But I Will Run Until My Feet No Longer Run No More, And I Will Kiss Until My Lips No Longer Feel No More, And I Will Love Until My Heart It Aches

--"Run", Amy MacDonald

Ever since I stumbled across The Guild (www.watchtheguild.com) I've been praising it to the skies to anyone who'll listen. It isn't just that it's perhaps the funniest four-to-six minutes you'll spend everyday, it's that it manages the difficult task of hooking you in to watch the next installment. From somebody who strives to get people to come here everyday, I think it's an amazing showcase of skill when you can produce something so short and yet get the huge following that The Guild receives. Now, granted, what initially hooked me was the fact that it bills itself as a show about gamers made by gamers. I mean--it wasn't that long ago when I myself was spending four to six hours a night locked in the world of Sanctuary playing Diablo II. I can definitely relate to what it's like giving up more and more of your real life in order to escape to a more controllable environment. Sanctuary, indeed.

However, I've become really taken with the subtleties that the show also exhibits. As Brandy would say, the comedy and the antics may be the high-wire act that gets all the attention, but its the deeper psychological themes that are the net beneath it. I'm all for getting people to laugh, but what ultimately makes up my mind on whether or not a show is a keeper, is going to be something I'll repeatedly come back to, is whether or not there is some kind of substance there. Avonlea had it. Buffy had it. Everwood had it. I'm going to go on record as saying that The Guild has it too. You don't need to look for very far to see themes of isolation, irrelevance, and obsoletion that pervades almost all of the characters in the show. They wonder if they're wasting their time and their talents on something that ultimately produces no tangible rewards for them. They wonder if their lives are being lived to the best of their abilities. Some of them wonder if their over-reliance on what a good portion of society sees as a childish activity is truly healthy and that this over-reliance points to a bigger problem in their development and in their maturity.

Yes, I tend to look deeper at these things than most people. And, yes, it's a lot to mine out of four minute blocks of times, but sometimes an experience is less about what is being presented to you and more about what you're drawing from it. I can honestly say The Guild is one of those rare entities that hides some of life's deeper questions beneath the facade of laughter.

Or, as I told my friend today, "it's like the clown that's going through a mid-life crisis. You may never see it on his face and you may never hear him speak of it, but there's some genuine moments of crisis that have to be handled through the course of the first season." I love the fact that ultimately the message of the first season turns out to be one of community any one person's problems because that's a thesis I've always held.


and I will love until there's nothing more to live for

However, I also think there's another important lesson to be gleaned from the show. Throughout the first few episodes, Cyd, the main character played by the talented Felicia Day, wrestles with the idea that she's too dependent on the game for providing her fulfillment. She's worried about the notion that happiness can be had from a game. But by the end of the season I think she's learned the philosophy I always try to live by. Namely, she learns that old chestnut I like to bring out again and again, The Gospel of the Crow:

If it makes you happy then it can't be that bad.

People have a hard enough time for something that makes them smile on a day-to-day basis. There's a lot that goes wrong in a person's day and only a few things that they count on going right. I think it's kind of idiotic to pry oneself away from any amount of joy one can find. Even if others look down on you for it or people who don't know you very well can't make heads or tails of why you do something, you know why it makes happy and you know why you might need it in your life. No one can tell you something you cherish is unimportant--be it video games, board games, or any of a billion geeky endeavors. In much the same way you wouldn't let anyone talk you out of being with somebody you really cared about, somebody you really loved, I don't think it should be all that easy to be talked out of a hobby or pursuit you're passionate about.

If you can do something relatively well and if that thing provides you even a modicum of bliss, then you should go for it. You should run with it until you stop having that feeling of fulfillment. You should ride that pony into the ground. Some people believe in parceling out their little pleasures day-by-day, but I think the gamers in The Guild have got the right idea. I think the only way to live life is to take the money and run as fast and as far as your legs can carry you. You should be hedonistic and show no guilt or remorse about your gluttony or greed when it comes to your life. There's plenty of opportunities to do the responsible bit; when it comes to your time-off you should do whatever the fuck you want to do for as long and hard as you want to do it.

Like Attila the Hun once said, "Ride hard... and kill them all."

And let me tell you, The Guild definitely ride hard and kill even harder. LOL



Yours Swimmingly,
mojo shivers