"Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks": A Review
My sister lapetitelune enthusiastically recommended this book to me: Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks by Ethan Gilsdorf. A book about fantasy and gaming? Should be a slam dunk with me, right? Well, not really...
From the product description:
An amazing journey through the thriving worlds of fantasy and gaming.
In this enthralling blend of travelogue, pop culture analysis, and memoir, forty-year-old former Dungeons & Dragons addict Ethan Gilsdorf embarks on a quest that begins in his own geeky teenage past and ends in our online gaming future. He asks, Who are these gamers and fantasy fans? What explains the irresistible appeal of such "escapist" adventures? And what could one man find if he embarked on a journey through one fantasy world after another?
The book evokes, in me anyway, the famous Parable of the Prodigal Son returning after so many years to great celebration. That parable always irked me when I was younger and learning about it in Sunday school. It took forever for me to grok what was even trying to be said with that parable -- it simply made no sense to me -- and even then I'm still not sure if I 100% agree with its message. I never did like that prodigal son. In "Fantasy Freaks", the author was a fantasy freak and D&D geek in high school but "grew out of it". Then, decades later, with the onset of the Lord of the Rings trilogy he tries to "return to his roots" and immerse himself in it again. Once I realized that I was viewing his journey through that lens, I tried to back off a bit, but that definitely colored my early reactions to the book.
Now, if you're reading this blog you probably already know that I'm a sci-fi/fantasy freak and gaming geek (and if you didn't, why have you been reading me?). However, it never occurred to me to label this as "escapism", yet Gilsdorf throws this term about a lot. I simply don't see any of it as anything fundamentally different than any other form of recreation or social experience. I also kinda took offense to the negative connotations that he associated with fantasy fans "trying to escape", whereas so called normal people don't.
The author, middle aged at the time of writing the book, grew up in a time when fantasy and gaming wasn't as socially acceptable as it is now. In that respect I'm rather lucky. The original Revenge of the Nerds came out a year after I was born, and I grew up during the Triumph of the Nerds. Even if it wasn't exactly "cool" to be a nerd, there was still an amount of "geek pride" developing that I was able to tap into. So I never felt the need to "grow out of it", and indeed in college I embraced the geek identity even further. I may not broadcast it as much as others, but that's more due to being naturally reserved and not wanting to let random people into my inner domain than out of any fear of "geek oppression".
I was hoping for more of an answer to the first question ("Who are these gamers and fantasy fans?"), but with a whirlwind of personal interviews all over the globe I didn't feel like I got a good handle on anyone. Nor did I get any good "big picture" view, but I suppose that's to be expected with any extremely diverse group of people. It was on the third question ("what could one man find?") that I think the book succeeded most. The book ended up being mostly about Ethan Gilsdorf (even if he didn't want it to be), and about some of the tragedy and trials of his life. In that, it was a very authentic, sincere, and personal story. Although at times it comes across as just a whiny mid-life crisis. Also on that track, the rest of the book just "got in the way" of completing that emotional arc. It ended up making the book feel haphazard.
In the end, I don't feel like I need any sort of explanation into the culture of gamers and fantasy fans. I'd be more interested in reading an exposition on why NON-gamers and NON-fans seem so often to find fans "weird" or even sometimes "threatening". Why DON'T they like these things, too, or at least why don't they understand why others like them? THAT, I think, would be a more interesting sociological study to read :-) . I can understand (even if I don't agree with) religious objections to fantasy. But what about science fiction, or historical reenactment, or roleplaying modern day cops-and-robbers? Why would these be stigmatized? anailia suggested that some people lack the imagination to be able to get into sci/fi fantasy and gaming. Is that it, or is there anything else? Help me understand :-)