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The Happiest Days of Our Lives
If you've ever read Wil Wheaton's blog (clevernickname to us), you know he's not afraid to put everything on the table. One of the things I've always admired about his writing is his willingness to talk about his kids. On the internet. With ... people. Despite the obvious problems that could cause, Wil has been sharing anecdotes about his adventures in parenting since the early days of WWDN. His newest book, The Happiest Days of Our Lives, talks about growing up geek and what it means to be a nerd and a father at the same time. Read on for my review.
The Happiest Days of Our Lives
author
Wil Wheaton
pages
136
publisher
Monolith Press
rating
8/10
reviewer
Zonk
ISBN
0974116017
summary
Wil Wheaton's recollections of growing up, and parenting, as a nerd.
That the bones of the book's content comes directly from Wil's website shouldn't distract you. Whether you've been a reader all along (and might recognize some of these stories) or not, they've all been expanded and clarified for inclusion in the book. That clarification is something that comes across very strongly in Happiest Days, especially if you have read any of his previous work. Wil has put a great deal of work into the craft of writing over the past few years, and it shows. Some three years have passed since his sophomore effort in Just a Geek, and even more since Dancing Barefoot.
Where once it seemed as though Wil had something to prove in his writing - that he was over showbiz, that he was over Star Trek - Happiest Days is full of simple stories. The day he bought a Lando Calrissian action figure essentially by mistake, a simple outing for ice cream with his sons; they're everyday events but artfully told. In total he has about thirteen short tales in the chapbook-sized novel, ranging from just two pages long to a few dozen.
Some of his most evocative stories (and the reason this review is here) are all about Wil's growth as a nerdling. The most evocative for me was the chapter 'a portrait of the artist as a young geek', which details Wil's introduction to tabletop roleplaying. From his first brush with the infamous 'red box' D&D set at Christmas 1983, to his experience teaching his kids how to roll up characters under the 3.0 rulesset, the story reminds me (and may remind you) of a D6-laden past.
And really, that's what Wil makes this a book about. It's about his own past, his troubles, his triumphs, but in reality this is meant to be a book that reaches out to you as a reader. If you see something of yourself in the kid who agonized in the toy aisle, if you see something of yourself in the dad who argues with his kids over the radio station (and rocks out to 80s synth-pop), then the purpose of the Happiest Days has been fulfilled. Or at least, as I see it.
And, of course, if you like Wil's discussion of Star Trek there's some elements of that there as well. The difference, again, is that instead of pining for Trek itself, Wil reminisces about the impact Trek has had upon him. Great experiences talking like adults with Jonathan Frakes, the chance to speak to Ron Moore backstage at a con, and the recording of a documentary are what makes for stories from Wil in the here and now.
Probably the book's strongest element is also its biggest drawback. Wil's vicious editing and strong prose makes for an incredibly short book. The amount of story and emotion packed into the bare 136 pages is impressive. But ... it's still just 136 pages. And for $20, that seems a bit steep. For me, though, it was worth it to support an author that's been a pleasure to watch grow over the last several years. From blogger to published writer, Wil Wheaton's journey is laid out in miniature in the pages of Happiest Days. With the sour taste of Just a Geek washed out of his mouth, my hope is that we'll see more long-form work from Wheaton in the future. In the meantime this is a worthy 'sequel' to Dancing Barefoot, and well worth a look by fans of the well-placed word.
You can purchase The Happiest Days of Our Lives from Monolith Press. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
That the bones of the book's content comes directly from Wil's website shouldn't distract you. Whether you've been a reader all along (and might recognize some of these stories) or not, they've all been expanded and clarified for inclusion in the book. That clarification is something that comes across very strongly in Happiest Days, especially if you have read any of his previous work. Wil has put a great deal of work into the craft of writing over the past few years, and it shows. Some three years have passed since his sophomore effort in Just a Geek, and even more since Dancing Barefoot.
