At the local park on Saturdays, there's a group of mid-twenty year olds who take to whacking each other with foamed Nerf weapons of medieval warfare. It's both entertaining and sad at the same time. I think the saddest part, is that somewhere deep down, I kind of want to go join them in their battle for Middle Earth. Despite the social awkwardness of it all; the complete lack of grooming; and the overabundance of unkempt Metallica hair loosely braided into a ponytail, they are all having fun. And I, I am sitting on a park bench, half watching my kids climb up the metal slide (after the ONE BILLIONTH time I've told them not to), and half dreaming of being child-like and thwacking other kids with homemade Nerf instruments of torture.
But cosplay (costume play) and larping (live action role playing) is just so...weird. I'm trying not to be judgmental. Of all the young people doing dangerous or YOLO-ish things, cosplay kids aren't hurting anyone (other than a random foam tip to eyeball every now and then), so why does their "pretending" seem so odd to me?
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| Mortal Kombat? Totally believable. Hopefully they gave lots of fatalities. |
Maybe because years ago I decided that "dress-up" ended on Halloween. I like Star Wars. I loved it at one point. I used to pretend I was Boba Fett and/or Luke Skywalker as a small child, and one year my wife got me one of those really fancy "Ultimate Lightsabers." However, I don't think the Force is a real phenomenon. There's a thin membrane between nerd and zealot, and I decided that a life of enjoying the SW franchise was better than taking an oath of celibacy to become a fanatic.
But, Chris, isn't that an antiquated view of adult dress-up? Many of these larping, costumed heroes are ending up in each other's arms, interlocking their ponytails like they are Na'vi from Avatar, and gasp, having lots of bioluminescent sex.
And that thought keeps a bottle of Pepto Bismo stocked in my cupboard. It makes me sometimes think World War III wouldn't be so bad.
Why so disgusted by it?
No, not disgusted at all. Heck, even I thought Leia Organa was hot in her Jabba slave outfit in 1983, but she's not real. Carrie Fisher is real, but not many Star Wars fans would line up to see her don that infamous bikini today. Leia, Luke, Star Wars, Star Trek, Pokémon, Batman, King Arthur...they're all made up. Great characters with intricate back stories, but less real than your boring boss (whom you've never fantasized about).
So why do I care?
Because we have the TIME and BOREDOM to want to live as fairy tale people. We aren't happy in our own skin. We have to dress up like fake people and pretend to live out their happiness. We want our girlfriends or boyfriends or spouses to be someone with more Hollywood appeal; someone sexier. We want to pretend that other people's lives are more adventurous, exciting, and passionate than our own. And that's a disservice to our significant others, and a disservice to ourselves.
Just image how strange it would be if someone dressed up like YOU, and tried to resimulate key moments of your life, like your wedding (or your wedding night). How insanely weird is that?
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| The reason Greedo shot first (not originally) was because Han Solo's blaster had to power up with steam. |
But please don't do it at the park. I pay a lot of property tax to take my kids there (and thoroughly not enjoy myself while my kids break every common sense safety rule). It's not fair to look over at mostly unemployed adults enjoying my park with fantastical Nerf toys. Plus I'm jealous of your pony tails. I don't know why.
In conclusion to a blog that had no real point, I guess I should be happy. These are the warriors of our times. These larpers are modern day Spartans or Apache warriors or Samurai. When WWIII comes, we will be ready, with Batman, Boba Fett, and Beetlejuice...as long as JoAnn Fabrics is still around, we will be just fine.
Fun post, Chris. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteThanks Mike. It was a little all over the place, though.
DeleteUh, larpers? I guess I'm old. Sure, there's nothing wrong with a little fantasy role-play, but like you, I find it inauthentic and very dissatisfying. I save my fantasies for my reading and writing material, thankyouverymuch.
ReplyDeleteAlthough I still love dressing up on Halloween...
My first reaction when I saw it AT MY PARK, was, "Wow, I'm getting old."
DeleteOh well, as long as they aren't hurting anyone (although something tells me they are hurting their own psyche; believing this is reality).
