- Joined
- Jul 30, 2017
- Highlight
- #13,981
I think it's pretty clear by now what was the high of Bob's life. From his book:
(this is from a section labeled "the mountaintop")
As such, it was the first (and, for a long period, last) time that the rest of the world and I were almost in sync. SMB3 was the children’s-media story of the moment, the first opinion polls showing that kids worldwide recognized Mario equally or moreso than Mickey Mouse were being breathlessly touted as “Hey boomers, you got OLD!” newswire puff-pieces, and the rest of the world was finally waking up to what my generation of youngsters (and none more so than me) had known for years: the little fat guy with the mustache and the overalls was the coolest thing on the planet
(this from the section following the above labeled "a boy goes to war")
It was The 90s. Video games had “arrived” as the coolest ticket in popular culture (the Arcades were in the midst of a brand-new “boom,” driven largely by a new generation of more violent games aimed at teenagers), Mario and Nintendo were the acknowledged kings of video games, and Bob Chipman—formerly Bob The Dork Who’s Way Too Into His Dorky Video Games—was now Bob The Guy Who Knows Everything About The World’s Hottest ‘New’ Pass Time. “Why, yes ma’am! I CAN tell you the best place to build up your EXP in ‘Final Fantasy.” “What’s that, sir? You can’t quite make it through TMNT II?’ Let me show you a code that might help.” Pathetic fantasies, even for a ten year-old, but that’s really how I figured things were going. Hell, maybe that’s how they were for just a moment. But that moment – my moment – didn’t last.
Ever since then he's been trying to create that high. Oh Marvel movies are the big thing now? "Why, yes ma'am! I CAN tell you what the next film staring your Chris crushes is going to involve."
Thus his whole media literacy thing is him attempting to get to that point again where he had knowledge others don't and they all come to him for the details.