Where once it seemed as though Wil had something to prove in his writing - that he was over showbiz, that he was over Star Trek - Happiest Days is full of simple stories. The day he bought a Lando Calrissian action figure essentially by mistake, a simple outing for ice cream with his sons; they're everyday events but artfully told. In total he has about thirteen short tales in the chapbook-sized novel, ranging from just two pages long to a few dozen.
Some of his most evocative stories (and the reason this review is here) are all about Wil's growth as a nerdling. The most evocative for me was the chapter 'a portrait of the artist as a young geek', which details Wil's introduction to tabletop roleplaying. From his first brush with the infamous 'red box' D&D set at Christmas 1983, to his experience teaching his kids how to roll up characters under the 3.0 rulesset, the story reminds me (and may remind you) of a D6-laden past.
And really, that's what Wil makes this a book about. It's about his own past, his troubles, his triumphs, but in reality this is meant to be a book that reaches out to you as a reader. If you see something of yourself in the kid who agonized in the toy aisle, if you see something of yourself in the dad who argues with his kids over the radio station (and rocks out to 80s synth-pop), then the purpose of the Happiest Days has been fulfilled. Or at least, as I see it.
And, of course, if you like Wil's discussion of Star Trek there's some elements of that there as well. The difference, again, is that instead of pining for Trek itself, Wil reminisces about the impact Trek has had upon him. Great experiences talking like adults with Jonathan Frakes, the chance to speak to Ron Moore backstage at a con, and the recording of a documentary are what makes for stories from Wil in the here and now.
Probably the book's strongest element is also its biggest drawback. Wil's vicious editing and strong prose makes for an incredibly short book. The amount of story and emotion packed into the bare 136 pages is impressive. But ... it's still just 136 pages. And for $20, that seems a bit steep. For me, though, it was worth it to support an author that's been a pleasure to watch grow over the last several years. From blogger to published writer, Wil Wheaton's journey is laid out in miniature in the pages of Happiest Days. With the sour taste of Just a Geek washed out of his mouth, my hope is that we'll see more long-form work from Wheaton in the future. In the meantime this is a worthy 'sequel' to Dancing Barefoot, and well worth a look by fans of the well-placed word.
You can purchase The Happiest Days of Our Lives from Monolith Press. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
This is definitely one of my favourite books of the year, if for no other reason than the simple familiarity of the writing. Reading it is like sitting in a pub with an especially expressive friend, listening to him tell you some crazy story about his past that you suspect must be embellished, but don't mind if it is. After a crazy day dealing with puffed-up psychopaths a few weeks ago, I read four chapters, and it's like the casual tone just evaporated all my tension. Wil sucks the pretension out of the air with his writing... it's just superb.
The one thing I'm hoping for is a work of fiction next... I know it's an extra-daunting task, but I'm sure it'd kick ass.
The world's only surviving livewriter.
But the site says ordering will be back up by the 26th.
Wil just sold through 300 signed hard cover copies and I guess the paperbacks will be available again in the next week or so.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
I still want to kick him in the nuts repeatedly.
Three hundred people read my 'blog' yesterday! You have no idea how proud I am, the best anyone has managed to get to the Womens Institute for a talk is thirty three. June Dawkins only managed nineteen, she was green when I told her about my three hundred new friends who read my diary! Of course my readers are much younger too, Simon told me that most people on the internet are teenagers while everyone at the WI is ancient like me.
I have seen that some of you who talk to the internet have little counters that say how many people are reading. I am much more impressed with how advanced my system is; I ring up Simon and ask him. I really should mention Simon, he is the nice man who connected me to the information motorway. Anyway when I want to know how many of you are listening to me I call him up and ask.
Much better than a silly little counter. I rang him yesterday and he said "oh, at least three hundred people, whatever" which is how young people talk these days. I asked him how many people would be reading today and he said five hundred! I am very impressed with his service indeed . And hello to the two hundred new people who will listen to me today!
