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Charles Phipps
Master of Realmslore
1419 Posts |
 Posted - 18 Apr 2022 : 21:33:16
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https://booknest.eu/reviews/charles/2396-dangerousgames
"Never argue with an idiot. You'll never convince the idiot that you're correct, and bystanders won't be able to tell who's who." - Mark Twain
This is a deeply frustrating book for me because I wanted to like it but the problem is that it keeps running into the truism of the aforementioned quote undermines it at very turn. There's an apocryphal story passed around in my Kentucky game group from my DM to me that came from a convention he attended. Basically, it was the heady days of 2nd Edition and the developers at TSR were determined to remove anything controversial from their material: no demons, no devils, no brothels, no nudity in the books, and everything kept to a gloriously family-friendly PG. Then one of them, the story goes Ed Greenwood, commented, "Do you believe any of these bored housewives and fire and brimstone preachers actually read the books before condemning them?"
This book attempts to tell the story of the Satanic Panic and why so many evangelical Americans were terrified that Dungeons and Dragons endangered young souls. Well, the reason for that is that the people who are going after it are morons. They are looking for a target and make up whatever extreme claims that they need to in order to make it sound plausible. This is a problem for the book because their arguments are nonsense so the book spends an extensive amount of time deconstructing idiocy.
One of the most lucid points in the book that could have been an actual interesting chapter was the discussion of the creation of a Christian RPG named DragonRaid designed to indoctrinate youngsters in evangelism. DragonRaid was eviscerated by evangelists because, well, of course it was. It was an RPG and RPGs are evil. Why? Because RPGs are evil, so sayeth the Lord. Didn't you read that passage of the Bible? Nonsensium 12:28. If your argument is against someone who doesn't care about facts or logic, especially in matters of faith, then there's no point to arguing with them in the first place.
Speaking as someone sincerely religious who grew up in the Bible Belt, the scapegoating and silliness of this never gets less so. We address the infamous James Dallas Egbert III case and it is perfect for what could have been a harsher takedown of the hysteria here. Egbert was a suicidal teen with mental health issues and struggling with his homosexuality as well as his fundamentalistr parents. An insane private detective and self-styled cult deprogrammer made up the insanity about him being trapped in the steam tunnels as well as driven mad by the evil game.
The book tries to get into the psychological power of roleplaying, Jungian psychology, the definition of religion, and more but trying to deconstruct arguments against RPGs is an exercise in futility because there's no argument. It's kind of an interesting book to read in our "Post Facts" world of 4chan conspiracy theories and Alternative Facts. The constant attempt to disprove what is bold faced lies and ranting stupidity to begin with. When discussing Deities and Demigods, the book comments on how much of the anger was over teaching about historical gods and real life history. As if the very act of education was offensive. The book's neutral tone becomes angering to anyone with a love of learning, mythology, or actual reasoned debate. Given I am an academic by trade as well as an author, its hard to maintain objectivity.
So it is a very frustrating 368 pages of dealing with the complicated and bizarre world of Eighties moral panic. Unfortunately, at twenty dollars, I just don't think this book is worth it. Maybe if the author puts it on Kindle Unlimited.
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My Blog: http://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/
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Delnyn
Senior Scribe
USA
890 Posts |
Posted - 18 Apr 2022 : 22:41:13
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My argument in the 1980's took a different approach. "Dear [insert name of addressee]. If you won't buy the products, the selling company has no economic incentive to care about your complaints. I of course have no incentive, economic or otherwise. Sayanora."
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Charles Phipps
Master of Realmslore
1419 Posts |
Posted - 18 Apr 2022 : 22:54:31
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quote:
My argument in the 1980's took a different approach. "Dear [insert name of addressee]. If you won't buy the products, the selling company has no economic incentive to care about your complaints. I of course have no incentive, economic or otherwise. Sayanora."
As Ozzy Osbourne famously said about how much he apprenticed the Far Right evangelists for burning his records, causing them to sell out, the Satanic Panic allegedly quadrupled the sales of Gary Gygax's "evil" game.
A fact that Gary is quoted about in this book. |
My Blog: http://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/
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Delnyn
Senior Scribe
USA
890 Posts |
Posted - 18 Apr 2022 : 23:31:48
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quote:
Originally posted by Charles Phipps
As Ozzy Osbourne famously said about how much he apprenticed the Far Right evangelists for burning his records, causing them to sell out, the Satanic Panic allegedly quadrupled the sales of Gary Gygax's "evil" game.
A fact that Gary is quoted about in this book.
Wasn't Gary Gygax himself a devout Christian? Please correct me if I am dead wrong. |
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Charles Phipps
Master of Realmslore
1419 Posts |
Posted - 18 Apr 2022 : 23:38:49
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quote:
Originally posted by Delnyn
quote:
Originally posted by Charles Phipps
As Ozzy Osbourne famously said about how much he apprenticed the Far Right evangelists for burning his records, causing them to sell out, the Satanic Panic allegedly quadrupled the sales of Gary Gygax's "evil" game.
A fact that Gary is quoted about in this book.
Wasn't Gary Gygax himself a devout Christian? Please correct me if I am dead wrong.
A Jehova's Witness like Prince. He was embarrassed and annoyed by the controversy as much as anything else.
Dave Arneson was also a devout Christian but not one of that sect. |
My Blog: http://unitedfederationofcharles.blogspot.com/
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Wooly Rupert
Master of Mischief
USA
36779 Posts |
Posted - 19 Apr 2022 : 04:08:02
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When I first saw the title of this discussion, I was wondering why one of the Netheril novels was being described as "nonfiction"!  |
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Edited by - Wooly Rupert on 19 Apr 2022 04:11:41 |
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[Nonfiction] [Book Review] Dangerous Games
