lickety jackblog

Surely no one on the Jackblog would find this interesting, since none of you has any interest in the nerd-exclusive culture of RPGs (role-playing games), but Laura Scudiere's fiance, Rob Mentzer (who some of you might know), recently had a short story published in the Berkeley Review. The story, entitled "The Leather Coat," is about a young man very much involved in such a subculture, and whose workaday life is ostensibly as an undercover normal.

At the risk of discouraging your curiosity even further, the main character in the story, a Mr. Metalhead Eddie, is obsessed with his favorite multi-zippered, black leather jacket, a constant reflection of his commitment to his own social ostracism.

Allow me to quote a passage or two for you:

"I am the comic-book nerd of popular stereotype: large and soft around the middle, dressed in a multi-zippered leather jacket with wild red hair and thick glasses, an avid gamer, a collector of all manner of pop detritus, a heavy metal fan, a Trekker, a man immersed in the massive universes of sci-fi and fantasy."

"I hear them say it under their breath when I walk into B. Dalton Bookseller in Eastwoods Mall: here comes Metalhead Eddie."

"My leather coat gives me powers as surely as my D&D character Tennaguar's invisibility cloak or his beast-claws spell."

Not that a single one of you would be interested in reading such a yarn, but here it is: Metal Head Eddie.

Labels: nerdcore

posted by Little Gordie @ 5:56 PM