Yours,
Mildred
This Internet 2.1 blog for user Mildred is powered by The Cheapest Blog Host On The Internet! , the revolutionary web 2.0 metalayer. Get yours now! blog navigation | previous post | first post a link to the next post will be in a comment to this post
I'm a 300! woohoooooooooo!
is what Trek he thinks is best! c'mon, throw us a frickin' bone here!
(full disclosure - i've voted about a dozen times for TOS - not that it's helped)
+1 fashionably cynical
Clearly, it is not possible to be a nerd and a father at the same time... the former should make the latter impossible.
I want to play Free Market with a drowning Libertarian.
I'd rather watch paint dry.
...that heralded the end of anything worthwhile about that series. Since then, you're an hero to lazy outcasts who think they're born with some sort of destiny. Everything you write epitomises what's wrong with America today. Protestant work ethic - a firm belief that one should use his talents to build himself so he can lift up society around him - replaced with a sense of entitlement and a big government to preserve this privileged elite.
At least our countrymen are getting exactly what they deserve: the number of people coming out on top is ever diminshing; eventually the remaining citizens will revolt. It's happened in every other empire, and there have been empires far more powerful, relatively speaking, than the American. I look forward to the end of aristocracy, whether borne of physical strength, mental prowess, or wealthy family.
How original the whiny little star trek boy is! Who'd ever have thought: a book about a half-geek half-father! I'm sure that no /.ers meet that description.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
Zonk can read?
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
At least our countrymen are getting exactly what they deserve: the number of people coming out on top is ever diminshing; eventually the remaining citizens will revolt. It's happened in every other empire, and there have been empires far more powerful, relatively speaking, than the American. I look forward to the end of aristocracy, whether borne of physical strength, mental prowess, or wealthy family.
Tell it, brother!
Very soon we will rise up and overthrow the power that The Man holds, and take our rightful place! No longer will The Man make us work and slave for him, we'll feast upon their ill-gotten tables. Then we can retire to their lives of leisure, all the working men and women finally able to rest. It's our turn, baby!
Just like when Rome fell! No more did the Romans force their roads, buildings and civilization on the world, all built from the labor of their slaves! Sure, there was the 1,000 years of the dark ages after that, but this time the professional athlete will embrace the trash man, both slaves to the power structure, and a new enlightened society will rise from the ashes of the aristocracy, and all will cry out, "FREE AT LAST! FREE AT LEAST! THANK GOD ALMIGHTY, WE ARE FREE AT LAST!"
Always seemed too gawky to me.
I don't want to sound like a troll, but please can we all stop jacking off Wil Wheaton? Yes, he was on Star Trek; yes, he's a great guy; yes, he does VA work. But I don't understand why he needs to many Slashdot posts.
Rome, on the other hand, was about conquering and exploitation, and if it looked civilised, it was because it had the organisational skill to implement old, well-known technology. Sure, we have Boethius and the like to thank for preserving Greek work, but this was the age of the commentator. 1,000 years of the dark ages Let me guess, your high school history lesson went: cavemen, Romans, Dark Ages thanks to Evil Christianity and that warmonger Mohammed, glorious Western Renaissance.... Your post reveals such a shallow dip in the Perian spring it embarrasses me to share a mother tongue with you.
(Nice trollish use of QWZX to save the trouble of searching, though.
Having kids who've grown up to be people you like as well as love -- that utterly rocks.
All things considered, the fifties so far have been the best times I can remember. I'm willing to wait for grandchildren, but only in the "do not open before Xmas" sense.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
I find it kind of sad to think of Wil reading through the comments on here. I'm sure as a regular to slashdot he's probably used to the trolling that goes on, but it's still got to be hard on him at some level to read some of this stuff. I for one hadn't heard about this book before now, but I think I'll go pickup a copy. It's always interesting to see a fellow geeks perspective on life, and Wil usually does a pretty good job of expressing that perspective.
Curiosity was framed, Ignorance killed the cat.
After finishing the book, Wheaton reported that his children began singing about not needing "no education" and asking him to "leave them kids alone"
My life's goal is to get a score of +3!
look to Ancient Greece for advances in mathematics, science, astronomy, etc. Or, moving East a little and for the cultural inspiration for Greek mathematical advance, to Egypt or Babylon.
