Skip to main content

The Legend of Platypus





I've been sick for the past two weeks and the thought level on my blog has dipped accordingly. It turns out I caught a very severe case of the flu along with a secondary bronchitis infection. Being sick, however, left me with a lot of time on my hands and the capacity to do very little with it. It's hard to read N.T. Wright's "The Resurrection of the Son of God" when you might barf any second and all you've been able to eat for the past two days has been ginger ale and crackers. That left me wracking my brain for what I used to do when I was this sick 15 years ago (Yes, I have not been this sick in the last 15 years!). The answer was what any boy my age did: play video games. So I fished around in the storage closet and brought out my old Super Nintendo. In went the "The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past;" quite possibly the best video game ever made.

The ensuing journey into my childhood explains all the art on my blog recently. The images track the evolving concept of "Link" down through the years. We all remember "Ocarina of Time," when Link finally got pants. Of course, he lost them again for "Majora's mask." "The Windwaker," however, restored his leggings and they've been stock-in-trade ever since. The most recent incarnation of "Zelda's" protagonist seems to be influenced by the gritty realism of Peter Jackson's adaptation of "The Lord of the Rings." It's interesting to watch a beloved character age with you.

For an entire generation of men (being a man, I only presume to speak for men here), "The Legend of Zelda" series was a key formative element in our creative imaginations. It taught us the value of heroism, and standing up for what's right. In an age of concrete wastelands and demystification, it brought back a sense of wonder. Tolkien would come later, and baptize my imagination, but it was green-clad Link exploring the glades and hills of Hyrule with his sword and shield that first awoke it.
Labels:

Comments

Marcy said…
Browsing past posts...

The Legend of Zelda and Tolkien were near simultaneous for me, I think, but I read Tolkien so very young (possibly before I learned to swim, and my parents had a pool) that I didn't enjoy it all that much at first. I sort of convinced myself I did, because I knew I was supposed to, since my older brothers loved him. And I didn't see any reason why I wouldn't -- back then, I thought being old enough to understand a book only had to do with general reading proficiency, not emotional maturity. At any rate, despite all that, I was fortunate to grow up inundated with all kinds of heroic role models, from Link to fairy tales to fantasy to classic children's books -- so although I can't point at Zelda as particularly formative, I suppose that's just because it was one of so many.

One woman's point of view (albeit partially shaped by four of her seven brothers)...
6:01 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Platypus Reads Part XXVII

Thoughts after reading the "Iliad" to prepare a Greece unit for my students: -Hector is a jerk until he's dead. He even advocates the exposure of Achaean corpses and then has the cheek to turn around and ask Achilles to spare his. He rudely ignores Polydamas' prophecies and fights outside the gate to save his pride knowing full well what it will cost his family and city. After he's dead, he becomes a martyr for the cause. -Agamemnon has several moments of true leadership to balance out his pettiness. In this way, he's a haunting foil to Achilles: the two men are more alike than they want to acknowledge. -We see that Achilles is the better man at the funeral games of Patroclos. His lordliness, tact, and generosity there give us a window into Achilles before his fight with Agamemnon and the death of Patroclos consumed him. -Nestor is a boring, rambling, old man who's better days are far behind him, and yet every Achaean treats him with the upmo...
15 comments
Read more

Seeing Beowulf Through Tolkien: The Platypus Reads Part CXCIX

After spending a few weeks wrestling with Tolkien's interpretation of Beowulf , I found myself sitting down and reading Seamus Heaney's translation of the text during a spare moment.  I came to the place where Beowulf presents Hrothgar with the hilt of the ancient sword that slew Grendel's mother.  Hrothgar looks down at the hilt with its ancient runes and carvings depicting the war between the giants and God and meditates on the fortunes of men.  In a flash of insight, I thought: this is the whole poem! Let me explain.  Tolkien believed that the genuine contribution of the Northern peoples to European culture was the theory of courage.  The Northern heroes, at their best, were men who fought for order against chaos -a battle they knew they were doomed to lose.  If they were true heroes, their souls would join the gods and aid them in the final battle against darkness and its monsters and again go down fighting, spitting in the face of the meaninglessness...
3 comments
Read more

The Platypus and Theological Localism

My wife and I were listening the other day to Dr. Fred Sanders give a paper of California Theological Localism.  It was one of the more technical pieces we've heard from him, and it was fun to stretch our brains a little.  If I understand it right, the main idea of Theological Localism is that place matters and will shape the theology of its inhabitants in certain ways.  This could be seen as determinative, or merely as fodder for apologetic engagement, both of which Sanders rejects as insufficient or problematic.  What exactly is wanted seems to be a theological engagement with place, specifically California, in a way that Sanders and company feel has been neglected.  If that's not clear, the fault is mine as a listener or a writer. Of course, the idea of a theology of place caught my attention and my immediate response was "someone should do this for New England."  New England, after all, is its own peculiar place with, by American standards, a long, va...
6 comments
Read more