Hi - Through the ages everyone has 'played' the movies - our dads were John Wayne or cool hand luke cowboys and Indians, then came cops and bank robbers Redford style, my kids played Harry Potter with spells and potions and are still on Pottermore, you are welcome to Googliness - watch 'Internship' movie. :) just have fun and think on your theme for your 50th birthday parties - Grease, Beatles, Avatars or King Arthur Medieval ball? enjoy your dinner parties - leave the park to the kids - remember main ingredient for being alive is sense of humour???! Next blog I'm looking forward to Your Movie Script! Not getting old, just gotta go to movies again once in a while - in real life theatre.
DeleteAny time you want to be Edward Teach or Jean Lafitte on my pirate boat let me know and we'll go marauding with nerf swords.
ReplyDeleteGreat! Can we attack Glen's boat?
DeleteWith all due respect, I have to call you out on this one. You're trying really hard not to be judgemental but you're not succeeding very well and to be honest, I think you're making a lot of assumptions about people that you don't have much basis for. Sure, there are those who are WAY TOO into their fantasy worlds, and that can be damaging to themselves and their relationships. The vast majority of cosplayers though, are surprisingly normal people who just have an unconventional hobby.
ReplyDeleteYou're not the first person I've gone up against on this subject, because no one ever takes me for "one of those people". I look normal. I'm happily married. I'm a mother of two. I build costumes for local theatre companies and sometimes I even make money at it. So more than one aquaintence has made the mistake of referring to cosplay as "weird" in my presence.
Six months ago I went to Emerald City Comicon dressed as the Tenth Doctor from Doctor Who (yes, a woman, dressed as a man). My sister dressed as the Eleventh Doctor and I even got my husband to join in as the Ninth. We had a great time. We went to panels and marvelled at displays. We traded compliments with strangers on the quality of our costumes. We took our kids with us and they were thrilled.
Next month I will be taking my five-year old daughter to Geek Girl Con and we will cosplay. Choosing, designing, building, and wearing outfits is something we have fun doing together and I hope will be a part of our relationship for a long time (at least until she becomes a teenager and is temporarily "too cool" for such things).
So perhaps you can see why it irks me when you suggest that this hobby of mine is unhealthy or shouldn't be practiced in public. I, for example, can't stand baseball. I find it boring and for the life of me I will never understand how someone can spend so much time watching absolutely nothing happen. But I don't get peevish if people want to play it at the park where I take my kids. Is that because baseball is "normal" and cosplay is not? Are those really the parameters we want to set for ourselves and our kids?
Well articulated. I wondered when and/if I would get called out. Well done.
DeleteYou're right. I don't know enough about it. I know some of my former students do it, and get lost in the realities of what's real and what's make believe, and have no grasp of social norms. I do worry about them.
Obviously, somebody like you, who can form a rationale argument, is not who I was referring to.
As a baseball player, I completely understand where you are coming from, and appreciate a good joke at the expense of "boring" baseball. Those who play it, understand its intricacies...otherwise, mock away.
But was I going after a cheap, easy target? Yeah I was. Most of it was tongue-in-cheek. I can see how it is enjoyable to those participating, yes, but it still is, uh...funny to me.
Love the quirkiness of Doctor Who, but still won't dress up as him. To each his own.
I really like baseball and find it "irking" that you would have such founded opinions about a game you mentioned "you will never understand". You play your games and I won't judge you but don't judge me either. I'm about the farthest thing from boring--
DeleteChris, Thank you. I have been following the blog for about a year now and I am familiar with your style, so I knew not to take you too seriously. In truth, your worries are not completely unfounded. I also know people who are unhappy with real life and blur the lines between fantasy and reality as a means of escapism. It's not good. But those people are the exception, not the rule, and the behavior is a symptom, not the actual problem.
DeleteI, on the other hand, spent my own youth constantly trying to adjust my likes and hobbies to meet others' expectations, which is also unhealthy. I finally broke that nasty habit in my mid 20s. Now I cheerfully destroy stereotypes by getting equally excited about football (GO DUCKS!) and Harry Potter. While LARP and D&D are beyond my range, I am careful not to be disdainful because I don't like people demeaning the things that I enjoy.