Typical anti-Roman babblings. Sure, the greeks get credit for some math and science (though, the Middle East is far overrated on those things), but the Romans took a bunch egghead ramblings and turned it into civil engineering. I don't think it can be argued that the Romans did more than anyone in history to bring civilization to the savage outlying countries.
In fact, Rome was *this* close to creating modern society. They were very close to having working steam engines, which would have done the same thing as it did in the mid 1800s, and make slavery uneconomical.
Dark Ages thanks to Evil Christianity and that warmonger Mohammed, glorious Western Renaissance
Er, that's pretty much accurate. Nothing destroyed civilization like the rise of religion. It's pretty much held us back 1,000 or 2,000 years, depending on how you want to count it. Christianity had a big hand in causing Rome to fall, leading to a thousand years of chaos and misery. If Rome had been kept strong, eventually it would have led to modern society far sooner, and probably without the millstone of religion that still holds us back today.
I think anybody who's a regular on the Internet knows how silly and meaningless trolls are. As a regular slashdotter, I think he knows that the praise is much higher than the trolling is low. Most everything anti-Wil I've seen consists of pointless, poorly thought out sentences. But the complements are just as consistent: thoughtful appreciation of the warm, emotional relationships that are unique to his writing, yet instantly familiar to us.
You think a few lame-o trolls on Slashdot are going to affect him? At one point in time he had almost all of nerddom hating him. Usenet groups dedicated to his destruction. People at cons screaming at him. In Klingon. You name it.
Wil probably has thicker skin than a rhino at this point.
That being said - I'm a fan. Of both Wil and Wesley. Suck it, haters.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
I got my copy in the mail a few weeks ago, right before I left on a trip. When I got back I picked it up and then didn't put it down until I was done. It's a real thrill ride of a "whodunit". Ok, it's not but it IS very compelling reading.
I enjoyed it immensely. Perhaps this was partly because I grew up in the town neighboring his so those stories had extra meaning to me. However, I think any geek will enjoy it, as someone else said in the comments, he's "one of us".
My formal review is on my blog: http://www.offlinetshirts.com/blog/index.php/2007/11/20/book-review-happiest-days-of-our-lives/
As a disclaimer, I must admit to having met Wil in person and to getting my copy for free (which was a very cool surprise).
~Fricka
OffLineTshirts.com
The Happiest Days of Our Lives - Pink Floyd
When we grew up and went to school
There were certain teachers who would
Hurt the children any way they could
By pouring their derision
Upon anything we did
And exposing every weakness
However carefully hidden by the kids
But in the town it was well known
When they got home at night, their fat and
Psycopathic wives would thrash them
Within inches of their lives
nothing but a bitch
Yes, Floyd came to mind as well. But if I hear one more story of how he slipped Ashley Judd the tongue...
there will be some thrashings from me, too.
Rapid technological advance (which really wasn't happening anyway) instead of the fall of Rome, without a corresponding social advance - the Renaissance was mostly about looking back to Greece, thank fuck, not Rome - would have been horrible. A fascist technocracy is exactly where we're heading now, because we've shaken off Neohumanist principles; and very few will benefit from it. (Though quite a few readers to this site will - and, TBH, I could easily benefit from it also. But I'd rather die than make slaves of my fellow men.)
If you were/are a fan of Star Trek: The Next Generation, go and read Wil's own TNG episode reviews at TV Squad.
I guarantee you - you will almost die laughing.
"Parent" comes, via the French language, from the Latin "parens". Itself coming from the verb "parere".
I am not enough of an Latin etymologist to tell if it comes from
*parere/pareo : to be obedient to, obey
*parere/paro : prepare, raise, furnish/supply/provide or
*parere/pario : bear, give birth to, beget
(each makes sense)
But clearly, it comes from the verb "parere", which would be something like "to pare" if it had propagated to Modern English.
