasing it on-line. He is the rebel to Darth Vadar's Empire. This man is not only a genius because of the quality of his work, but because he consistently is true to his own identity. I very much look forward to watching that identity actively progress. Thank you, Mr. Whedon for your inspiring words.