Finally, it occurs to me that commenting anonymously (which I did because I don't have any of the accounts necessary to post a signed comment) is rather disingenuous if I'm claiming to be so proud of my geekdom. You and I don't know each other, but I graduated SHS in 1999 and I am aquainted with Jill.
-Christina Northup
Thanks for reading Christina, and Go Millers.
DeleteI actually thought more people would get upset, as I have at least 10 Facebook friends who I know participate in LARP or cosplay. I kept waiting for one of them to get upset and call me a bastard. Most of my friends know I'm kind of a bastard at times, especially when it comes to dumb jokes.
I don't get it.
ReplyDeletesigned, Janet from hippie '60s Santa Cruz.
That's okay Janet...read the above comment, it will fill you in a little more.
DeleteChris, maybe you should join. You could play along but completely act like nothing they do hurts. Just keep telling them that your super force field doesn't let you get hurt and just keep wailing away with your own nerf gizmo. After a few weeks of that, I bet they'll leave.
ReplyDeleteIt would be a lot like my high school PE classes, where I took it entirely too seriously, and nearly got suspended for how intensely I played dodgeball. Competition is always good for me.
DeleteWhen I first heard of larpers, I laughed my ass off! But then I walked in my room, saw my Magic cards, and thought, it'd be kinda cool to actually act out a battle dressed as an awesome character instead of just slapping cards down on a table. I didn't realize how nerdy/geeky I was until that moment. And I think you're right; for me, the desire was out of wanting to escape my reality for a little bit. The thought of being someone super cool with magical powers appealed more to me than living out my actual life. And that *is* a scary and sad notion. Nowadays, the idea still appeals to me, but not so much as an escape, but rather, a chance to be somewhat social and interact with people. However, I'm painfully shy, and hate acting in any capacity, so I think I'd do better at dressing up for a convention where I could just walk around looking cool, but keeping to myself.
ReplyDeleteAs for anyone, whatever gets you out of the house and interacting with good people, it can't be bad, right?
DeleteThat probably should of been my attitude when I wrote the piece, but I was especially facetious that day.
I have friends (about four) who have larped before larping was a word. I even dated their brother. For whatever reason they have the highest college degrees out of most of my friends. I think it's because they aspired to higher goals and larped off the stress of college challenges. One of my friends whom I've known since we were ten told me at a recent party that we reconnected at, "Natalie, I never thought you really liked me." This was sad to me because she was the first friend I had at school and although we didn't hang out very much in high-school, I always thought we had some sort of friendship. I now realize (especially with teaching high-schoolers and observing their interactions), that if you make fun of one of their passions--they assume you don't like them. Apparently this was over my head in high-school and I thought I had achieved the status of accepting every social and sub group in my high-school while also distancing myself just enough to be considered a normal functioning teenager. I have definitely seen perversion in the whole cosplay culture, and I would be wary before taking my own children or encouraging my students to go to an event unless I knew the people. But dress up is fun--and can be fun and innocent and healthy with the right group of friends. There are so many sub groups of NERD, and even though I thought I wasn't a lot of them in High-school, I most definitely was. I just didn't realize it. I was a theatre nerd, a music nerd, a wanna-be bookworm... I even dated a gamer and I could translate L33t speech. I dressed funny and my parents were my best friends (especially senior year). Somehow my "dignity" is what kept me from doing what I considered the ultimate "home-schooler" nerd stuff--such as cosplaying and larping. But I probably would have had a ton of fun doing them. So maybe you and I should join a group. It's never too late to get over the fears of being a nerd. And... not just a nerd who thinks he/she is actually cool, but a nerd who knows that he/she is indeed a nerd. As far as the pony-tail though, I'd rather you grow a rat tail.
ReplyDeleteNo to the rat tail, but a padawan tail, YES! I could be a Jedi in training! Now I just need to find a Jedi to actually teach me the ways of the force.
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