Putting a -ens generally is a way to make up a substantive from a verb which will specifically refer to the performer of the action.
Examples:
ferere (to bear) --> ferens (bearer). Ex. Christopher = Christos Ferens = the one who bears Christ
exponere --> exponens
Anyway, it is plain ridiculous to take a verb, make a substantive out of it, and make another verb out of it that means the same thing as the original verb. Someone who fishes fishes is called a fisherman or a fisher, yet his job is not called "fishermanning" nor "fishering". Someone who farms is a farmer yet you don't call his job farmering. Someone who insures people is an insurer, yet he is not in the "insurering" business.
The only way "to parent" would be an acceptable verb is if it was not about raising children (performing the action) but about making one a parent (making the object a performer of the action).
Fuck you, language rapists. What's next ? are should we call people, who perform the action of "parenting", "parenters" ?
Sure, in the luxury of the Nile and protected by the desert, Egyptians didn't have much motivation to behave as exploitative, expansive Romans, but they sure as hell knew how to apply simple mathematics to engineering projects a good couple of millennia before Rome.
Of course people threw together some structures before Rome, but so what? The point is that Rome didn't just sit on all these advances, they brought them to the savages in the outlying areas. They spread civilization around the world, similar to what England did during their Empire years. You're talking about a few insulated societies who managed to naval-gaze for awhile, I'm talking about civilizing the world.
Please state what you're actually trying to say - is it Christian philosophy that causes empires to fall?
Where do you think the power went to once the Roman empire fell? Straight to the Roman Catholic church is where. They grabbed the power for themselves and undermined the Empire. The Church enslaved far more people than the Romans ever dreamed up -- they just did it in a more subtle way. "Put your faith in God, and honor him by building this church! And by giving us a tithe! And by the way, you better put your faith in God or we'll slaughter you." It's just slavery by a different method.
Again, Rome was fascist.
Of course they were! But they were on the path toward modern society. Technology would have brought about the evolution of that society away from a slave-based empire to a capitalistic one, just like the English kings eventually gave power to its business citizens -- because it made more money that way. It was still brutal, but it was moving in the direction of greater freedom.
Instead, the anti-science Church plunged everybody back into darkness and superstition that lasted over a thousand years, and even then Galileo was put in jail for being a scientist. If Galileo had the same ideas in the Roman empire, he would not have been persecuted.
It's undeniable that the fall of Rome was a travesty of history.
Sometimes it's best to just let stupid people be stupid.
Largely, to the various peoples that broke free of the Roman state as it fell.
Er, no. The Roman state was pretty consistently moving toward less freedom (particularly substantive political freedom) for its citizens from a point well before the fall of the Republic through the fall of the western Empire. Its true that toward the end of the western Empire, it was moving toward more inclusive citizenship as more and more of the "barbarians" were granted citizenship in exchange for military service because the Empire was unable to hold itself together, but that was an integral parts of the fall of the Empire, not a trend toward greater liberty that could have been sustained with the Empire standing.
"Slave-based" and "capitalistic" aren't opposites, or even excluded. The American South prior to the Civil War had an economy both slave-based and capitalistic.
No, the collapse of central authority and organized society and general war of all against all that accompanied it did that, inasmuch as it happened at all (and, actually, its not like the period from the fall of Rome to the Renaissance wasn't full of advances, including several agricultural and industrial revolutions which made the Renaissance possible; there is nothing like a period of over a thousand years of relative "darkness and superstition" except in popular mythology.)
No, Galileo was put in jail for doing what was perceived as a direct and personal insult to the sitting Pope, his principal patron, in his writing. It wasn't his ideas (which he'd made public long before he got in trouble), it was putting the views associated with the current Pope, who supported him despite their disagreement, into the mouth of a figure portrayed as a buffoon that got him into trouble.
Betraying a powerful political patron without securing another willing to protect you first was also not a wise move in the Roman Empire.
Of course people threw together some structures before Rome, but so what?
