Äntligen har antologin Playground Worlds kommit som pdf. Det är en ambitiös samling texter om levande rollspel, redigerad av radarparet Markus Montola / Jaakko Stenros. Det finns mycket att hämta. Själv skrev jag om lajv som en antimodern kultur utifrån Hannah Arendts Vita Activa.

Widing gives us this year’s application of “take philosopher X and apply his/her thoughts on larp”. This time its Arendt, and Gabriel indeed manages to deal with the points of social criticism, alienation and larp quite well. Given the subject matters of capitalism, individuality and temporary spaces, I nevertheless would have liked a few steps outside just one line of thought – for example, also referencing Deleuze & Guattari would have added a lot of strength to this article.

- J. Tuomas Harviainen

A deeply philosophical piece about modern life and the function of larp in it, drawing on the thought-provoking work of exiled Jewish-German philosopher Hannah Arendt. Discusses the value of larp as an antidote for the alienation of modern life in industrialised societies, and reminds me of a piece I read recently discussing the Harajuku Kids in Tokyo, who also dress up and create a social space away from "reality". An affecting article that may get you thinking about much more than larp.

- Ryan Paddy, RPG.net

Rekommenderar även Andies artikel "High Resolution Larping: Enabling Subtlety at Totem and Beyond" och J. Tuomas Harviainen "Kaprow’s Scions" om lajv som en sorts fortsättning på happeningkulturen (eller "händare", som det kallades i Sverige när det kom i början av sextiotalet).

I år ska Interacting Arts sätta ihop antologin till Knutpunkt.

/Gabriel Widing

Andra bloggar om lajv, Hannah Arendt, rollspel, larp, levande rollspel.

- För några veckor sedan sände P1 ett reportage om Maskernas stad. Du kan lyssna här.

- Om du inte blir klokare av reportaget kan du läsa artikeln i Svenska Dagbladet från i våras.

- Om dimmorna fortfarande ligger täta kan du kolla närmare på infon på www.maskspel.se
Där finns en ljudtrailer och hela musiksagan.

/Ulf Staflund

Our guest tonight is a man, known to move in mysterious ways, at the same time in the very center and the very fringe of society, deceptive yet honest, violent yet humanitarian, a man of masks, living out his chosen roles, thus fulfilling his destiny. Ladies and gentleman, here he comes … Batman! – give him a hand!!

So, Batman, what are your opinion on this new fenomenon in the cultural arena – live-action role-playing?

From my perspective it is interesting to note that such a great amount of people are trying out so many different roles and identities. As you all know, I have been playing a role most of my life, and that experience in itself, regardless of what I’ve done in that role, has given me fascinating insights into the human nature. In his book The Trip, Tom Wolfe pictures Ken Kesey as talking about the Experience – he was of course talking about psychedelic drugs -– but the pattern is the same: either you have gotten the experience or you haven’t. The larp experience is of the same kind, it’s something you must find out for yourself.

It’s actually impossible to say which of my roles are the ”genuine me”, Batman or Bruce Wayne. In some ways Bruce Wayne is just a likeable persona that I put on in order to move freely among the upper echelons of society, and it might be that the Batman persona is closer to my psychological reality, whatever that is. The experience I am talking about is the realization that we’re all playing these roles all the time, and that we have a freedom to choose among identities that are much greater than we are led to believe.

When I think of the persons I work with, confront or fight, I see roles. Commissioner Gordon, Robin, The Catwoman, The Joker, we are all playing roles in a drama that is much bigger than any of us. At the same time we play our individual roles, you may as well say that we are mutually dependent on each other; no crime, no Batman, and vice versa: if there was no Batman, a lot of criminal things would never come to pass. This is one of the laws of role-playing: any role carries within itself all the roles necessary to play out the bigger drama. Take away the Wolf and nobody would ever hear about Little Red Ridinghood.

So when I look at larps, what I see is people who either have realized that the world is made up of roles, and now are trying them out (i.e. having got the experience), or people who sooner or later – by larping – will come to the same realization (will get the experience).

You mean larping is like a drug?

Please, try to be serious. That is not what I said, and I’m not going to repeat myself for your convenience.

