The following essay will compare and contrast the
use of parody in Another Fine Myth, a book and Armed and Dangerous, a video
game. Though different media, both rely heavily on parody. In doing this, I
will discuss what parody is, what its uses are and its failings. Next, I will
first summarize the plot of Another Fine Myth and describe its uses of parody,
and then I will do the same with Armed and Dangerous. After, I will explore
what Another does best compared to what Armed does best where they both fail.
Finally, I will determine which is the better parody and which exemplifies its
medium better.
Parody
An exact definition of parody is difficult to pin
down. Merriem-Webster.com defines it as “a literary or musical work in which
the style of an author or work is closely imitated for comic effect or in
ridicule.”[1] Caricature is an apt synonym, “a representation, especially
pictorial or literary, in which the subject's distinctive features or
peculiarities are deliberately exaggerated to produce a comic or grotesque
effect.” [2] John Gross wrote in his Oxford Book of Parodies, that parody seems
to flourish on territory somewhere between pastiche ("an artist's manner,
without satirical intent") and burlesque (which "fools around with
the material of high literature and adapts it to low ends").[3] J.M.W.
Thompson elaborates further, “There has to be an element of mockery in the
imitation, and this may be affectionate or even flattering, but on occasion it
can be savage and destructive.”[4] Satire, which uses parody to highlight vice
and social inequities to effect change, would fall under the latter.
However parody does not have to be satirical or
mocking. At times, it can be executed with respect and admiration. In other
moments, it can motivate positive change in a stale genre. Boris Eikenbaum
wrote, "In the evolution of each genre, there are times when its use for
entirely serious or elevated objectives degenerates and produces a comic or
parodic form....And thus is produced the regeneration of the genre: it finds
new possibilities and new forms."[5]
The earliest attribution to a parodied text is in
Aristotle’s Poetics. [6] By altering
the wording of well-known poetry, Hegemon of Thasos wrote the first parodies. Louis
Menand notes “Parody works only on people who know the original, and they have
to know it intimately enough to appreciate the finer touches as well as the
broad strokes of the imitation. Part of the enjoyment people take in parody is
the enjoyment of feeling intelligent. Not everyone gets the joke: if you don't
already know about the peach, you won't laugh at the prune. It's fantasy
baseball for bookworms." Just as Hegemon relied on his audience’s
knowledge of the epic poems of the time, modern parodists must assume their
audiences have specific knowledge of the parodied material. While it may be
argued one doesn’t need to have heard Chamillionaire’s Riding Dirty to appreciate White
and Nerdy’s musical proficiency, you must to get the intended effect. The
lyrics are clever in of themselves. However, there are nuances an uninitiated
listener is not privy to and will be denied understanding. With this in mind,
parody’s one weakness is it is always an inside joke.
Another Fine Myth
Written by Robert Asprin, Another Fine Myth follows
the adventures of an ex-thief and apprentice wizard, Skeeve. After months of
training under the Master Magician Garkin, Skeeve is showing little talent for
the magical craft. He can levitate a feather and light a candle, but that’s
about it. Sensing he is about to lose his young apprentice, Garkin summons a
demon to show Skeeve the true power of magic.
In the midst of the summoning, an assassin imp slips
into the room and kills Garkin, who manages to kill his murderer in turn.
Having just witnessed the death of his mentor, Skeeve finds himself alone with
a muscular, green reptilian demon with sharp, pointing teeth, who politely
introduces himself as Azimandius or Aahz for short. Aahz explains to the
cautious, befuddled Skeeve that demon is actually slang for Dimension Traveler
and that there are numerous dimensions in the multiverse with myriad of races
with varying levels of magical and technological affinities. In fact, Aahz is a
pervect from Perv and Skeeve is from the world of Klah, making him a Klahd.
Though he claims to be an old friend of Garkin’s and
a fellow wizard, a practical joke from his now dead friend has left Aahz
completely powerless. The two reach an uneasy agreement; Aahz will complete
Skeeve’s magical training, if the latter will assist in helping Aazh recover
his powers and confronting the magician responsible for Garkin’s death,
Isstvan. The two depart on a quest to find help in recovering Aahz’s powers.