Christ, man, pick up a translation of the Rhind papyrus or something, to see the scale at which people were planning engineering and resource allocation, and the numerical skill they possessed to handle such problems, even in ancient Egypt. This was not "throwing together". You're going to have to go e.g. megalithic Britain if you want a debate on whether structures were simply thrown together - consider the implications of Chace's arguments on understanding of geometry and use of a standard unit to organisation of society.
The point is that Rome didn't just sit on all these advances, they brought them to the savages in the outlying areas.
Where do I begin?
In your favour, at least:
To look at the correct way to bring technology to "savages" for their benefit we turn to the Renaissance. Consider the Neohumanist Robert Recorde, whose vernacular, easy-to-digest volumes indicated quite clearly their purposes in the Prefaces - to provide tools for the tradesman and the navigator; to enable laws to be more fairly applied; to replace appeal to authority with appeal to logic. He brought technology to the burgeoning merchant class not by conquering a country but by simply writing compendia of knowledge in his native language and making the knowledge available in books at a reasonable price!
The Church enslaved far more people than the Romans ever dreamed up -- they just did it in a more subtle way. "Put your faith in God, and honor him by building this church! And by giving us a tithe! And by the way, you better put your faith in God or we'll slaughter you." It's just slavery by a different method.
The American Government enslaves far more people than the C10 Catholic Church ever deramed up -- they just did it in a more subtle way. "Put your faith in GWB, and honour him by making this Pledge of Allegiance! And pay your taxes! And by the way, you better cough up and not speak too harshly against us or we'll lock you up and take away your property." [yes, at least we've moved beyond instant death for dissenters :-)] It's just slavery by a different method.
The Great Leader/King/President/whatever will always be a vicious megalomaniac and will always make you pay tithes at knife/gunpoint. He hasn't wrestled more control from you because he can't, not because he thinks it's more profitable to give you freedom. He requires sufficient popular support or he will be overthrown. And, as Recorde recognised, the best way to keep the population sufficiently sus
It is so cool that celebrities take the time to come down from Olympus and talk with us little people, who otherwise have no meaning in our lives.
Advice: on VPS providers
BE NIGHGER! BE GAY!
Ooh, please educate me more on this "Rise of religion". I'd love to know more about the thousands of years of human history before religion existed. I always thought religious beliefs arose at the latest around the time we advanced from bands to tribes, but apparently religion didn't arise until christianity!
Hell, I'd even been led to believe that the Romans were a very religious culture themselves, but I guess those "Roman gods" I heard about must have been referring to something else.
You can talk in Klingon without screaming?
Well, you can, but nobody is going to understand you. And trust me, Klingon is not a language where you want to risk being misunderstood.
D6?? I associate D6 with Monopoly and Steve Jackson & Ian Livingstone Fighting Fantasy books, not D&D. I think I still have my d20 (if I can still call it that without getting permission from Hasbro ;P) from my first edition of D&D.
...+1 Pedantic nerd?
The dude is in his mid-30's now, not some goofy teenager.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
All this is good, but never forget: He's no ordinary nerd.
Ordinary nerds don't get paid to make out with Ashley Judd.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
"It's not the verbing that weirds language, it's the renounification." -- Unknown
dragonhawk@iname.microsoft.com
I do not like Microsoft. Remove them from my email address.
One of the things I've always admired about his writing is his willingness to talk about his kids
... look, Zonk, if you like my stuff, please don't tell anybody! At least... oh hell, CmdrTaco is next, I just know it =(
Damn, and I thought I was in trouble a few years ago when K5's Rusty put me on his watch list. My reaction was "Holy cow! I'm on Rusty's watchlist! Now I'll never be able to get laid
But here I am with Zonk saying this and
mcgrew's razor: Never attribute to stupidity that which can be explained by greedy self-interest
I always thought religious beliefs arose at the latest around the time we advanced from bands to tribes, but apparently religion didn't arise until christianity!
There was religion, but Christianity was the first "big religion" that controlled vast swaths of the world, and was willing to use genocidal tactics to spread itself.