by Zoe
Introduction and Chapter One
Loathe as I am to review a book in sections, Stark's book Leaving Mudania, brings up so many interesting points that I'm going to post about it in chunks. I invite everybody to comment on specific issues as they see fit. When I've finished the book it's entirety, I'll post a final commentary on it. (I'm at an event this weekend, so check back today and tomorrow for automated updates.)
My initial impressions from Chapter One and the introduction... I'm posting specific quotes that I found observant, insightful, and, in many cases, problematic. Thoughts after the jump...
1) From the beginning of the book, Stark attempts to demonstrate the wide variety of personalities in a LARP, as well of the depth of individuality of each person (both as real person and PC).
From the first paragraphs, Stark writes that LARPers come from ever facet of life-- she continues to demonstrate throughout the book: they're EMTs, lawyers, teachers, professors, moms, dads, gays, straights, parents and grandparents, artists, freelancers, and everything in between. Moreover, Stark is a gifted interviewer in one-to-one conversation: she details the events in people's personal lives that affect not only their LARPing, but their day-to-day lives. (Her discussion of Molly Mandlin's fibromyalgia is particularly insightful.) Compared to other discussions of LARPers, as real people, Stark is quite nuanced: she gets that, not only are LARPers everyday citizens, but many of them have personal contexts that affect how and why they LARP. I compare this, especially, the film Monster Camp, which didn't do much to explore the idiosyncracies of a majority of characters.
2) The emphasis on community is an important part of the book.
Community, as most people would probably agree, is a significant reason that people LARP. I know, for me, it's not the "escapism" a LARP offers, but instead the exceptional people within a LARP that, even when I was living in Maine, caused me to drive 3+ hours for a weekend event. Stark does a good job showing the friendships, alliances, and even romances that develop in a LARP community. Similarly, Stark emphasizes the collaborative nature of LARP.
3) Despite her best efforts, Stark "Others" a lot of LARPers.
From her first descriptions of LARPing, Stark indicates that LARPers are different from "Normal People." Which, is perhaps, fair, and largely a result of people self-identifying (see page 17-18). I think normal versus weird is a kind of boring, hopelessly dichotomous argument, but that's a discussion for another day. I also find her description of a convention kind of mean-spirited: ""the crowd definitely had a self-selected look: There were reedy young men with ponytails, rotund women poured into their jeans, men representing the so-called fatbeard contingency, spindly young women of the Goth persuasion, middle-aged bald bikers in leather jackets and military hats, and many people of average build in black shirts with kicky slogans like 'Joss Whedon is my master now.' (7)" Sure, Stark likes Whedon too, but the descriptions of convention goers rubbed me the wrong way. Stark is a good writer, and I'm convinced she knows what she's doing when she describes people as "reedy... poured into their jeans... fatbeard[ed]... [or] spindly." Maybe it's true. Maybe it's not. It's still pretty body focused, and, to me, negative.
4) I sense that Stark and I may have fundamentally different definitions of LARP.
Stark focuses, a lot, on the entertainment aspect of LARPing. I get this, especially, from her blog, and the book where she defines it as "multimedia entertainment." I'm not positive that's the best definition, and I view LARP more as "collaborative performance art" (to be sure, Stark emphasizes both the collaborative and performative aspects of LARPing consistently). Yes, I do view LARP as, most frequently, a form of entertainment. However, I don't think that is always so-- LARP, to me, is, at the end of the day, a performance art. It relies on people who are routinely committed to joining together, and spending time and effort in putting on a performance for one another (questions of audience is another topic I'd like to pursue). Not everyone LARPs to be entertained: some people LARP simply to create something. There are, in fact, people out there who are not necessarily entertained the entire time at a LARP: consider the burnt-out staff person or the stressed, over-exhausted, and overworked GM. Why are those people there? Because raised cortisol levels and herding cats is entertaining? I don't think so. I think they're there because they want to aid in the creation and performance of a larger narrative. For instance, we all have had moments, during even the best event, where we are bored, grouchy, or over-tired: even when we're dead on our feet, we wait up for the "Midnight Hour" (and I mean 4 am), when a certain individual comes to whisk our characters away through a Nexus. Not because it's particularly entertaining, but because we are interested in and committed to pursuing a story. We want to find things out; more importantly, we want to participate. Yes, much of LARP is about entertainment, but a good chunk of it is about, I think, a higher art form. (That being said, Stark and I may have different notions of what "entertainment" means.)
5) LARP and Oral History
As an historical anthropologist, oral history is really important to me, and oral history within LARP is something I'm pursuing academically. It's self-explanatory, but I'll define it: oral history is the narrative, legends, and experiences of a community, passed down through word of mouth, after the event has happened. Oral history is often connected to a larger storytelling tradition and oral ritual. To this end, Stark has a quote that doesn't sit well with me, "larp is strictly a 'you had to be there' hobby." Yes, in order to appreciate the nuances of the game system, you perhaps need to be involved in some sort of LARP community (if only to appreciate LARP jargon). However, since LARP is performative and on-going, a large part of the experience comes from sharing stories, on both an IG and OoG level. On an IG level, oral histories, told by LARPers to one another, carry on a fictive tradition: they make the episodic nature of LARPs into a rich, epic narrative. Good storytellers in a LARP make the game world real.