What makes larping a powerful tool for insight is that you can live at several levels of reality at the same time. Once you have realized that you can exist in one role and also observe your actions from the viewpoint of another role, that insight spills over into daily life. It makes you more perceptive of which ”You” is acting in a given moment, thus making it easier to understand what drives you to behave the way you do, seeing yourself and your motives, conscious or subconsious, in a clearer light.

You mean larping as therapy then?

Yeah, you could say that, although I think of it as more of self-discovery, a method to find out who you are and why.

Are you not using rather big words for something that’s just an advanced form of ”cobboys and injuns”?

Well, do you really think kids’ playing is just for fun? The reason for playing is just what I said – to discover how to hande this world they have been forced into, which is the same as discovering who you are.

But kids don’t play with real guns, putting their lives at risk the way you do. You can’t compare your life as Batman with larpers’ role-playing.

Bullshit. Have you ever been hit by a stray bullet coming out of the comics where the gangsters fire in all directions? What you fail to grasp here is that there are no real bullets, neither in a larp, nor in the comics. You remember Matrix II : ”There is no spoon.” Which means that you can do anything. It’s the experience that counts. Books and films give you the possibility to experience all kinds of situations, if only in your mind. Larps put you one step closer to the real thing, while keeping you out of harm’s way. You engage not only your mind, but the whole body, the complete organism. Sorrow, joy, hate, love, you name it, it’s all there, and to the brain it’s no difference if it’s play or not. If it’s believable, it’s real. ”Real” is just a term that means ”utterly believable”. Otherwise there would be no point in having literature or any other art forms – it’s all about giving access to other lives, other experiences that you usually don’t get in your daily life.

There is a reason why my character – the Batman – is important to lots of people. The reason is that I have such traits that are necessary for being a god. I am human – and I am endowed with special capabilities that are beyond human reach. True, in the Batman mythos – the stories that are told about Batman – I am supposed to be nothing but an ordinary man, no superpowers, only stronger, faster smarter. But the things Batman does can actually not be done by ordinary humans. It’s like the story of Jesus – he too is portraited as a normal guy, a carpenter’s son – only more so. Also, if you go up one meta-level and look at the comics as chronicles, then you realize that Batman is immortal – how many years have I been of the same age – 50?

In the case of Robin it’s even more evident, because he actually dies in the comics, not once, but several times. Then he is reborn again because there’s a demand for him, a need for him. In the same way that goes for our enemies too, some of them die sometimes, and they always come back, sooner or later.

Now here’s the interesting thing: larpers are like that too. A larp character may die in a game and come back in another, just because the player, or the story, or the organizer deems it good or necessary to have that character living in the next game.

It has often been said that larpers are like gods: they create New Reality. So here we have another way to be like a god – immortality. The brain is a stupid animal; it sees no difference between input and input. It’s all nerve cells signalling to each other, and if the input comes from the eyes or any other sense organ, or from dreams or hallucinations or fantasies – it’s all the same to the brain: signals between nerve cells. When you enact immortality, either by playing an immortal character, like a god, demon, angel, archmage, elven king or whatever, or by reviving a dead character, there is only one thing that keeps you from experiencing that as reality – your conviction that it is not so. You have many nerve cells constantly sending a strong message: it’s just a story, a game of pretense, an as-if. If you could block that message, you would be convinced, no, thats the wrong word since it implicates doubt, you would experience immortality in the same way angels do it.

I’m not sure I follow you there … do you say that you are immortal?

I am not immortal, Batman is. I have died a couple of times in the comics, but not until the production of Batman comics stops will I be dead. Even that is not enough, as long as there are copies of magazines or films which people can read and watch, I will be alive. Litte Red Ridinghood never dies as long as somebody reads her story.

What about people using larp as a pretext for acting out in anti-social ways? I mean, it’s not farfetched to say that you – Batman – are constantly looking for reasons to take revenge on the world for the death of your parents. Could it not be that larpers do the same, giving free rein to neurotic or pathologic urges?

And that’s not happening in the ”real world”? Actually I think you find more of anti-social behavior and pathologic urges in the daily news – with deadly consequences to boot – than you do in an ordinary larp.

