I received a call to adventure this week. Unfortunately, I can live my life remotely, so I’ll barely miss a beat. Just in a different place for a while, and grinding a quest that could insulate me from the horrors of capitalism (if we succeed)
I was once told by a friend to be positive and that I’m the hero of my own adventure (I am not lonely at that time by the way, I was moving out of my hometown, which is funny enough since I realised after that people seem to think it’s weird if you move out of town for any reasons aside from job or college opportunities). Anyway, I was indeed going on adventure by moving out of town but I never thought of myself as hero before or after. I don’t like the expression because it sounds like stoking and inflating the ego. I have a friend who seems to have that mindset when we were younger, but when our 20s came, he fell into depression for not attaining his dreams and desires.
I think a lot of us were raised to hope and to be like a superhero making big changes to the world. Personally, I see myself as more like a traveller or soldier; experiencing and absorbing the world without necessarily trying so hard to shape the world to our own liking, and also facing challenges and adversities gracefully. Live your life to the fullest as you wish, but what I’m trying to say is be humble enough you’re only human–not a god-- and know when to fight battles.
Edit: added more info
I think a lot of us were raised to hope and to be like a superhero making big changes to the world.
Ya, so much of our media is about “ordinary person realizes they are not just a regular loser, they are special! They have magical powers or were actually a prince or a millionaire this whole time!” especially anything for young people.
I’m 42 and I can tell you from experience that unless someone offered to pay your rent while you were gone, calls to adventure ain’t all they’re cracked up to be…
I called someone to adventure once and offered to pay his rent for the month we would be gone, sounds like a good deal, right? Well he flaked out on me.
Did you end up finding someone else to harvest organs from?
What? I had to drive across the country twice for a business trip and I didn’t want to go alone and I wanted him to come with me. He decided he didn’t want to go apparently.
Was that before or after you paid his rent
we never left the planning stages of our adventure. nothing ever happened.
Honestly, a call to adventure sounds like a lot of work and I haven’t caught up on some of my shows yet…
The harsh reality is that I (and I’m CERTAIN the collective “we”) have received dozens of calls to adventure, and we’ve just rejected them for the relative comforts of the rat race.
If you don’t follow stray cats into alleys, are you really trying to adventure?
You’re gonna come home to all the other Hobbits auctioning off all your shit
But the true adventure begins when you get back, rich with cultural experience and travel! Because that’s when you realise you don’t have any money left, you got evicted from your flat, you have 1000s of dollars in unpaid bills and you’ve got nowhere to go.
What a time to be alive!
The trick is to take out a ton of loans and buy a bunch of adventure stuff on credit cards before you leave then just never come back
Hey, you! Yeah, you! Start a union at your workplace! Join an anarchist org. Run for local council on an environmental and transit platform. Attend a protest. Paint bike lanes!
Unless I somehow get isekaid I’ll remain a kitchen npc my whole life
Adventures often result in traumas. You’re better off w/o adventures
I don’t want to live in interesting times. I want to be fat and lazy in the era of THC cartridges and 4K TV
Usually, it takes a special situation and Truck-kun to answer the call. Might not be ideal though. Gotta be careful what you wish for.
Yes. I do have that specific stone tablet you need to continue your journey.
But if you want me to give it to you, you’re going to have to make a whole lot of grilled cheese sandwiches for me.
Fancy ones.
Shropshire Blue. It’s like a strong cheddar with blue cheese veins. I’ve only seen it at top cheese shops, but it’s worth searching out
Pretty sure you can get it in Morrisons, at the deli counter.
Morrisons,
Not everyone lives in the UK
It wouldn’t be a quest if you could just get it from REWE.
It’s always a fine line between ‘let me have an adventure and check all the shops in my area’ and 'f&&k it, let me give f&&king Bezos more money."
Fanciest grilled cheese I’ve ever had: Cheddar, feta, and a skosh of gruyere with a few fresh basil leaves.
Was it any better than a normal grilled cheese?
Sounds pretty good tbh
No doubt interred in the main chamber…
And people act surprised when grown men play computer games.
Remember when they were calling everyone NPCs as if that wasn’t shameless main character syndrome?
That always really disgusted me. Implying others aren’t human.
Same
One of my all time favorite fantasy books is ‘Glory Road’ by Robert A. Heinlein.
The hero sees a classified ad in the back of the newspaper. “Are You A Coward?”
See also “Safety not guaranteed”.
Safety not guaranteed”.
LPT. Never pass a chance to post something with a video of Aubrey Plaza
Example
Like that weird milk ad lolol
She’s so good in Legion.
I really don’t understand how this show has slipped through the cracks.
Folks hear “Marvel show” and immediately get hostile.
Ahah that’s exactly why I’m only watching it now.
Can you explain a bit more? Also, what is a classified ad?
I’m in my 30s and this makes me feel old…
Which thing?
The ad from the story, or the fact that there are humans who have never held a newspaper?
Back in the 1900s, when people used to get their news printed out on pieces of paper, people could pay the company a small amount to run a small advertisement, that were all lumped in together in back, called classified ads or “the classifieds”.
ARE YOU A COWARD? This is not for you. We badly need a brave man. He must be 23 to 25 years old, in perfect health, at least six feet tall, weigh about 190 pounds, fluent English with some French, proficient with all weapons, some knowledge of engineering and mathematics essential, willing to travel, no family or emotional ties, indomitably courageous and handsome of face and figure. Permanent employment, very high pay, glorious adventure, great danger. Must apply in person“Well, Martha, at least the damn whippersnapper didn’t ask what a newspaper is…”
I kid. Back in the day, newspapers made most of their money off of advertising. Full page ads for things like supermarkets, furniture stores, cars, and luxury items. Smaller ads for movies, specialty shops, etc. In fact, you’ll see some older newspapers whose name was The Advertiser. The classified ads were ‘classified’ by the type of ad. There’d be five or six full lenght columns with short ads. Help Wanted and Apartments to rent would have the most spots, but there were plenty of ads for Yard Sales, Handymen, Pets for sale or adoption.
If you read the book, the hero explains why he enjoys reading them. It’s a great novel; the author takes most of the tropes and punches them in the crotch.
https://www.warwickadvertiser.com/
Just found this site with a quick search, and it helps because it actually has a classified ads section in the back.
Ah I see. It’s true that I’ve never read a full newspaper, but I know these mini ad boxes exist. English is not my native language, perhaps that is why I didn’t know the term. I though classified as in secret.
‘Classified’ as in specific they would run the ads in specific sections. All the ‘Help Wanted’ ads under one heading, all the ‘Rooms For Rent’ under another.
Think of them as what people did before Craigslist (or I guess Facebook Marketplace these days).
The last YA novel I read was Lucky Wander Boy. The main character was 40 something. Although his call to adventure was more akin to mental illness… 🤔
So a couple more years and I might be the protagonist. I gotta prepare.
You could always be the star of another movie with a 40 year old protagonist. The 40 Year Old Virgin
More like a proto-agonist
First off – haha, I like it.
Second, it reminds me of something I read, but I can’t remember the exact quote, and I’d be grateful to anyone who can figure it out. I’m pretty sure it was Vonnegut, and I think it may have been from Breakfast of Champions. The gist was that most stories are misleading because they teach people that life has a plot – that it has major storylines, minor storylines, and so on. The author (Vonnegut?) then says that really life is just a bunch of moments, each as important or unimportant as the next.
It doesn’t quite sound like BoC unless it’s from the self-insert scene, but it’s definitely in the main themes of Slaughterhouse Five
You gotta make your own. Pack some stuff, ride your bike and punch some meanies on the way.