In Madrigal, for instance, I've been told the story of "The Darkest Road" or the Shetra take-over, IG experiences that happened before I started playing, many times. The stories have become part of my IG universe: even though I wasn't there to witness them, they are still impressive for my character. (For a more recent example, ask any Endgame player about "Gunplanet.") OoG, storytelling, the oral tradition, binds together players: if you've ever sat in a monster camp, you know that NPCs mostly talk about LARP-- and the experiences they've had within LARP. They exchange battle stories (like, for instance, the really cinematic effect of a module lighting scene). Moreover, we learn from stories: tales related of LARPing are how we improve our modules and design better plots. If oral traditions in LARPing weren't a fundamental part of the experience, things like LARPcast and this blog wouldn't exist. Oral tradition, IG and OoG, is one of the most fundamental parts of the larger community. Maybe, to be involved in this oral tradition, you have to be a LARPer, but I would contest that as well-- friends of mine tell their LARP stories to their children (who, at least in my system, have never played the game). This sort of experience is something that Stark details in chapter 2, as well.
So far I like Stark's book, but, as a friend mentioned, it is many things I hoped it would be, while disappointing in other aspects.
Introduction and Chapter One
Loathe as I am to review a book in sections, Stark's book Leaving Mudania, brings up so many interesting points that I'm going to post about it in chunks. I invite everybody to comment on specific issues as they see fit. When I've finished the book it's entirety, I'll post a final commentary on it. (I'm at an event this weekend, so check back today and tomorrow for automated updates.)
My initial impressions from Chapter One and the introduction... I'm posting specific quotes that I found observant, insightful, and, in many cases, problematic. Thoughts after the jump...
1) From the beginning of the book, Stark attempts to demonstrate the wide variety of personalities in a LARP, as well of the depth of individuality of each person (both as real person and PC).
From the first paragraphs, Stark writes that LARPers come from ever facet of life-- she continues to demonstrate throughout the book: they're EMTs, lawyers, teachers, professors, moms, dads, gays, straights, parents and grandparents, artists, freelancers, and everything in between. Moreover, Stark is a gifted interviewer in one-to-one conversation: she details the events in people's personal lives that affect not only their LARPing, but their day-to-day lives. (Her discussion of Molly Mandlin's fibromyalgia is particularly insightful.) Compared to other discussions of LARPers, as real people, Stark is quite nuanced: she gets that, not only are LARPers everyday citizens, but many of them have personal contexts that affect how and why they LARP. I compare this, especially, the film Monster Camp, which didn't do much to explore the idiosyncracies of a majority of characters.
2) The emphasis on community is an important part of the book.
Community, as most people would probably agree, is a significant reason that people LARP. I know, for me, it's not the "escapism" a LARP offers, but instead the exceptional people within a LARP that, even when I was living in Maine, caused me to drive 3+ hours for a weekend event. Stark does a good job showing the friendships, alliances, and even romances that develop in a LARP community. Similarly, Stark emphasizes the collaborative nature of LARP.
3) Despite her best efforts, Stark "Others" a lot of LARPers.
From her first descriptions of LARPing, Stark indicates that LARPers are different from "Normal People." Which, is perhaps, fair, and largely a result of people self-identifying (see page 17-18). I think normal versus weird is a kind of boring, hopelessly dichotomous argument, but that's a discussion for another day. I also find her description of a convention kind of mean-spirited: ""the crowd definitely had a self-selected look: There were reedy young men with ponytails, rotund women poured into their jeans, men representing the so-called fatbeard contingency, spindly young women of the Goth persuasion, middle-aged bald bikers in leather jackets and military hats, and many people of average build in black shirts with kicky slogans like 'Joss Whedon is my master now.' (7)" Sure, Stark likes Whedon too, but the descriptions of convention goers rubbed me the wrong way. Stark is a good writer, and I'm convinced she knows what she's doing when she describes people as "reedy... poured into their jeans... fatbeard[ed]... [or] spindly." Maybe it's true. Maybe it's not. It's still pretty body focused, and, to me, negative.
4) I sense that Stark and I may have fundamentally different definitions of LARP.
