2008 Woodie Awards
Sucks To Your Escapism
How 'bout Them Apples
Phil Garrison
Issue date: 11/30/01 Section: Features
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I am not a frequent moviegoer, but this X-tide break (that’s Christmas break to you, Churchy), I finally caved and went to see Lord of the Rings. All I could think about as I was watching it was that there are people who, during their free time, try to recreate the sort of fantasy world that is portrayed in the movie. Just what makes these folks tick? Why does this lifestyle appeal to them? The last thing that sounds fun to me is to pretend I am someone or something else, so how exactly am I different from this clan of people?
I never got into the fantasy role-playing scene. Until I came to college, I didn’t realize how many and how intensely people were into it. Here at Hendrix “gaming” seems to be thriving, and I say more power to them. I love to see people enjoying their hobbies. The world would be a much better place if more people could channel their energies into an enjoyable activity of some sort. Too bad some of these hobbies involve dressing up as vampires and running around frantically, all the while claiming to enjoy the “darker” side of life. That’s all fine and dandy. Just please don’t make this activity the defining characteristic of your life. All people have innate values and skills within themselves that can be applied to something worthwhile. Getting way too caught up in an eastern European folk tale from an earlier time seems to be silly when one could be out doing something beneficial to society. I certainly haven’t seen people running around participating in Promethean-themed role-playing, shouting about finally giving fire to mankind and repeated liver-eating. Why is that? At least that would be symbolically beneficial to the world.
All I can do is watch from the sidelines and attempt to fathom how that form of entertainment is fun. The most likely source for my confusion is the fact that I have a difficult time enjoying anything that is heavily escapist, including raves, video games, sports, drugs, and religion, for example. This sounds quite conservative, but I tend to feel that people ought not to fear facing reality head on, even if it is scary. Sure, there are ugly, unhappy aspects of my own life and they are often quite overpowering. I reason them out, however. Fantasy games just seem to avoid addressing the problem.
I never got into the fantasy role-playing scene. Until I came to college, I didn’t realize how many and how intensely people were into it. Here at Hendrix “gaming” seems to be thriving, and I say more power to them. I love to see people enjoying their hobbies. The world would be a much better place if more people could channel their energies into an enjoyable activity of some sort. Too bad some of these hobbies involve dressing up as vampires and running around frantically, all the while claiming to enjoy the “darker” side of life. That’s all fine and dandy. Just please don’t make this activity the defining characteristic of your life. All people have innate values and skills within themselves that can be applied to something worthwhile. Getting way too caught up in an eastern European folk tale from an earlier time seems to be silly when one could be out doing something beneficial to society. I certainly haven’t seen people running around participating in Promethean-themed role-playing, shouting about finally giving fire to mankind and repeated liver-eating. Why is that? At least that would be symbolically beneficial to the world.
All I can do is watch from the sidelines and attempt to fathom how that form of entertainment is fun. The most likely source for my confusion is the fact that I have a difficult time enjoying anything that is heavily escapist, including raves, video games, sports, drugs, and religion, for example. This sounds quite conservative, but I tend to feel that people ought not to fear facing reality head on, even if it is scary. Sure, there are ugly, unhappy aspects of my own life and they are often quite overpowering. I reason them out, however. Fantasy games just seem to avoid addressing the problem.