She wants to borrow one of your books? Really? Who knew that’s how your nerdy-ass would get a girl?
Matthew’s little sister, Angie in Episode 41 of The Misadventures of Matthew Van Der Boot
It’s a sad fact that teens today just don’t read as much as they did when I was their age, at least not for pleasure, and especially not full-length books. But I can’t really blame them. I mean, would I have made it through The Hobbit before finishing fourth grade, and all three volumes of The Lord of the Rings by the time I was in seventh grade, if I had had the same constant access to not only social media, but also television and movies, as they do now?
Wouldn’t a modern-day Matthew Van Der Boot be streaming Netflix’s The Witcher on his phone in algebra class instead of secretly reading one of the eight paperbacks in the same series by Andrzej Sapkowski? More than likely, yeah, he would. And maybe he would find the escape and the comfort he was looking for in some of his favorite shows and video games just as the Matthew of 1983 found in his books. Maybe.
Still, there’s something about the experience of reading a book that a movie just can’t replace. Maybe it’s the participation required of the reader. A story, no matter how well written, only exists when it is read. So, what is Matthew reading? What experience is he imagining into existence?
His book is called The Warrior’s Path, and at school, he sneaks it out whenever he can. The book gets him in trouble during algebra, but it’s also the reason Ruth decides to strike up a conversation with him and how he ends up walking her to class that Friday morning. “It’s about this very normal guy who walks into a convenience store in the middle of a robbery and decides to be a hero,” Matthew tells Ruth. “He gets shot in the head and wakes up in this strange land. He’s a farmer with a wife and children and sheep and pigs, and all of it.”
This is just the kind of book I devoured during my middle and high school years, and thanks to my two older brothers with similar taste in fantasy and science-fiction, I was never without something new to read. Of course, we all started with Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, but my oldest brother, Wayne, was the only one with the patience to actually read The Silmarillion in its entirety. I opted for The Sword of Shannara by Terri Brooks, a very enjoyable though blatantly LOTR knock-off, while our brother, Steven, moved onto the Conan the Barbarian series with its lusty, or should I say, fleshy, Frank Frazetta covers. If our mother found any of them lying about, she would use a permanent marker to draw proper bathing suits on the scantily clad women inevitably found on them. It was mild censorship and we forgave her for it. At least she didn’t throw them away. Though she may have if she had had the nerve to actually read what was inside.
There were countless other authors and just as many brilliant cover artists, most notably, the Brothers Hildebrandt whose prolific work included the original Star Wars (1977) theatrical-release poster. We went on to read Asimov and Bradbury, of course, but also Philip K. Dick, Gene Wolfe, Roger Zelazny, Michael Moorcock, Stephen R. Donaldson, Ursula K. Le Guin, Piers Anthony, C. J. Cherryh, and many others I’m forgetting. At the mall, we spent more time in the bookstore than in the arcade and record store combined.
Well, the plot to Matthew’s paperback, is kind of a cross between Donaldson’s The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant and Moorcock’s The Eternal Champion series. The hero in it thinks he is in some kind of afterlife. Not the heaven he learned about in Bible school, but nothing to complain about. He lives this life for a while, long enough to fall in love with his wife, with his kids, and even with his animals, with the land itself, but still there is something not right, a feeling that there is something left undone. That he isn’t meant to be in this place, that this isn’t his life.
This is very much Matthew’s state of mind in the story, especially considering the unaddressed trauma he and his sister are going through. But what Matthew is experiencing, really, is what all teens go through as they try to fit in and understand themselves at the same time—with all the risk-taking, the drugs, the alcohol, the over-sexualization of everything, and all the guilt and shame that come with it.
Maybe, for my 1980’s pre-internet generation, it was because the world was not so big, not so easily accessible, that we were so eager to want to venture out into it, to grow up so quickly. Maybe the constant connectivity of our modern world has made today’s teens more aware, more cautious, than those of us who grew up without smartphones. Today’s teenagers are more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety, but then they are also more comfortable talking about mental health issues and seeking professional help compared to previous generations.
Maybe ignorance was our bliss and the bubbles we lived in our blessing … or curse, depending on how each of us managed to survive teen hood (I’m speaking to the living here, after all). But maybe things aren’t altogether that different now. The landscape has changed, sure, but not the dangers hidden within it. The virtual violence, the metaphorical dark alleys of the internet, the subtle brutality of social media—aren’t these simply additional forms of the same horrible acts of inhumanity humans have always been capable of?
But stories, no matter how fantastic or strange, will always be important. When we read them, we practice empathy, we allow ourselves to see the world through someone else’s eyes. These experiences, and the emotions that come with them, are valid and valuable, with the potential to make us better humans … or at least help us talk to girls.
Read from The Warrior’s Path by Mark A. Paulson
The Author, October 31, 1983. Yes, I actually went to school like that … metal jock strap and all. Obviously, I am dressed as Elric of Melnibone from the series by Michael Moorcock (God, I know, that name!). I mean, obviously, right?
One-dollar-and-fifty-cents? Shit, no wonder we had so many books in the house!