Stark focuses, a lot, on the entertainment aspect of LARPing. I get this, especially, from her blog, and the book where she defines it as "multimedia entertainment." I'm not positive that's the best definition, and I view LARP more as "collaborative performance art" (to be sure, Stark emphasizes both the collaborative and performative aspects of LARPing consistently). Yes, I do view LARP as, most frequently, a form of entertainment. However, I don't think that is always so-- LARP, to me, is, at the end of the day, a performance art. It relies on people who are routinely committed to joining together, and spending time and effort in putting on a performance for one another (questions of audience is another topic I'd like to pursue). Not everyone LARPs to be entertained: some people LARP simply to create something. There are, in fact, people out there who are not necessarily entertained the entire time at a LARP: consider the burnt-out staff person or the stressed, over-exhausted, and overworked GM. Why are those people there? Because raised cortisol levels and herding cats is entertaining? I don't think so. I think they're there because they want to aid in the creation and performance of a larger narrative. For instance, we all have had moments, during even the best event, where we are bored, grouchy, or over-tired: even when we're dead on our feet, we wait up for the "Midnight Hour" (and I mean 4 am), when a certain individual comes to whisk our characters away through a Nexus. Not because it's particularly entertaining, but because we are interested in and committed to pursuing a story. We want to find things out; more importantly, we want to participate. Yes, much of LARP is about entertainment, but a good chunk of it is about, I think, a higher art form. (That being said, Stark and I may have different notions of what "entertainment" means.)
5) LARP and Oral History
As an historical anthropologist, oral history is really important to me, and oral history within LARP is something I'm pursuing academically. It's self-explanatory, but I'll define it: oral history is the narrative, legends, and experiences of a community, passed down through word of mouth, after the event has happened. Oral history is often connected to a larger storytelling tradition and oral ritual. To this end, Stark has a quote that doesn't sit well with me, "larp is strictly a 'you had to be there' hobby." Yes, in order to appreciate the nuances of the game system, you perhaps need to be involved in some sort of LARP community (if only to appreciate LARP jargon). However, since LARP is performative and on-going, a large part of the experience comes from sharing stories, on both an IG and OoG level. On an IG level, oral histories, told by LARPers to one another, carry on a fictive tradition: they make the episodic nature of LARPs into a rich, epic narrative. Good storytellers in a LARP make the game world real.
In Madrigal, for instance, I've been told the story of "The Darkest Road" or the Shetra take-over, IG experiences that happened before I started playing, many times. The stories have become part of my IG universe: even though I wasn't there to witness them, they are still impressive for my character. (For a more recent example, ask any Endgame player about "Gunplanet.") OoG, storytelling, the oral tradition, binds together players: if you've ever sat in a monster camp, you know that NPCs mostly talk about LARP-- and the experiences they've had within LARP. They exchange battle stories (like, for instance, the really cinematic effect of a module lighting scene). Moreover, we learn from stories: tales related of LARPing are how we improve our modules and design better plots. If oral traditions in LARPing weren't a fundamental part of the experience, things like LARPcast and this blog wouldn't exist. Oral tradition, IG and OoG, is one of the most fundamental parts of the larger community. Maybe, to be involved in this oral tradition, you have to be a LARPer, but I would contest that as well-- friends of mine tell their LARP stories to their children (who, at least in my system, have never played the game). This sort of experience is something that Stark details in chapter 2, as well.
So far I like Stark's book, but, as a friend mentioned, it is many things I hoped it would be, while disappointing in other aspects.
There are, in fact, people out there who are not necessarily entertained the entire time at a LARP: consider the burnt-out staff person or the stressed, over-exhausted, and overworked GM. Why are those people there? Because raised cortisol levels and herding cats is entertaining? I don't think so. I think they're there because they want to aid in the creation and performance of a larger narrative.
ReplyDeleteYes, this. Or at Cat Valente said:
"To make something out of nothing, to contribute to my community that I love so much, to add to the net beauty and interest of the world... We made a thing where there was not a thing. That, by any definition, is magic."
Exactly. I was specifically thinking of GMs I had worked under when I wrote that-- running a LARP is hard work. It's like directing a play or a movie: it's not always fun, and it can leech all of your energy. I've tried to explain this to people who don't LARP (especially after they watch the documentary "Monster Camp")-- LARPing, I told them them, just like writing a novel, producing a play, or designing a computer program, is not always "fun." A good LARP, the type that people talk about for years, is rewarding. But it's hard. And frustrating. Also, I have yet to read about any sort of post-event feedback between players and staff-- this is a really crucial part of Accelerant larping, to me, and something that can really speak to the mental and emotional ups-and-downs that staff go through.
DeleteHaven't cracked the book yet, hoping to while traveling next week. Loving your commentary so far, though.
ReplyDeleteStark is a good writer, and I'm convinced she knows what she's doing when she describes people as "reedy... poured into their jeans... fatbeard[ed]... [or] spindly." Maybe it's true. Maybe it's not. It's still pretty body focused, and, to me, negative.
Yeah, that reads as pretty venomous to me too. How do you manage to somehow slam every body type in one go? Seriously, bodies are freaking awesome, every last one of them, and people need to quit hatin'.
Based on the quotes, I'm in agreement with you thus far. I especially like your points in 4 & 5. You do have to kind of learn the basic larp language, but once you've been to an event or two, you have the context to appreciate all sorts of stories of things you weren't there for. For example, I've never been to a 7V event, or their site. I can not only enjoy 7V stories, but I've retold them and had them be well-recieved!
Also, ain't nobody ever been poured into a pair of jeans, unless we're talking about Hydro-Man. What the hell.
Delete