The Elfish Gene - Another attack on gamers

Jonny Nexus

First Post
Not quite sure if it's a good idea to raise this particular thread from the dead, but if any of the UKers on ENWorld would like to have a chance to chat with Mark Barrowcliffe, the author of the Elfish Gene, he will be appearing at a panel/seminar at Dragonmeet this Saturday, alongside me.

(So if you do want to throw things I'd appreciate if you picked items of the non-splattering variety). :)

In all seriousness, Mark's a really nice guy and I'm sure he'll be pretty entertaining and informative on the panel. I met up with him the other weekend (we both live in Brighton) and it was very cool hearing some of the background to the stories in the book.

Dragonmeet's at Kensington Town Hall (a few minutes walk from High Street Kensington tube) on Saturday 28th November.

http://www.dragonmeet.co.uk/
 

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pawsplay

Hero
Just read it. Quirky, but hilarious, and also sweet. Affectionate, loving, morally aware. I was really struck by how much of it resonated with me, the obsession with fantasy, the alienation as a young adult, the dread of boredom, the toleration of abuse within early gaming relationships, etc. At the same time, I was struck by how different my experience was. Gaming was, is, a source of self-steem, a special way of looking at the world, a font of creativity, a milieu for developing social skills, exercising the mind, and being productive. The thing that pains me about the book is the frequent use of the word "addiction," which I never felt gaming was for me. Briefly, in the late 90s, I thought I was about grown out of it; in retrospect, it was probably the darkest time in my life, and I lost interesting in gaming primarily because I lost interest in life. It is kind of sad that the author, in talking about his self-loathing and his reflexive use of sarcasm, cannot resist those impulses in his memoir. Particularly, I felt his description of the older gaming group at the end to be uncharitable; not everyone over twenty who games is an addict. My penchant for odd trivia and pop philosophy probably strikes some people as strange, but to me it is a gift to go through life with curiosity, knowledge, and openness to the nontraditional.

In reflection, there are probably a number of reasons why my view is more positive, probably not the least that I was a geek polymath, someone who's interest in D&D didn't simply concentrate in fantasy posters and heavy metal, but also in endlessly rewatching Star Wars, reading Civil Wars history, and studying physics. Maybe that makes a difference, dividing your sources of self-esteem so that no one avenue dominates you. Perhaps also it is generational, with myself living in America and starting almost four years later... changes in the masculine culture may have been kinder to my situation. He describes fleeing from LARPs in embarrassment, whereas I dove in with gusto. He speaks of the rarity of the female wargamer; I certainly met them in college, and studied extensively the question of what, exactly, would make someone attractive to such a person. I married a fellow nerd, and we are surely raising little nerdlings of our own. I feel like RPGs have brought virtually nothing but goodness into my life, and I consider the occasional weirdo, antisocial type, the momentary public embarassment, to be a small price to play. Anyway, I won't go in the vein at the risk of sounding self-indulgent.

Summary: Good book. Pleasant and warm. Also not a bad experience for gaining self-reflection. Highly recommended. If you are still in the stages of shedding your awkward self-loathing, take the contained wisdom with a grain of salt.
 


Herschel

Adventurer
It's funny to be the constant target of abuse labeled as humor?


You mean because I was a a three-sport jock (and one in to college)?

And a musician? (Brass and a rock drummer)

Grew up on a farm? Near a small town?

Work in finance with data?

Like wine, cheese, beer and sushi?

Aspire to be a gourmet cook?

Live in the suburbs?

People make fun of EVERYTHING. Deal with it. I'm just glad I'm tall so I don't have to deal with short jokes.
 


