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I'm drinking at the cottage so it's time for me to mount a Freudo-Marxist critique of an underlying problem with Dungeons and Dragons (henceforth D&D).
[If you're 1. following me and 2. on Twitter on a Saturday, it's your own fault you're seeing this so I'm not apologizing.]
[If you're 1. following me and 2. on Twitter on a Saturday, it's your own fault you're seeing this so I'm not apologizing.]
It is interesting to me that the history of D&D adaptations to TV or film have been less than excellent. I think this is because there is an underlying misunderstanding about what D&D is about. I shall argue this by looking at the etymology of "adventurer".
Going back to the ancients, work was considered unbecoming for people of higher birth. Oikonomia (Greek: management of the household) and neg otium (Latin: the negation of time for leisure) were the domains of slaves, hence Rousseau says "slavery is a slave's word."
After contact and the start of world trade, Iberian traders took enslaved people from Africa, imported them to America, mined silver to sell to China, and received more gold than they knew what to do with.
They had so much gold they became nobles and could no longer work...
They had so much gold they became nobles and could no longer work...
This is 16th century. At the same time, actual nobles wanted to get in on it. So you've got traders who can't trade and nobles who want to not be noble. What do you do?
Rebrand!
Rather than calling yourself traders, you call yourself "adventurers".
Rebrand!
Rather than calling yourself traders, you call yourself "adventurers".
This is where you get the hero myths around guys like Sir Francis Drake. This works (obviously).
But, by the time the 19th century rolls around, adventurer has become a term of abuse describing exactly the kind of thing is what meant to obscure - murderous plunder.
But, by the time the 19th century rolls around, adventurer has become a term of abuse describing exactly the kind of thing is what meant to obscure - murderous plunder.
A pair of anti-slavery French lawyers (1826), describing Saint-Domingue (the colony that would become Haiti) say it was founded by "criminals and vagabonds, led by adventurers - the dregs of society".
Marx, likewise: https://twitter.com/SpartanVTyranny/status/1134262436935155719?s=19
Marx, likewise: https://twitter.com/SpartanVTyranny/status/1134262436935155719?s=19
This, once again, becomes obscured and adventurer becomes a kind of "Boy's Life" pulp magazine hero word for the Indiana Joneses of the world.
Hence the use of the word to describe your character in D&D.
Hence the use of the word to describe your character in D&D.
But, a decade or so ago, the extremely online hip nerds who played D&D decided the word adventurer didn't adequately describe what happened during a typical D&D game - which tended to be slaughter, plunder, chaos, and a wanton disregard for anything other than sweet sweet gold.
They therefore coined the term "murderhobo" (feel free to Google it or search it on here - there are many memes.)
Murderhobo for adventurer. This is, I claim, the problem.
Murderhobo for adventurer. This is, I claim, the problem.
Why is that the problem, given that etymology?
Because it is purporting to be ironic when ironically it is not ironic. It is basically the literal etymological definition of adventurer. People untied from any societal obligation murdering people for loot.
Because it is purporting to be ironic when ironically it is not ironic. It is basically the literal etymological definition of adventurer. People untied from any societal obligation murdering people for loot.
As Freud tells us: the repressed returns. You want a good D&D TV series, a la Game of Thrones? Engage with the roots of the word.
That's my best @HeerJeet impression for the evening. Please feel free to add in your own insights into the fraught etymology of "adventurer" for my research/musings. And/or tell @Hasbro to hire me to lead a @Wizards_DnD TV adaptation.
