Let's see if I can make a rational post out of the enraging conversation I had tonight with one of the most close-minded girls I've ever spoken to. Tess.
Tess is an Anthropology major from Ohio State who works in Civil Service. She likes to help out the poor, the uneducated, and the mentally handicapped. She came to the show tonight and then came up to talk to me about work and life. She wanted to flirt with the girl in the red vest.
Tess thinks video games are "pathetic" and "induce violence."
Tess loves Michael Moore and Bowling For Columbine.
There's your preface.
So, Tess from Ohio State asked me what I did for fun. I responded, "I read. I walk. I watch movies. I play a lot of video games." Tess responded that Video Games are really worthless wastes of time; that "all video gamers are potheads." Even after telling Tess that I play video games and smoke no pot, Tess maintained that "video gamers are all wasting time."
I asked Tess, "Do you know Pot Head Videogamers?"
She said yes.
I asked Tess, "If one Black Person steals something, are all Black People Thieves?"
She said, "That's different. Video Gamers are all mostly pot heads."
I said, "According to a few major urban studies, (and I think, The Bell Curve), Black People are mostly under intelligent."
She said I was racist.
I said, "What is pathetic about Video Games?"
"It's all for profit"
I asked, "Has Michael Moore not made a profit from Bowling For Columbine? Did you have to pay to get into the theater?"
She said, "But video games don't cost as much money to make."
I said, "Video games don't cost as much as an independent documentary? Despite their international casts and design teams?"
She said that "It's not real" and that "You can be doing something else."
I said, "What's real about A Tale of Two Cities? Or any great fiction? What's Real about Hamlet?"
She said it was written by real writers.
I said "64 million lines of text in Final Fantasy. Who wrote it?"
She said, "Not a real writer."
I said, "A composer whose video game compositions are performed by the LA Philharmonic and the Tokyo Philharmonic. Is he a real composer?"
She said yes.
I said, "What if those compositions are from a video game?"
She said that its an exception.
I asked her if Hamlet was the exception to fiction. That most fiction is Daniel Steele and that Shakespeare is the exception which en-values fiction. And that, furthermore, people who are vapid and read only shitty pulp are the same as people who are vapid and only play Twisted Metal.
She said, "No. Video games are all pathetic."
I then said, "You have to make a choice, Tess. Because you're providing a blanket judgment to something I'm passionate about, something which you have no experience in. Either -
A) I am an intelligent and conscious being who is engaged in video games because I find worthwhile themes and values within them; that I believe they are the culmination of many artists who collectively produce a piece of media that is a valuable citation in the bibliography of human achievement.
B) I am a marginally successful comedian who wastes all of her time during the day playing games when I could be doing something else more valid.
She said, "Video Games are Pathetic. There's always something else you could be doing, that you should be thinking about doing."
I put on my Atari Jacket and said, "During this conversation, I've been thinking that instead of receiving an inarticulate judgment on medium, I could be playing video games."
Before I left, she yelled, "Can I still get into the show for free tomorrow?"
*** I think that she's forfeited her right to vote Democrat. ***