Joss Whedon at Harvard

Last night I had the pleasure of seeing my hero, the man who created the myths I hope to share with my children, Joss Whedon. Mr. Whedon was, ostensibly, being honored by the Harvard Humanist Society with a lifetime achievement award [the third of its kind]. This seemed fishy to me from the get-go, and I was happy when a tuxedoed sophomore at the mic acknowledged the meaninglessness of the award itself, and t their TV hero. A brief clip show and some words of awesomeness about HHS briefly preceded the presentation of the award and the introduction of the awarded.

Joss Whedon's speech was truly flawless. Other people give more descriptive accounts, but suffice to say: the whole thing was charming, moving and inspiring. He gave proper respect to the group that was honoring him, and to the philosophy that brought them together. What he did not do, was bash religion. He tied it to the best and worst of society, but argued that religion was a framework for, and not origin of, our morality. It was fascinating to observe a public figure speak to this subject kindly without being timid and critically without being cruel. He shared the story of a personal ritual in his youth, which revolved around Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

When Mr. Whedon finished his speech, members of the HHS played a selection of clips of his work and accompanied each with a question. It was unfortunate that this group couldn't take a cue from their guest of honor, as many of the questions seemed either mocking or hostile toward the subject of religion. Whedon was able to turn each one around, though, giving satisfying answers without falling into the disrespectful rhetoric of his hosts. Similarly disappointing were the questions asked by the audience, including a job request, tons of unintelligible outbursts from the crowd, and lots of rambling mixed with awkward stuttering. Don't get me wrong, I'm as eager a fan as the next guy, and I'd love to talk to Joss all day long about the Battlestar Galactica finale, but this seemed like a great platform for thought-provoking discussion. Personally, I was eager to ask a question about which my peers and I have been arguing lately: is there such thing as a television auteur, and would Mr. Whedon consider himself one? Unfortunately, before I could even stir in my seat the line was too long for me to even try.

All in all, I'm very happy that I went, and feel lucky to have been as close to one of my heroes as I'm likely to ever be. At this point, I go into events like these expecting the audience to degenerate into giggles and trivia, so I wasn't surprised that this is what happened. On the other hand, Mr. Whedon's moving speech was worth the price of admission and given that this seems to be a turning point in his career [look out for an upcoming post about the director's shift into the online sphere] I'm happy to have seen him now.