As regards my reactions to the death of my parents, there’s a world of difference between being driven to murderous acts by unconscious motives, as in the case of Joker, and being aware of such motivations and harnessing their energy, using it to fight evil, as in my case. The Batman persona can rightly be said to fulfill two objectives – one, to create and express that awareness, and two, to utilize it.

By refusing to identify with just one aspect of my personality, I have been forced to consider my motivations, reading Batman’s acts in the light of Bruce Wayne, and at the same time seeing Bruce Wayne as a necessary balance to Batman. The Joker, on the other hand, is what you may call a ”whole” person – there’s nothing but Joker in him – thus making him blind to himself. He is almost a force of nature, whilst Batman keeps his essential humanity intact.

Now, to return to the question of larpers giving free rein to their darker impulses – if you cross the line between ludic play and real actions in a larp, you break the rules of the game and will be taken to task, in one way or another, by the players or the organizers.

If you’re asking if larping would encourage uncouth behavior in general, I would suggest you think of army exercises. (The army’s battle training are just rather big and well-organized larps.) If you are of the opinion that the army’s training turn out homicidal killers – which is a valid concern – then I would say that larps are a more playful and joyous way to experience the whole range of human life, including the dark sides. Kids ar not playing Cops and Robbers in order to become cops and robbers. If you do not think that army training produces killers, then the whole question is moot.

What would you say if someone organized ”Batman – the larp”?

Oh, I would love it! Considered the many hundreds of games that are played each year all over the world, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s already done. That’s actually the whole point of larping, to get another person’s perspective, and if you get the chance to see yourself as others see you, to meet your Doppelgänger, that’s an opportunity I think everone should jump to. I would really like to participate in such a game, especially if I get to play against the Batman, maybe as the Joker or any other of my enemies.

Do you find it hard to keep your roles apart, does the Batman ”bleed” into Bruce Wayne or vice versa?

There are no easy answers to that question, since both roles also feed into each other. Batman needs Bruce Wayne in order to keep his feet on the ground – from the rooftops it’s easy to lose sight of the individual person. If you see people as ants long enough, it’s easy to start treating them as ants. Also, when would Batman have the time to pick up girls? That’s for Bruce Wayne to do.

On the other hand Bruce Wayne also needs to be brought to base, sort of. He’s socializing with the top of society, playing the playboy, wheeling and dealing with big buck business. At that level of society there are many superficial phonies with shark teeth behind shallow smiles. The crooks may be crooked, but they’re straight in a way that many straight people are not. If they want you dead, they don’t try to be nice about it.

As a last word, what advice would you give larpers of today and tomorrow?

”Go on!” The more facets of the human condition you explore, the better it is. I have the feeling that many young folks (of all ages) is waiting for some signal flashing through the sky, like the Batman signal, telling them where and when they are needed. Remember then that I put that signal there myself. Likewise you have to decide for yourself what your signal is. If you wait for it, you won’t get any other signal than what this society thinks is best for business. Then you will not be agents of change, just agents for the powers that be, and we all know where they have brought us – don’t we?

Thanks a lot for coming here and good luck with your work in the future. Ladies and gentlemen – tonight you have heard him – the Batman!
...And now a word from our sponsor: Kingpin Enterprises…..

Elge tänker efter

Det är i hjärnan som alla upplevelser finns. Där finns våra drömmar lika väl som vår verklighet. Man kan alltså säga att för hjärnan är drömmar och verklighet lika sanna. Men på morgonen säger minnet: ”Det där kan ju inte ha hänt.” Annars skulle vi inte kunna skilja dem åt. (Vilket kanske vore intressant, men en smula riskfyllt…)

Ok, från den utgångspunkten kan vi analysera våra vardagliga upplevelser med samma instrument som vi analyserar våra drömmar. Jag tror dessutom att Wirklichkeitsdeutung är mer givande än Traumdeutung. Generellt är jag övertygad om att våra reaktioner på vardagens stora och små händelser liksom de val vi gör i den dagliga tillvaron styrs av omedvetna faktorer som vi vet alltför lite om. Som jag ser det är grunden för IA:s ståndpunkt – verkligheten är ett val – att vi, som buddhisterna säger, lever i våra projektioner. Om vi då inte har kunskap om dem, om vi inte kan kontrollera dem, är vi ju rätt ställda.

