In last week's episode, we talked
about the feeling of responsibility to keep up
with popular culture and whether or not that
resembles work or labor in some way
and how that relates to the actual existence of things
like labor in games.
Let's see what you had to say.
A. Largo Eduardo brings up two very good distinctions
which I'm going to take in reverse order.
The first is when we talk about the incorporation
of work-like elements into games and brings up
something that I wanted to spend time talking
about in the episode but we didn't end up
getting around to it which is games like "Papers, Please"
where the point of it is to do work.
And I might actually disagree with you, A. Largo Eduardo,
and say that I think part of the point of a game like "Papers,
Please" is to approximate work as much as possible.
And I think that that is maybe a whole episode
in and of itself-- games that are not only padded out
in the way that I'm suggesting "The Witcher"
is by work-like things, but games
that just are actual, like, almost
troubling and difficult labor.
The other point that A. Largo Eduardo brings up
is about the work that a lot of people
feel is necessary to do in order to become involved
in a random or a community that is surrounding
a piece of media.
And this is something that Sophie Rose brings up
in her comment as well about feeling
like when you're younger, you have
to really invest your time.
In order to feel like you belong,
you need to invest time watching and consuming these things.
And this also is something that's
ripe for its own full episode that I
think this is maybe even what is at the center of the stuff we
generally call gatekeeping-- that if you haven't put
in the work, then you're not allowed to like something
in a certain way.
And I think this is a really important and really
interesting idea.
So yeah, thank you for writing these comments.
Relatedly, sometimes I like to rage talk
about the practice of rewatching or reconsuming
things as a way of advertising your devotion
to a piece of media.
Because that is work.
You are sacrificing your time.
And this is related, I think, to Ron St. Pickles' comment
about people bragging about binging on media
for extended amounts of time.
If they are able to sacrifice things
about their everyday life, whether it's
personal relationships, hygiene, or food, which I think
we've all been guilty of at some point or another,
then what you are essentially saying
is I have done so much work.
That means that I really like this thing
and I'm so good at liking it.
Which, yeah, it's a good point.
Edgugamesmith, whose username I'm probably mispronouncing
so I apologize, just wrote a really great comment
that puts into more certain terms,
I'm sure because of their background as a game designer,
many of the things that I was trying to express
in last week's episode.
So this is a great comment.
I'm just mentioning it to say you should go read it.
Links to this one and all the others in the doobly-do.
Like most things, yes, better in a bacon bowl.
Kingslave021, it might be because I'm from the Northeast.
But for me, this distinction is not super clear.
There is a feeling that I get when
I see comments like this that I have a very hard time
articulating.
So I'm going to try to say it and hopefully I
will work it out as I say it.
And that is that I think when you describe something
as being a first world problem, you implicitly or accidentally
deny the humanity of people who live in the third world or not
in the first.
Because what you're saying is that those people, the people
who don't live in the First World,
only have these massive infrastructural, economic,
or societal problems and they don't have small,
irritating personal gripes or troubles.
And I think that everybody-- I think
that it is part of the human condition
that you have these things in your life
that are just kind of irritating or that they are problems
that you try to solve but maybe there's no solution
and you just kind of live with them and mull them over.
And I think that when you describe something
as a first world problem, you imply
that it is not part of the human condition,
that it is part of a more privileged condition.
And I have no specific idea or stake--
like, I don't know for sure that people in the Third World
have anxiety about keeping up with any semblance
of popular culture, whether or not
it's the things that we were talking specifically or not.
But I think to unilaterally and outrightly deny them
that problem by calling this a First World problem is unfair.
So I hope that makes sense.
If it does make sense, that's how I feel.
And if it doesn't make sense, I feel a different way.
High-Waisted Pantaloons intones the,
I guess, common idea that one need not
work a day in their life if what they do resembles play.
And unrelatedly, Scott Mitchell posts a link
to a Jacobin mag piece about that very attitude
and its kind of complex nature.
It's a really good read.
David, I started the audio book this weekend.
And so far, I love it.
It is so good.
Rose T has two really good gripes with last week's
episode, the first being that it is not
necessarily just popular culture that suffers from this problem.
And this is definitely a clarification
that we should have made.
We actually had-- there was a section that
was about difficult literature in that things like "Ulysses"
or "In Search of Lost Time," there
is a certain cultural expectation
that certain people be familiar with these things.
And I think this gets to the dual nature of what we would
call literacy-- that there is a certain amount of literacy that
is expected with regards to popular culture
but then there is a different and other kind of literacy
that is related to literature, art, movies, crafting things,
making stuff, and that the idea of literacy
and how it relates to scriptures is,
I think a very interesting and important one.
The second point she makes is about how,
in addition to there being so many things to consume
and an expectation to consume them,
the anxiety we feel about not being
able to consume those things is more related to our modern work
schedules-- that we simply do not have the free time
to pursue hobbies or stuff that is definitely and clearly not
work.
And I think as long as we're still in this position
where we're sort of referencing Jonathan Crary's "24/7",
that argument fits perfectly into this larger set of ideas.
[INAUDIBLE], who I hope I'm pronouncing your name right.
If you only knew the number of times I sat around a table
with friends and we have just described
the ways in which we are avoiding completing things
like "The Wire" or Patrick Rothfuss books
or massive open world games.
It's like how we relate to one another sometimes.
So I feel you.