community in microcosm
“I’m a night owl, generally, so being on East Coast Time wasn’t a tremendous stretch, but I started to go to bed at their equivalent of midnight, which is not midnight. It’s taken me days to realize what was sapping my vigor, and it grieves me to abandon my increasingly detailed Succubus scenario.” — Jerry Holkins, April 9, 2010
Most people think of Penny Arcade as a comic. I tend to think of it as hilarious comedic writing (courtesy of Holkins) that happens to be brilliantly illustrated (courtesy of Krahulik).
I also increasingly think of Penny Arcade as a community, a notion reaffirmed by this week’s PATV. Among other things, you can see the woman who spoke about Child’s Play at the third Q&A panel. Several of my friends have told me that they think I deserve more credit for kicking off the whole Child’s Play love-fest that ensued at that session. This is one of the few times that I think my friends are being very, very stupid. They are missing my point entirely. My goal at that Q&A panel was to express my gratitude for Child’s Play and to remind people that it is Penny Arcade’s greatest and most noble work. My only regret is that when my moment to speak finally came I completely lost my ability to express myself. What 2 Player Productions leaves out of that woman’s beautiful comment is her introduction: that she had been unsure about getting up to talk about this. If my prior comment gave her the push she needed to say what needed to be said, more’s the better. My goal is accomplished, and I am infinitely grateful to her for saying what I could not. Community in microcosm, you might say.
Oh come on! Yes, you deserve some credit for this, for exactly the reasons you mentioned above! It takes TREMENDOUS courage to get up and express personal vulnerability, and it takes even more to do that in front of 5,000 people! I’m sure Child’s Play would have gotten SOME mention, even if you hadn’t spoken up, but you lessened the social vulnerability of speaking.
Also, her story was SO similar to yours, and your speaking and writing on the topic is generally SO poignant, yeah – I would have rather you been recognized for your courage in speaking. There is value in beautiful storytelling, which you normally do so well when talking about why Child’s Play is so important to you. I want that recognized too!