Along the way, they soon realize they are being trailed by the dead assassin’s
cohorts. Confident they can outrun the imps, they run into the demon hunter,
Quigley riding his war unicorn. Through a quick graft, Aahz sends Quigley on a
collision course with the imps and manages to con him out of his sword.
Not long after, the imps catch up with our “heroes,”
dragging along a petrified demon hunter. Using his newly developed ability to
cast illusions, Skeeve assumes the guise of the dead imp. He and Aahz convince
the two imp assassins that their employer, the mad master magician Isstvan, had
double crossed them. Before it is over, they have the imps money, a magic ring
and the petrified demon hunter and the name of a Deveel merchanct that conducts
business in a nearby town who may be able to restore Aahz’s powers.
Once in the new town, Aahz and Skeeve meet the
Deveel merchant, Frumple. He initially agrees to help them, but ends up getting
them hanged. Only escaping through his newly acquired powers of flight and
Aahz’s powerful neck muscles, Skeeve and the latter return to Frumple and
“convince” him to give them a D-hopper, a dimension hopping device. Using the
device, they travel to Bazaar on Deva, Frumple’s home planet. There they hope
to find a way to recover Aahz’s powers and find a weapon that will aid them in
bringing Isstvan down.
On Deva, Aahz’s hunger for his race’s food leads him
to abandon Skeeve alone in the Bazaar. While browsing the perpetual stalls and
booths of Deva, Skeeve gets into a lot of mischief: he inadvertently bonds
himself to the juvenile dragon, Gleep and is nearly shaken down by a winsome
green-skinned woman, Tananda and the goons accompanying her. She stays out of
the melee while the thug’s unsuccessful attempt to rob Skeeve. Just when it
looks like Skeeve might lose the day, Aahz returns. The goons flee and Tananda
hugs Aahz, as the two are old friends. She agrees to join the heroes in their
fight against Isstvan. With the number now doubled and a secret weapon in hand,
the troupe travels back to Klah.
Back home, Skeeve and his friends find Frumple’s
merchant shop reduced to cinders. They revive Quigley and enlist his aid in
fighting Isstvan. From there they travel to the insane magicians inn and in an
elaborate plot, rob him of his powers and send him packing with the imps,
Frumple, Tananda and Quigley. Skeeve and Aahz settle into Isstvan’s old inn and
begin training seriously.
A High Fantasy Parody
Another Fine Myth is fundamentally a
parody of high fantasy, a genre of fantasy fiction that typically takes place
on a fictional world. Asprin ramps this up by making the world of Myth a
multi-dimensional place that encompasses all of human and demon imagination. If
it can be conceived, chances are it exists in the Myth world. High fantasy
stories are deadly serious and world-shattering, culminating in epic battles
between good and supernatural, evil forces. [7] Typically these stories are
first person accounts, chronicling the life of the main hero as they develop a
talent that sets them apart. [8]
The archetypical high fantasy story
begins with an unknown threat to the hero, who is initially reluctant to leave
off his ordinary life. Once committed to this quest, the hero embarks on a
two-fold journey of discovery. They find a way to destroy the lurking menace
and they gradually discover or improve their hidden talents. [9] Most books of
this sort feature a mentor, often magically gifted. Their primary function is
to guide the hero along the path necessary to defeat the forces of evil. Just
as in the Lord of the Rings, there is usually a dark figurehead motivating the
coming conflict. Many times, this figure is a magician, king, demon or a
combination of all three with intentions to rule the world and destroy all who
oppose them: the hero. The choices and discoveries the hero makes inevitably
lead to a final confrontation with the ominous dark figure, restoring balance
to the world and to the life of the hero.
Since Another Fine Myth parodies a
genre, example of specific parodies or allusions to other works can be hard to
pin down upon casual reading. However, Asprin begins each chapter with quote
from a famous literary, film or real life figure to set the mood and establish
the theme. These quotes are always ironic parodies of the figure’s accepted
history or attitudes. For example: “‘One must deal openly and fairly with one’s
forces it maximum effectiveness is to be achieved.’ D. Vader.” (Asprin 128.); and,
my favorite, “‘One of the joys of travel is visiting new towns and meeting new
people.’ G. Khan.”(Asprin 71.)
