Song of the day: The Shire Theme by Howard Shore
When I was six years old, I fell in love with the first time. Actual, deep, long lasting love, too, not just a passing crush.
Not with an actual living human person, of course, oh no.
With a book.
Specifically, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit.
And, believe it or not, that affair hasn't ended yet, nor does it seem particularly likely to do so in the future.
That is, more often maybe than people let themselves admit, probably the basis for being a fan or a nerd or a geek about something. I mean, sure, there are varying levels, but I know an amazing amount of people that just have this one thing that introduced them to maybe a certain medium (books, movies, video games, anime) that they just never get tired of even years later. Both because of nostalgia being what it is, and that if it was good enough to make them fall in love with it in the first place, it probably really is pretty damn good.
And that's a strange thing, isn't it? I mean, it's perfectly socially acceptable to despise something or be seriously annoyed by it, or, more frequently, be apathetic to things in general (I suspect it being an offspring of the parasitic entity of ''cool''), but seriously being into something and being able to talk about the various factors of it for ages and people just go okay, that's freaky, what's wrong with you
Even if they have a Thing themselves, whether they admit to it or not. It's like getting passionate about something is breaking some generally perceived rule of 'don't try too hard' that no-one really knows the origins of.
And that's really what nerding out over and being a nerd for something really mean, don't they? That you have something that you really love and get very passionate about. And that tends to be a lot more fulfilling than hating something or, gods forbid, being apathetic in almost every regard.
That one Thing a lot of people have can be an anchor for them in its nostalgia in strange times, be they difficult or wonderful. Occasionally the love for the Thing is rekindled, if we are lucky enough, by some talented and wonderful people who love it as much as we do and wish to see it back in the world again.
So when I went to see The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, I wasn't cautiously optimistic. I greatly respect the work of Peter Jackson and the amazing people he works with beforehand, and I had no worries what-so-ever that he would fail.
And I've got to tell you
It was like coming home.
One of the reasons I stopped reading videogames sites and message boards is because I like games too much. It's just not cool to *really* like games among the enthusiast crowd. I came to the conclusion that I wasn't benefiting at all from the negativity, and I didn't appreciate being told that most everything I like sucks.
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