Fighting Monsters
Tonight, I was fortunate enough to attend a live taping of This American Life at Lincoln Center. In addition to brilliant performances by Sarah Vowell, Jonathan Goldstein, Dan Savage and Mates of State, Ira Glass previewed clips from the new TV version of the radio show, soon to air on Showtime. (The show looks amazing, by the way. It almost makes me wish I had cable.)
One story from the show centers around Joe, a 14 year-old kid from Western Massachusetts. Joe likes playing video games, Dungeons and Dragons with his friends and staging mock battles with his homemade cardboard armory. What Joe doesn't like is love. Love, he attests, makes you stupid. It makes you hurt and unhappy. So what's the use? Even as every adult around him tells him that's not true, it's just a phase, you'll change your mind when you're older -- Joe is resolute. He will never fall in love. He'll never have sex. He just can't see the point.
It seems like Joe may have something there. Without the hassles of young love, he's a pretty happy kid. But can he really go his whole life without giving or receiving love? In the interview, Glass pressed him, asking if there were any circumstances in which Joe might conceivably change his mind. He conceded that if he found a portal that would take him into the world of D&D, he could possibly see himself falling for someone (presumably with high ability scores and a way with a claymore). Together, they'd roam the countryside, fighting monsters together.
That's pretty much what it's all about, isn't it? Despite his disdain for love, Joe struck on the core of what love is all about -- it's about finding someone to fight monsters with. Someone to get your back in a fight, sew up your wounds, sharpen your broadsword. When the shit goes down, it's the person you want by your side to take down the evil drooly thing with the big-sharp-pointy-teeth.
Here's a clip from the show. May we all find someone to fight monsters with.
One story from the show centers around Joe, a 14 year-old kid from Western Massachusetts. Joe likes playing video games, Dungeons and Dragons with his friends and staging mock battles with his homemade cardboard armory. What Joe doesn't like is love. Love, he attests, makes you stupid. It makes you hurt and unhappy. So what's the use? Even as every adult around him tells him that's not true, it's just a phase, you'll change your mind when you're older -- Joe is resolute. He will never fall in love. He'll never have sex. He just can't see the point.
It seems like Joe may have something there. Without the hassles of young love, he's a pretty happy kid. But can he really go his whole life without giving or receiving love? In the interview, Glass pressed him, asking if there were any circumstances in which Joe might conceivably change his mind. He conceded that if he found a portal that would take him into the world of D&D, he could possibly see himself falling for someone (presumably with high ability scores and a way with a claymore). Together, they'd roam the countryside, fighting monsters together.
That's pretty much what it's all about, isn't it? Despite his disdain for love, Joe struck on the core of what love is all about -- it's about finding someone to fight monsters with. Someone to get your back in a fight, sew up your wounds, sharpen your broadsword. When the shit goes down, it's the person you want by your side to take down the evil drooly thing with the big-sharp-pointy-teeth.
Here's a clip from the show. May we all find someone to fight monsters with.
posted by karen at 12:10 AM
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