Recently I stumbled over some youtube shorts of the television series Freaks and Geeks. In particular the short surrounding the Geeks inviting one of the other characters to their D&D game caught my eye.
This seems to be a great show. I have to say though that I think the writer of the series fell into the Freak crowd way more than the Geek crowd.
Sure. The guy behind the DM screen bears an unsettling resemblance to some of the players I met way back in the day when I was firmly entrenched in the Geek camp. However, the writer(s) constantly pushes the notion that the primary yearning of every single Geek at that D&D table is to somehow fit in and be accepted...to somehow want to join the throngs of popular kids or at the very least be squarely accepted into the ranks of the beautiful people picked out to play the cast of the "Freak" characters on the show.
From what I recall the reality couldn't be farther from the truth. We played D&D because it was fun and something that served as an excuse for us all to get together and goof around. The stories that would unfold around those early gaming tables were sometimes campy and sometimes strained but they were also occasionally epic and cool...best of all they were created by all of us sitting at the table. Secondly and more importantly I don't think a single one of the guys in my old high school D&D group would have wanted to join the ranks of the so called popular kids even if you paid them.
Being part of the D&D playing, Zepplin listening, non-jock, non-madonna listening, non-popular kid crew at school was our own rebellion against everything that just sucked major ass about that group and most (not all) but most of the people in them.
This was especially true being a guy. My experience with the jock crowd in my own school was that they felt that anyone that actually cracked open a book was lame, that the only really important thing was pushing people around, acting out some tiny dick macho bullshit delusion in a lame ass attempt to make themselves feel superior to everyone else...
Yeah. I loathed those guys. I liked to read. I liked history and science. I was glad to be in the circle of kids who understood the value of friendship and who stuck together in the face of all the stupid bullshit thrown at them needlessly by the jock and popular crowd.
To this day whenever I see someone lamely and I think erroneously painting us geeks as oh so desperately and pathetically seeking the approval of the jocks and popular kids I just want to jam one middle finger up each of their nostrils.
The D&D guys...just to set the record straight...were perfectly happy being the D&D guys and most of us had absolutely zero interest in being accepted by anyone other than our own circle of friends.
Friends I'd add that I've retained in large part, close friends, for most of the last thirty years.
D&D geeks of the past I salute you...and fuck being popular.
No comments:
Post a Comment