houndstooth

First Post
A message from author of Elfish Gene

Wow, didn't know this thread was still going until Jonny Nexus pointed it out to me.
First, thanks to all the people who have said such positive things about The Elfish Gene. I'm really glad there are so many people who 'get' the book.
Second, sorry to anyone who's been offended by it. That wasn't my intention.
To offer a little background, I wrote the first and last chapters at the same time - the very last things I wrote for the book. They were written after I'd had something of a depressing experience at a gaming night and, in retrospect, were harsher on gamers than they needed to be. I wouldn't substantially change anything if I could rewrite the book but I would perhaps make it clearer in chapter one that what I am writing about in The Elfish Gene isn't really D&D at all but masculinity. It's a very particular coming of age story, as much about how a very young boy is rejected by, eventually accepted by and finally rejects a group of slightly older boys as it is about slicing up goblins.
I should have moved forward that bit where I say that the only way D&D was to blame for the pressure cooker of sniping, back biting and personality assassination that characterised my youth was that it gave seven or eight boys an excuse to sit in a room together for their entire teenage years. There's nothing intrinsic about the game, beyond that, that had such a stunting effect on my social development. And, in the interests of scientific objectivity, it must be said we didn't have a control group to test against.
It seems to me, though, that football, rugby, fishing, martial arts and other hobbies have a way of churning out socially stunted gits too. In fact, as I say in the book, the whole social system in the seventies and eighties seemed designed to turn men into fools. As you'd know if you'd read any of my other books, 'men are fools' is pretty much a theme of my work. Like most hobbies and games D&D had its own brand of git but also had many redeeming features.
If you remove a tiny bit of chapter one and a slightly larger chunk of the final chapter you have a very fond memoir of D&D. Like I said, now I've attended a D&D con and started playing again my view is different to what it was when I'd just finished the book. It didn't help that, on the gaming evening I attended for research, one of the players was the spitting image of my old tormentor Chigger and seemed to have a few of his arrogant traits too. I thought 'oh my God, nothing's changed at all'.
This was bad luck, really as it seems to me now that many of the people playing the game today are slightly better adjusted than the general population. They're mostly too old to care about fashion, they cleave to something because they love it and for no other reason and, on the whole, they're pretty bright. I hope that, in the next edition of the book, I'll have the chance to say that.
Anyway, I did finally get drawn back in to fantasy. You can take the boy out of Mordor but you can't take Mordor out of the boy. I've written a fantasy novel called Wolfsangel under the pen name MD Lachlan which is out May 2010, published by Gollancz. It's had very nice things said about it so far by Joe Abercrombie, who needs no introduction Joe Abercrombie - News
and Adam Roberts who, apart from being a kick-bottom author, is also SFF critic for The Guardian (UK national newspaper) . His comments on the book are here PUNKADIDDLE: M D Lachlan, Wolfsangel (2010)
The books about a werewolf and it's set in - I hope - a historically accurate Viking age.
I'm designing an RPG to come out at the same time as the game but, I'm quite sure, it won't be ready by then as I'm currently writing the sequel to the novel.
My own new blog is at M D Lachlan ».
 

Summary: Good book. Pleasant and warm. Also not a bad experience for gaining self-reflection. Highly recommended. If you are still in the stages of shedding your awkward self-loathing, take the contained wisdom with a grain of salt.

Nod. I agree with your comments. I read over the Christmas 2008 break, and had pretty much the same views of it.

I did feel sorry for the author's "nice" gamer friend. I thought about how that guy's character got caught in a Mirror of Life Trapping, and I thought it would neat to free him in an adventure, especially if the players had read the book . . .
 

S'mon

Legend
It seems to me, though, that football, rugby, fishing, martial arts and other hobbies have a way of churning out socially stunted gits too. In fact, as I say in the book, the whole social system in the seventies and eighties seemed designed to turn men into fools. As you'd know if you'd read any of my other books, 'men are fools' is pretty much a theme of my work. Like most hobbies and games D&D had its own brand of git but also had many redeeming features. M D Lachlan ».

I'm not sure if hobbyism really does/did any harm. Better that boys and men are interacting over their shared interests than be socially isolated with only the TV and computer for company. :) When I was at University I didn't play RPGs - I did have a few friends, we mostly hung out and drank alcohol. In retrospect that was a grimmer time than when I was playing D&D daily in school. Not having D&D didn't make me better socially adjusted, just more bored. Now I have a wife, child, and regular D&D group*. :)

*With female players, too!
 

Nifft

Penguin Herder
I'm not sure if hobbyism really does/did any harm.
I agree with you. Socially damaged people tend to accumulate in hobbies, though -- every non-lethal hobby -- because you can't get fired from a hobby. It's that simple, I'm afraid.

Cheers, -- N
 

S'mon

Legend
I agree with you. Socially damaged people tend to accumulate in hobbies, though -- every non-lethal hobby -- because you can't get fired from a hobby. It's that simple, I'm afraid.

Cheers, -- N

Maybe, but I've fired a lot of socially damaged players from my D&D group, unfortunately. Happy to say it's nearly a year since I last had to do that, though.
 

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