smokingboot: (default)
smokingboot ([personal profile] smokingboot) wrote2013-03-28 02:29 pm

Meanwhile...

So friends have created a new LARP system; it's huge, costumeful, colourful, professional, and by gum, they want it to work. The last time these guys started a new thing, I was all over it. And now...

Well, now I am not.

I've got some practical concerns, but the deeper truth is, I don't want to pretend to be someone else among my friends being other people. I am interested in being with my friends, or exploring. Chums have invited me to crew for another event, which is lovely. I'll do it to be with them and to feel useful because it's just a one-off. The actual costume/larp bit will be OK I'm sure; but it's not something I care about.

Someone I knew in the world of LARP had a habit of quoting from Marlowe's 'Jew of Malta' in reference to many things: 'That was in another country,' He'd say, 'And besides, the wench is dead.'

The thing about this quote is that eventually, without a whit of malice, it comes true. The wench is indeed dead. Someone else is dancing in her place, far away in another country.

[identity profile] jfs.livejournal.com 2013-02-28 11:04 pm (UTC)(link)
I found that music festivals filled a huge hole in my heart where LRP had been - bright lights, entertainment, colourful costume - without the artifice of being someone else.

Don't get me wrong - some of my favourite memories are of other lands and other names (and some of them with you :-)) but more recently, I'm happier being myself.

Field of Dreams

[identity profile] smokingboot.livejournal.com 2013-02-28 11:31 pm (UTC)(link)
I never regret those times:-D the memories make me groan and grin! There's more to add, more light and colour and story, and I'll find it yet. But as is so often the way, you have the heart of it; right now, I'm happier being myself, especially as myself seems something of a forgotten territory.

I hope your heart is full and happy even as we speak x

[identity profile] cat-that-walks.livejournal.com 2013-03-01 11:41 am (UTC)(link)
And there was me thinking it was Hemingway - 'But that was a long, long time ago in a country far far away, and besides the bitch is dead.'
Meh, how`s you anyway?

[identity profile] smokingboot.livejournal.com 2013-03-01 12:00 pm (UTC)(link)
Hello you! I'm good thank you; big deep issues abound about life choices and all that, but I'm still an idiot. How are you doing?

Hemmingway used a version of this quote about animals rather than bitches, I think...something about taxidermy...it turns up in Eliot and Gaiman. Gets referred to a lot, guess cos it's quite a resonant sounding statement.

[identity profile] cat-that-walks.livejournal.com 2013-03-01 04:58 pm (UTC)(link)
I`m not bad. The shoulder isn`t quite as bad as it was due to it being dry so that`s helpful.