Där det finns handlingsmönster finns det styrande krafter. Vem är det då som styr, som ser till att mönstren upprepas? Du som retar dig på ... [pick your choice], väljer du varje gång att bli irriterad eller är dina reaktioner betingade reflexer? Vem är då härskare i ditt hus, du själv eller den som levererar de stimuli du retar dig på? Du som ständigt klagar över bristen på ... [pick your choice] i ditt liv, är du säker på att det verkligen är ett oblitt ödes styng och pilar som du oförskyllt har drabbats av? Javisst, det är vad du tror (vet), men tänk om dina tolkningar styrs av ett mönster som du bär med dig vart du än går?

Vi kan kalla våra omedvetna föreställningar för demoner. Om det inte är du som bestämmer i ditt huvud, är det demonerna som gör det. Precis som alla andra troll tål de dagsljuset dåligt. När du får syn på dem, kan peka ut dem och namnge dem, minskar deras makt. Dock är det inte så enkelt som att de alltid spricker i solen. Dessutom är det så att de får sin styrka från dig – de har inga andra muskler än vad du ger dem.

Demonerna är egentligen inte onda, de vill faktiskt vara dina vänner, men de har missförstått hela situationen. En gång lärde de sig att skydda dig genom sitt agerande, men de blev så fixerade vid den värld och tid du levde i då att de inte märker att tillvaron förändrats. De tror att de är du och att de vill och gör det som de tror att du vill. På så vis får de dig att lyda deras bud genom att de förklär sig till dig så att du tror att deras röst är din röst, deras vilja är din vilja. Vadå, det är väl jag som gör vad jag vill? Nja, deras (din) första inbillning är att det bara finns ett du (jag), men om du ser efter upptäcker du att det hela tiden går någon bredvid dig som iakttar allt du gör. Det är också du (jag).

För att kunna förklara för demonerna att livet är bättre nu och att de inte behöver vara så ängsliga, arga … [pick your choice], kort sagt försvarande längre, måste du ta kontakt med dem. Det gör du genom att undersöka hur du tolkar tillvaron du lever i. Säg inte bara att bussen är försenad, beskriv vad det BETYDER. Betydelser är tolkningar är demoner är de mönster du bär på. Det här jobbet görs bäst av din iakttagande dubbelgångare.

Roliga (?) exempel:
Bussen var försenad – alltså måste vi stoppa invandringen för det är bara invandrare som kör.
Bussen var försenad – alltså måste vi byta regering för det är politikerna som organiserar trafiken.
Bussen var försenad – alltså får du inte vara arg på mig, för det var inte mitt fel. (Den här är listig, kunde/ville jag ta förseningsrisken med i min planering?)
Bussen var försenad – alltså älskar du mig inte eftersom du inte kunde vänta.
Bussen var försenad – alltså är livet inte värt att leva för så här är det jämt…
Bussen var försenad – alltså är Gud ond.
Bussen var försenad – alltså får jag bete mig som ett svin för det gör ju ”dom”.

I verkligheten var bussen försenad – punkt. Min (dvs demonernas) tolkning finns bara hos mig. Fast … vem vill väl lyssna på en dubbelgångare? Då har jag ju inte längre något att gömma mig bakom, skylla på, hänvisa till. Jag måste stå för alla mina åsikter. I hemlighet älskar vi demonerna för de säger att vi får vara de oskyldiga barn vi var när de flyttade in i huvudet. Deras riktigt demoniska budskap är just detta tröstätande: EGENTLIGEN borde allt vara som jag vill att det ska vara. I själva verket är allt bara som det är. Utan innebörd.

Ulf Staflund letar efter nån som gillar att redigera film och ev. filma. Han förbereder en video med duktigt dansfolk till sin låt som handlar om konflikten mellan stad och skog; nutid och barndom. Musiken låter trubadur/country/irländskt. Svara inte här, ring 0736 788 647 eller mail ulfstaflund@gmail.com