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Your Security Blanket
What book, movie, TV show, video game, comic book, cereal box--anything!--had a clear and profound impact on your life?
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Marlaina Gaspardi on -
You may (or may not) be amused to know that I tried really hard to be Heidi, Dorothy, Maid Marion, and a few other classics by dressing up as these people for weeks on end. As far as TV, I was addicted to Lamb Chop,Rainbow Brite, David the Gnome, Eureka's Castle, and my mom swears I was madly in love with the Pineapple that spoke French (something on sesame st i think...) I think I also have to tell you that I loved ET dearly- except I was so afraid of going to the doctor's that when they attached the heart monitors to Eliot, I had a toddler version of PTSD and hid under the kitchen table until my dad told me it was safe. Well, that's all I got...
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Permalink Reply by Dan Pugatch on -
My favorite movie of all time of course, the Goonies! I just loved escaping suburbia into their lives and adventure watching the movie over and over again. And even as an adult I still get the same glow every time I watch the movie. I am actually watching it with my 9 week old son as I type this. See? I still watch it.
As I got older, I set off on my own adventures, which were never as exciting, but still just as fun. The Goonies fueled my imagination to help me write fiction, comics, make up games, and dream.
As an adult I even got a giant Goonies Never Say Die tattoo on my chest, a personal mantra to never ever ever give up. There have been many times including a 100 mile charity bike ride for AIDS research where I needed to remind myself to Never Say Die and complete what I set out to do regardless how tough it became.
I'm not a huge fan of "fanfiction" but if I ever wrote it on some live journal group, it would be Goonies themed for sure.
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Permalink Reply by Frida Almaraz on -
My security blanket has always been Star Wars. Since I didn’t quite fit in as a kid, I basically took refuge in my head and would always go there when things got tough in real life… or even when they didn’t. Star Wars was an indulgence my mother grudgingly allowed, but just the movies. I never had any toys and she refused to buy me the novels (because they weren’t literature, sheesh!), but that did not deter me from building an entire Star Wars expanded universe inside my head in which, of course, I played the leading role.
In time, the world in my head got bigger and more elaborate, including characters from other sagas I loved (from Indy Jones to Salgari’s pirates… yeah, I was that much of a nerd) and managed to fit all of the fictional characters I loved and admired in a world in which I was not the outcast but the hero. It was a comfy place full of adventures, and epic fights, and dangerous aliens and romance (girls will be girls) but always fitting inside the frame of reference that was Star Wars.
By the time I started college things got a lot better and I did not feel the need to go back to Tatooine that often. Eventually I decided it was time to put that whole inner world to rest but I could not simply stop going there… I had to create a story for my disappearance from that world… a story that has loopholes that come quite handy when my job starts really getting to me and I need to imagine that I can ditch everything because I have a galaxy to save. It’s pathetic but therapeutic.
Even after all this time, when things are going great and I don’t need my security blanket, watching Star Wars again always feels like coming home.
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Permalink Reply by James Miller on -
Tony,
I just finished your book, and I really connected with it. Though I was a huge Star Wars fan for years, my security blanket was Metallica. When middle school hit, I was routinely bullied by very dangerous kids (with guns and knives and drugs and spit) and so I sought out the headbangers; a group of angry misfits who listened to the same rage-filled music I did. I spent every afternoon of my life singing in the basement, pinning for new material, and thinking about what it would be like to sing with Metallica. They were my identity, and my escape from the bs of daily life.
Just like Star Wars, Metallica soon disappointed, which drove me to discover Dream Theater. These guys embodied everything that I identified with. They were smart, artistic, their lyrics had meaning, and they refused to be lumped in with the rest of the crap on the radio. Yet again, however, these Jedi-like musicians broke my heart.
As my musical tastes developed, and recovered from the heartbreak, I too learned that all I needed to do was be myself and I would be happy. When I got to high school, I soon made older friends who respected me for who I was, rather than who I was in 6th grade. Metallica and Dream Theater both helped shape my desire for excellence and self-expression, and I'm still a musician and a writer today. I guess, even through the heartbreak of bad Metallica albums and vomit-rendering Dream Theater keyboard solos, I too weened myself off of using a single source of artistic vision as my sole identity. I became my own person, my own inspiration, and maybe the disappointments (St. Anger/Octavarium, respectively) helped break me of the dependence on my security blanket.
Keep writing. This book was fantastic!
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Permalink Reply by Jay Clarke on
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My parents took me to see SW: ANH in 1977 when I was 4yo. That was it, I was hooked for life. SW was my security blanket all through grade school. My parents thought it was bad though and they tried to limit my exposure to it out of fear it would interfere with my school learning. I was also nuts for video games and trips to the arcade for me were like mystical trips to shangri-la! I took a break from SW in junior high, trying to delude myself into thinking sports and chicks and being cool were more important, but was still nuts for video games. My freshman year in HS I got into Batman comics after buying one at a gas station. Issue #432! Been collecting Batman and various other comics ever since. My 2 best friends, who were non-athletic and were low profile were the only ones who knew about my comics addiction, for life in HS can be difficult as is. In HS I was an all-state athlete, and behind the scenes, was a geek! Out of my insecurity, I felt the need to keep my geekness a secret, for we all know how cruel some people can be. I would've died had my teammates, girls or the general HS population found out about my geek hobbies. Video games, movies and comics were my escape away from athletics and the pressure to perform. I loved having my BF's over for sleepovers, renting video games and watching movies on weekends! After HS, my first year of college was a disaster. I had a full athletic scholarship so I paid nothing, but was very unhappy with my choice of institution, the city, some of my teammates and the coach. It was one of the worst years of my life. I also didnt have access to comics and very limited access to video games for that year. After that year I started a new life away from athletics and just focused on education. I also went back to being a full time SW nut! I loved talking SW with my BF's from HS and playing nintendo games and trips to the arcade. I loved trips to hobby shops and the purchasing and building of SW models! I also got back into Batman comics! My all time favorite TV show is M*A*S*H, and I have the entire DVD set! Nowadays I still talk SW with my BF's and with other fans online, I play PS3 video games and watch movies on my 55' HDTV, and read comics! I work in the medical field now and the aforementioned are still my security blankets!
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