Publisher: Rusty Immelman Press
Released: 1st Ed. Paperback, 2004

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After suffering through four years of university, I was granted a Bachelor of Arts in English (and quickly freed myself from the chains of Proper Grammar and Sentence Structure).  It should go without saying that I’m pretty sick of poetry.  From the Classics – written by people that have been dead at least 150 years – to modern day free-verse junk, I came to understand that poetry is an art form and one that not everyone is going to dig.  The same can be said of painting or sculpture – we’re all familiar with the saying, “I may not know art, but I know what I like.”

And I like Blue Wizard is About to Die by Seth “Fingers” Flynn Barkan – a book of poetry.  But poetry about games or as referred to on the cover, “Prose, poems, and emoto-versatronic expressionist pieces about video games [1980 – 2003].”  Finally, here is a book of poetry that speaks to me.

Having played through my childhood during the ‘80s and wiled away the '90s doing the same, I can relate to practically everything Barkan writes about.  Kid Icarus, multiplayer GoldenEye, Counter-Strike, Joust, Bubble Bobble, Dragon’s Lair, Mega Man, Bushido Blade, Karnov and Oregon Trail are just a few games that Barkan weaves into his work.

Some of the longer pieces could be classified as “odes” like the tribute to Half-Life or Smash TV, which includes the following passage:

there are some games that just scream:

I AM THE WORLD’S BIGGEST SEMIOTIC-SPAWNED

OVERDOSE OF THEORY MADE INTO A PACKAGEABLE

AND MARKETABLE EXPERIENCE: BEHOLD: MY SEVERE

IRONY, AND MARVEL!  MARVEL AT HOW MUCH YOU ENJOY

EXISTING IN MY ABSURD THOUGHT PROBLEM.

Smash TV was just such a game.

However, he doesn’t just deal with games, Barkan also riffs on larger topics that most gamers don’t think about unless they sit back and really ponder their past in gaming, like the feeling of playing a game that you last played as a child.  You know the feeling – that warm hit of nostalgia when you start-up Contra or Toejam & Earl.  Barkan also tackles game clichés, MAME, lag, boss encounters, setting up LANs, and shareware.

Blue Wizard is a laugh-out-loud funny compilation as well – the last poetry I read that made me laughed out loud was a collection of dirty limericks.  Take this passage from “Mario in Exile”:

“Where is the music?” he mumbles, humming

the theme from his first great campaign… trails off, then silence.

he stares at the Persian rug, lost inside himself

and begins tweaking his mustache,

the one thing that remains vibrant

on his craggy face;

well-waxed and black as sin,

the life-energy of the land absorbed

in those hairs;

Of course, in the eyes of a non-gamer much of the humor is invisible and the references completely hidden unless pointed to (and even then they won’t know what Barkan is talking about).  To help non-gamers along, Barkan includes an Appendices section, which includes a breakdown of the references in each poem, a list of games he has played (with an occasional description), and, of course, a transcription of the opening cinematic for the “classic” Zero Wing. (“All your base are belong to us!”)

But why write poems about video games?  In the case of Barkan, it might be his way of memorializing the passing of the arcades.  And who hasn’t felt a little grief (and/or guilt) as the local arcades are closed due to poor business and the corner stores turf their machines because they “attract the wrong element”?  Home consoles are great, but visiting the local arcade and popping quarters with friends is a different experience.  Hotter and smokier, too.  And the danger!  There’s nothing quite like facing-off against a random psychopath off the street in a fighting game.  Do you lose on purpose and leave?  Or do you stick it to him and run the chance of getting clocked upside your head?  That’s a risk you don’t get with broadband.

I recommend Blue Wizard is About to Die to any gamer and particularly to those that got to experience gaming between 1980 and 2003.  It encompasses so much that relates to video games that, even if you’re allergic to anything approaching poetry, it’s too important a work to go ignored.  Plus, it’s funny.

- Omni

(January 22, 2004)

MEGAMAN:

you always shout yay!

every motion so fiercely

popping, gay, blue jumpsuit

gun-arm in air.

            - From the Mega Man Haikus

              (Blue Wizard is About to Die by Seth “Fingers” Flynn Barkan)