You can choose from phantom fears and kindness that can kill
It's my lunch break right now. For the first time, all of my subjects decided to have lunch at the same time, so I get a break too. I spent five minutes of it lounging out in the sun and eating my sandwich, but the sun turned out to be hot, so I went back inside to write a blog entry.
This is a problem with the sun.
I have decided that it is okay to title a post with lyrics from a previously-used song if it turns out that they would make an even more fitting title the second time around. Unimaginative, but okay.
Ryan did a Choose Your Own Adventure comic on Friday; coincidentally enough, over the 4th I unearthed my old CYOA trove and reread a couple of them. Captain U read us one recently, but otherwise I hadn't had any systematic exposure to these things for quite some time. One thing I noticed is that there were a lot of random phrases and descriptions that forcibly jogged my memory, even in the books I otherwise didn't remember at all (and assumed I hadn't actually read), like when you tell your alien friend that he should take on an inconspicuous form, like "a schoolkid with braces or a mom with three kids or something," or when you claim that a sand crab is laying eggs on the front seat of the beach patrol's hovercraft.
But the thing that really startled me was how overtly the books encourage certain values. I think I was dimly aware of this in my youth, but it was pretty striking this time around. In, for example, R.A. Montgomery's Project UFO (#143), there are various scenarios in which your options are to confront an alien antagonist, or turn tail and run. On page 80, either choice (surprisingly!) leads to a happy ending, and a lesson on bullying and either confidence or mercy, respectively. However, in a similar situation on page 65, when your friend has the alien momentarily subdued and urges you to run away and save yourself, you lose unless you stand your ground and fight alongside him. Aside from the healthy dose of surprise deaths (>why did I reach for the mirrored surface instead of moving toward the warm light?), it seems like being reckless, selfish, or otherwise unvirtuous is the main thing that will kill you.
This, coupled with the discovery that so much of these books' content is lurking in dormant areas of my memory, means I am now pretty worried about the effect that they could have had on the development of my moral character.
Oh and since I keep talking about space (and honestly, weren't the best CYOAs the ones in outer space?), here is a neat astronomy link from Jeff.
This is a problem with the sun.
I have decided that it is okay to title a post with lyrics from a previously-used song if it turns out that they would make an even more fitting title the second time around. Unimaginative, but okay.
Ryan did a Choose Your Own Adventure comic on Friday; coincidentally enough, over the 4th I unearthed my old CYOA trove and reread a couple of them. Captain U read us one recently, but otherwise I hadn't had any systematic exposure to these things for quite some time. One thing I noticed is that there were a lot of random phrases and descriptions that forcibly jogged my memory, even in the books I otherwise didn't remember at all (and assumed I hadn't actually read), like when you tell your alien friend that he should take on an inconspicuous form, like "a schoolkid with braces or a mom with three kids or something," or when you claim that a sand crab is laying eggs on the front seat of the beach patrol's hovercraft.
But the thing that really startled me was how overtly the books encourage certain values. I think I was dimly aware of this in my youth, but it was pretty striking this time around. In, for example, R.A. Montgomery's Project UFO (#143), there are various scenarios in which your options are to confront an alien antagonist, or turn tail and run. On page 80, either choice (surprisingly!) leads to a happy ending, and a lesson on bullying and either confidence or mercy, respectively. However, in a similar situation on page 65, when your friend has the alien momentarily subdued and urges you to run away and save yourself, you lose unless you stand your ground and fight alongside him. Aside from the healthy dose of surprise deaths (>why did I reach for the mirrored surface instead of moving toward the warm light?), it seems like being reckless, selfish, or otherwise unvirtuous is the main thing that will kill you.
This, coupled with the discovery that so much of these books' content is lurking in dormant areas of my memory, means I am now pretty worried about the effect that they could have had on the development of my moral character.
Oh and since I keep talking about space (and honestly, weren't the best CYOAs the ones in outer space?), here is a neat astronomy link from Jeff.
posted by Evan at 2:06 PM
3 Comments:
I've had my filthy hands on a copy of The Third Planet from Altair for a while and been meaning to CYOA it up on the ol' board, but I ran aground when I started thinking about scanning all the damn illustrations. Maybe I should just scan them as they come on an ad-hoc basis.
The Third Planet from Altair sounded faintly familiar, so I googled it. I don't think I've read it after all, but WHAT THE HOLY?
Son of a god damn bitch
This map confirms my suspicion that this CYOA was fucking riddled with death
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