do you take the well-lit, descending tunnel to your left or the dark passageway with a slight breeze on your right?
i just got back from swimming this morning. i feel great! so, now i'm drinking a cup of warmed up coffee while some oatmeal is heating up on the stove.
i sat in on a class at the university yesterday; it's the second time this semester i've gone to the class. it's taught by a professor that i know and really like. the first day i came, he told the class "public education should be free. if you know anyone who's interested in coming to this class, please invite them." the class is called Capitalism and Global Ethnic Conflicts.
it's been some time since i've sat in a desk in an official class. it's enjoyable being able to listen to the teacher and all the various perspectives from other students--there are lots of different experiences and ways of seeing the world that people bring to that setting and it's great to be able to listen and interact with that dynamic.
and here is some exciting news: at the public library there are some shelves devoted to books available for donations (.10-$1.00 a book) that go towards the library (i've been picking up some books there for the books-to-prisoner project). well, i was dropping off a book last week in the outdoor slot--i wasn't planning on going inside--when i had a feeling. i went in and scanned the shelves, my eyes stopping on three familiar book spines--fighting fantasy books! there were three different ones--caverns of the snow witch, deathtrap dungeon, and island of the lizard king. do you know these kind of books? they're what lots of folks call gamebooks and, really, they are solo roleplaying books that usually utilize a choose-your-own-adventure type format augmented with dice (or other random number generator), various character attributes, fairly complex plots, and often narratives that continue from one book to another.
it's been awhile since i've happened across some of these kinds of books. i really like them and have since i was a kid and was reading the lone wolf series. the lone wolf books really captivated me--i remember waiting eagerly for the next in the series to come out, going to the bookstore in the mall and checking the shelf to see if it had arrived. these books had a continuity that progressed from book to book; as you kept playing the same character, the story continued to unfold and develop, oftentimes referencing experiences that had occurred in previous books. this added to the sense of character and plot development and heightened the feeling of authenticity of the world created in the stories.
there were lots of other series written in the 1980s. Grailquest, with it's idiosyncrasies, humor, and darkness, was another i read. and, of course, the fighting fantasy books. many of those are full of mazes and dank dungeons, strange encounters, and fantastic creatures. and there are others, too.
a few summers ago, i went on a hitchhiking trip up to north dakota. it was the first time i had tried a long-distance trip like that and it was incredible. after visiting my grandparents and some friends for awhile in bismarck, i took an early morning bus out to medora, then spent several days hiking and camping in the badlands. the night before catching the bus back to bismarck, i camped on a sandbar on the little missouri river, just outside of town. i remember feeling free. it was one of the most incredible nights of my life. i suppose it was a combination of several things--the whole trip in general, the camping in the badlands, swimming in the river, sleeping on the sand, the proximity of the bridge and road and town that night, and the immensity of the night sky.
the first night i camped on the way up to bismarck, i was near spearfish, south dakota. and it really felt to me like a solo roleplaying book. that's why i started thinking about this trip as i was writing about those old gamebooks. a man driving a work van (i think he was employed with some cable company) dropped me off in the late afternoon. i remember that this person said he read all the books his son read--they'd read them at the same time. anyway, i wasn't very familiar with traveling like that and i began trying to decide what to do next--try for another ride, look for a place to spend the night and, if so, where (near the overpass that a creek flowed under, walk a ways out of town, look for something further down the creek). as i was considering the options i could think of, it suddenly dawned on me how much it felt like one of those books--do you take the path with the prints of a large animal through the forest, or do you decide to follow the road west, or do you make camp in the forest for the night?
well, i really hadn't anticipated writing about all that when i sat down here while breakfast cooked. i guess that's one thing i like about writing--sometimes it just kinda goes.
i sat in on a class at the university yesterday; it's the second time this semester i've gone to the class. it's taught by a professor that i know and really like. the first day i came, he told the class "public education should be free. if you know anyone who's interested in coming to this class, please invite them." the class is called Capitalism and Global Ethnic Conflicts.
it's been some time since i've sat in a desk in an official class. it's enjoyable being able to listen to the teacher and all the various perspectives from other students--there are lots of different experiences and ways of seeing the world that people bring to that setting and it's great to be able to listen and interact with that dynamic.
and here is some exciting news: at the public library there are some shelves devoted to books available for donations (.10-$1.00 a book) that go towards the library (i've been picking up some books there for the books-to-prisoner project). well, i was dropping off a book last week in the outdoor slot--i wasn't planning on going inside--when i had a feeling. i went in and scanned the shelves, my eyes stopping on three familiar book spines--fighting fantasy books! there were three different ones--caverns of the snow witch, deathtrap dungeon, and island of the lizard king. do you know these kind of books? they're what lots of folks call gamebooks and, really, they are solo roleplaying books that usually utilize a choose-your-own-adventure type format augmented with dice (or other random number generator), various character attributes, fairly complex plots, and often narratives that continue from one book to another.
it's been awhile since i've happened across some of these kinds of books. i really like them and have since i was a kid and was reading the lone wolf series. the lone wolf books really captivated me--i remember waiting eagerly for the next in the series to come out, going to the bookstore in the mall and checking the shelf to see if it had arrived. these books had a continuity that progressed from book to book; as you kept playing the same character, the story continued to unfold and develop, oftentimes referencing experiences that had occurred in previous books. this added to the sense of character and plot development and heightened the feeling of authenticity of the world created in the stories.
there were lots of other series written in the 1980s. Grailquest, with it's idiosyncrasies, humor, and darkness, was another i read. and, of course, the fighting fantasy books. many of those are full of mazes and dank dungeons, strange encounters, and fantastic creatures. and there are others, too.
a few summers ago, i went on a hitchhiking trip up to north dakota. it was the first time i had tried a long-distance trip like that and it was incredible. after visiting my grandparents and some friends for awhile in bismarck, i took an early morning bus out to medora, then spent several days hiking and camping in the badlands. the night before catching the bus back to bismarck, i camped on a sandbar on the little missouri river, just outside of town. i remember feeling free. it was one of the most incredible nights of my life. i suppose it was a combination of several things--the whole trip in general, the camping in the badlands, swimming in the river, sleeping on the sand, the proximity of the bridge and road and town that night, and the immensity of the night sky.
the first night i camped on the way up to bismarck, i was near spearfish, south dakota. and it really felt to me like a solo roleplaying book. that's why i started thinking about this trip as i was writing about those old gamebooks. a man driving a work van (i think he was employed with some cable company) dropped me off in the late afternoon. i remember that this person said he read all the books his son read--they'd read them at the same time. anyway, i wasn't very familiar with traveling like that and i began trying to decide what to do next--try for another ride, look for a place to spend the night and, if so, where (near the overpass that a creek flowed under, walk a ways out of town, look for something further down the creek). as i was considering the options i could think of, it suddenly dawned on me how much it felt like one of those books--do you take the path with the prints of a large animal through the forest, or do you decide to follow the road west, or do you make camp in the forest for the night?
well, i really hadn't anticipated writing about all that when i sat down here while breakfast cooked. i guess that's one thing i like about writing--sometimes it just kinda goes.
posted by matt iv at 10:12 AM
1 comments
