My thoughts on the weekend’s big news — the news that wasn’t the Royal Wedding — were rather snarky and cynical, but I thought they might be amusing to those very, very few of my RL acquaintances who I know also play WoW, so I posted them to my FaceBook anyway:
There are all these quests in WoW that run along the lines of “kill the leader of the troggs/gnolls/murlocs/etc… for us, and the rest are bound to fall into disarray”. But it seems that no matter how many times we kill Chieftain Mrrglmurgle, the murlocs just don’t go away….
And my father responded:
Oh, [daughter]… If you’re gaining your moral insights from WoW, it is definitely time to switch to a different means of gaining your world outlook! How about the NY Times?
./facepalm
I am sorry, parents, but I was never as enchanted by the New York Times as my sisters are. I only ever started reading it because my sisters loved it so, and I signed up for the NY Times headlines-in-your-inbox using my fifth or sixth email account… one that I have generally completely forgotten to check since I made my escape from the ivory tower.
This sort of reaction is why I have kept this blog something of a secret from my parents (I have told one of my sisters about it, in terms of greatest confidence that she should not reveal its existence to our parents). I’ve been rather well pleased with the stories I’ve written for this blog and some of the WoW-inspired artwork that I’ve done… and while my mom would be willing to approve of my creative efforts, my dad would only see it as me having wasted my time.
Ugh, that’s stupid. Mostly because your insight is completely correct, in my opinion. I mean, yes, it’s a nice SYMBOLIC gesture, but the Islamic extremists aren’t going to scatter just because one guy is dead.
I kind of want to smack your dad. There’s truth in any art, any story, if you know where to look and keep an open mind.
I’m mostly just rolling my eyes at my dad. He thinks I play too much WoW and don’t spend enough of my time doing meaningful things — which may be true — but I have been more interested in the truths I find in fiction than in the “real world” since I was a kid, and it’s simply that WoW is currently my fictional universe of choice.
I’m going to go with “I don’t see much value in an eye for an eye. Now you’re both half-blind.”