Asprin’s exaggeration of the
fictional world into a fictional multiverse is just the beginning. Skeeve
himself is a parody of Fritz Leiber’s Gray Mouser. Mouser is a thief who had
been a magician’s apprentice. Skeeve is a reluctant apprentice who only took up
magic as a con on Garkin. Initially, he sees it as a way to improve his
thieving talents. When Garkin is killed and the plot set in motion, Aahz, whose
full name is Aahzmandius, takes over Skeeve’s tutelage, functioning as the
magically gifted mentor, except he has been stripped of his power. This is a
perversion of the role of mentor, who is often depicted as nearly as powerful
as the dark figure in these stories. Furthermore, his name itself is a parody
of two important literary figures: the Wizard of Oz, who turned out to be a
powerless charlatan and Ozymandius from Percy Bysshe Shelley;
“My
name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look
on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing
beside remains. Round the decay
Of
that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The
lone and level sands stretch far away.
Isstvan is also a parody of the dark
figures. Though cunning—his plot to harness magic cleverly begins in a
magic-rich world where the locals fear magic—he is quite insane. At times, it
diminishes him as an arch villain. “I don’t believe I’ve had such a good time
since I made love to my week-dead sister.” (Asprin 144.) In the end battle, he
decides to leisurely talk to the heroes before killing them. Like many dark
figures, he subcontracts the actual evil acts to inept subordinates. In this
case, he uses three assassin imps and a demon hunter, all of which turn on him
at one point. This highlights one of the failings of high fantasy stories such
as Lord of the Rings. The dark figure often has to work through intermediaries,
either through inability or seeming laziness. Furthermore, Isstvan is a
powerful mage, but his insanity and the ability to look different to every
person seem to be the only things he has going for him. He isn’t very smart and
is easily confused: quite a different figure than Sauron.
The tone of Another Fine Myth is
very irreverent and profane. After Garkin’s death, Skeeve comes to realize the
he is alone with a demon and freezes. “The demon curled its lips back,
revealing a double row of needle-sharp teeth. I considered changing my course
of action; I considered fainting. The demon ran a purple tongue over his lips
and began to slowly extend a taloned hand toward me. That did it! I went
backward, not in a catlike graceful bound, but scrabbling on all fours. It’s
surprising how fast you can move that way when properly inspired.”(Asprin 11.)
Will the demon eat young Skeeve… or worse? Asprin builds up suspense; he then
lets us in on the joke. “At my outburst, the demon seemed to choke. Several
ragged shouts erupted, then he began to laugh. It wasn’t a low menacing laugh,
but the wholehearted enthusiastic laughter of someone who has just seen
something hysterically funny.” (Asprin 11.)
Instead of a monster summoned from an abyss, Aahz,
we find, is a master magician, but instead of a well-spoken demon of learning,
Aahz seems to come straight out of the Bronx. When they begin to move on with
the formalities of greetings, he offers Skeeve a “Pleased ta meetcha, kid.”
Their relationship is less mentor/apprentice and more of what you would expect
from a buddy cop movie. Aahz constantly tells Skeeve to shut up. In return, the
latter often can’t help but crack wise about something Aahz has said or is
doing.
Even the final climactic battle is a parody of the
genre. Instead of a clashing of good and evil over a stark battlefield full of
the dead, dying and those soon to join them, Skeeve, Aahz and Isstvan meet in a
cozy inn. When the battle is over, Isstvan willingly departs, leaving Skeeve
and Aahz alone in his inn.
A Social Parody
Another Fine Myth might not stand up
well if all it parodied was high fantasy. In fact, many elements in the book
cross over from mindless parody fun into social satire. Asprin uses the social
attitudes of the people of Skeeve’s home world of Klah to satirize racism.
Klahds fear anyone that steps outside what they consider normal. Even though
they live in a magic-rich world, magicians are looked upon with fear and
bigotry. Skeeve himself has to fight his initial reaction to run from Aahz. In
fact, it takes the threat of having his throat ripped out before he will extend
to Aahz the social niceties he would offer to any of his home world natives.
Racism doesn’t just exist on Klah.
When Skeeve and Aahz travel to Deva, the Deveel homeworld, everyone refers to
Aahz’s race as perverts, not the correct pervect. Such is the pervects reputation,
many people fear them outright. This racism extends beyond Klahds and pervects.
