A Message To You, Fanboy

You can't commodify culture without turning it into crap.

Hello to anyone out there with a boxfull of acid-free board-backed double-bagged, multiple coverset 'ashcan edition' #0's of Image/Malibu abominations.

What to do with comics instead of hoarding them in the hope that Rob Liefield will still be 'hot' in ten years time:

• read them until they fall apart
• share them with friends
• cut out the pictures and pin them on your wall

When the point of culture becomes to make profit, something is very wrong.

Why do we do this? Why is it that we take something that we enjoy, that is interesting, perhaps even beautiful and hoard it? I already gave away the answer: profit.

Example 1: Comics
Example 2: Beanie Babys (ok, they're not beautiful, but they're still held for profit)
Example 3: Action Figures (STILL in their packaging... Heresy!
Example 4: Baseball cards

The point of these things was at one time to play with and enjoy. The fact that we take everything and try to make money off of it, disturbs me. It also changes the intentions of all involved. Kids are in it for money now. Parents, too. The producers/manufacturs/artists aren't any better. Since when did the point of life become to make money?!

Wake up, people! Money is only paper. Ok, I know it's not exactly that simple, but somewhere along the lines you should enjoy it all, too.

Money is not the goal and only sometimes the means to happiness. Happiness is the goal. and the means. and the path. Get going.

Wow. You played through six games that consisted of the same battle being fought over and over again (with different sprites and bigger numbers popping up). I say played - rather you sat back stuffing cheetos into your face with one hand and stabbing button A with the other. You own l33t hardcore import merchandise (for which you were robbed blind by canny grey importers). You play Japanese games aimed at pre-pubescent girls, filled with text you can't read.

You know five words of Japanese and use them about 40, 50 times in a five minute conversation*. You inexplicably own more than one Sony Playstation. You whine and bitch about wittily written and lavishly produced popcorn flicks because "Wolverine would never do that." You read Gaming Intelligence Agency and NewType (hey, guilty). And in terminal cases, Edge. You implicitly trust Sony and Square, unquestioningly handing over money for crappy, well-marketed products.

Do you have some kind of cultural cache over us mere proles? Does any of this make you cool? No, sir, it does not.


*baka, kawaii, konichiwa, banzai, hai.

(oh, and before you reach for your downvote cannon, I like all of that stuff. This is just a plea for people to stop making fools of themselves. Obsessive fandom is stupid.)