simplerich

I was listening to Mur Lafferty’s Lessons from a Geek Fu Master today and one of the chapters was talking about fun and having fun. There was talk about adults disparaging attitude toward games. I talked about something similar recently in my review of The Last Airbender. In that I talked about how M. Night had taken the fun out of Aang’s character in an attempt to make what was a kid’s cartoon into an adult story. The sense that it couldn’t be fun if it were for adults was the only reason I could think of that he’d take the fun out of the movie.

I was recently talking to my mom about reading Young Adult fiction. I’m a fan and I’m 40. She’s a fan and she’s 32. We both read it not because it’s the extent of Harry Potter our reading ability. We read it because we enjoy them. Young Adult fiction is often fun. is fun to read. The Percy Jackson books are fun to read. There are others. They’re fun. “Oh,” says the adult in the seat next to me, “what simple books, like candy for the brain! Such a fast read. I much prefer Hodgens McStuffystein’s book about the travails of the Indians along the Trail of Tears as told from the point of view of a louse. You really MUST read the 12 volume set! It will change your perception of…” What? Really? That’s what I want to do in my few minutes of time to read while eating my breakfast or before I go to bed after a long day at work? No! I want to have fun! I want an adventure! I want excitement! I want fun! I want laughter! I want pain and suffering that I KNOW will turn out OK!

I’m a fan of games. I have an xbox 360 and I like it a lot. I have a Nintendo DS handheld gaming unit and I like it as well. I play games for run. Nope. They’re not typically all that edifying. I don’t believe the skills transfer to real life either. The only exception to that is after years of playing Diablo back when usenet was usenet and fan-fic was cool (and less slashy). I made some great friends back then and have them to this day, and stay in touch and everything… met them in real life and all that. You’re wondering what skill I learned in that game that transferred to real life? I can bash a barrel with the best of them! All I have to do is SEE the confounded hoop ringed demons and I’ll start itching to bust them to pieces! (OK. I’m back now… sorry… a flashback to an inside joke took over my keyboard.)*

Where was I? I just got back from typing the footnote, you’ve GOT to read it, and follow the links to some of my early stuff. 1999… I’ve been online for a long time you youngsters. Show me some respect!

Fun. Mur’s podcast chapter was about games being fun and about fun being something we’re evidently supposed to grow out of at some point. I haven’t grown out of having fun yet. I get looks sometimes, and I have people think I’m younger than I am, and it’s not because I look younger, God knows I look every day of my 40 something years… but I hope I don’t act it yet. I hope that I’m responsible and get my bills paid on time (I do.) but I hope also that I remember not only how to have fun but that it’s OK to have fun. You see people having fun when they have their kids or grand kids with them… using the kids as an excuse to let go and have fun but we don’t have to do that as adults. We’re allowed to enjoy books, games, movies and life without having to make up an excuse for having had fun. Fun is the reason we do things. It’s not something we should be ashamed of or hide or try and make an excuse for it. If you haven’t had fun today fix that. Do something fun. Not just that you like, but something that makes you grin from ear to ear, giggle like a kid, and when you’re done look up at your adult self and say, “Let’s do it again!”

*Inside joke funny. I made up a pseudonym BKDaemon in 1999 (And the female version in July of 99) to post provocative posts about barrel bashing in alt.games.diablo. He, BKDaemon, even figured in some fan fics I wrote. The thing is… someone in real life took the name, probably by accident, surely not to rip me off, that’d be ridiculous, but someone else out there is using the name to write fan fic lol. A fan fic character I wrote is serving as a pseudonym!

(As an aside I think some of my writing constipation has been that I’ve been taking this thing too seriously and haven’t been having the fun with it that I should have. I don’t mean every post has to be a galumphing romp through the buttercup strewn wabe (two points if you put the reference in the comments), just that I can relax a little and post. No, they won’t be all home runs, and no they won’t all be literary masterpieces, but they’ll be better than silence… at least I hope they will be.)

Yours,
Rich G.