Aahz’s own racial biases get him and Skeeve into trouble. He assumes that imps
are cowardly, slow and inept. This assumption leads to an early confrontation
for him and Skeeve and the imps. He also assumes that Frumple, the merchant
deva wouldn’t go to Isstvan because it was bad business practice, but he’s
wrong there too.
No character exemplifies blind
racism better than Quigley, the demon hunter. He has made a career out of
hunting down travelers from other dimensions with nothing more than the
assumption that they are bad. In the climax of the book, he is called out on
his racism. “‘So you’re a demon hunter, eh?” Frumple snarled. “What’s your
gripe anyway?’
‘The offenses of demons are too numerous to list,’
Quigley retorted haughtily.” When further pressed, Quigley can only give feeble
accounts that do not hold up to scrutiny. In the end, he openly admits he needs
to learn more about demons and leaves with Isstvan to find out what that might
be.
Asprin also uses Another Fine Myth to satirize
capitalism without outright saying the love of money is the root of all evil.
Yet, greed is rampant in the story. Altruism is altogether absent and every
character but Skeeve seems to be obsessed with getting one over the next guy.
At the Bazaar at Deva, everyone is selling, buying or stealing. None of the
merchants in the book are portrayed in a favorable light. In fact, Tananda, a
thief, agrees to help for free. Frumple’s first deal with Skeeve and Aahz end
in the two of them being hanged. When they force a “fair deal” upon him, he
runs to tell Isstvan their plans. On Deva, a deveel merchant tricks Skeeve into
buying the fledgling dragon, Gleep.
Armed and Dangerous
Story
Released on December 2, 2003, Armed
and Dangerous is an over-the-shoulder third person shooter with over-the-top
action from developer Planet Moon Studios and published by LucasArts. Its Steam
page advertises the ability to “Brandish over 17 outlandish weapons like the
Topsy-Turvy, the Vindaloo Rocket Launcher, or the World's Smallest Black Hole
and the Land Shark Gun.” The evil King Forge is trying to unlock the secrets of
the Book of Rule. Once he does, the world will change irrevocably for the suck.
Setting themselves up to stop him and commit the ultimate heist are the
Lionhearts: Roman, a masked human; Jonesy, a talking, bipedal mole and Q, a
7-foot tall, metal tea pot robot. To do this, they seek the help of Rexus, a
blind, stinky old man who was once the keeper of the book. Before they can get
him to agree to help, the King’s grunts kidnap Rexus and the adventure starts.
The troupe set out to rescue Rexus. Once rescued, the old todger agrees to
help. From there, the game is a fairly straight “linear” shooter that the
player constantly moving forward or occasionally around stuff.
Along the way to retaking the Book
of Rule the “heroes” rescue or do favors for various characters. The first such
mission finds the Lionhearts attempting to rescue the Sacred Lamb of Midden in
exchange for help from its keeper. Always on the edge of bungling, they end up
blowing it to bits. Undaunted, they
disguise Rexus as the lamb long enough for its keeper to help. Moving on, the
Lionhearts come to a village where they learn of the Majorcan Prophesy, which
states that the four protectors will steal the book of rule from King Forge and
deliver the world from his tyrannical rule. When the young Lily suggests to the
town people that the Lionhearts are the protectors from the prophesy, everyone
has a good laugh at their expense.
Upon arriving at Dick Turpin
Village, the Lionhearts learn that King Forge has sent an army after them.
Though the villagers of Dick Turpin laugh at them as well, Rome and his friends
defend it against the King’s army with the help of gardening robots that were
hacked for battle.
Next the troupe heads to the Lady of
the Pond to get the Keys of Zardos; but when they get there, the lady doesn’t
show right away. Waiting, bored and questioning her existence, Jonesy skips a
rock across the pond that hits the rising Lady square between the eyes. When
she recovers, she’s forgotten who she is and runs off to work in a homeless
shelter for wayward sheep. Luckily Q finds the Keys of Zardos under a rock and
off the heroes go to the Wild Woods so they can steal the Book of Rule from the
Wild Wood Monks. Once in the abbey, they find the Book of Rule, but a powerful
spell has changed it into the Book of Basket Weaving. However, when Rome
touches it, the book reverts back into the Book of Rule with an explosion that
knocks them all out. Fortunately, they awake to find an ally in one of the
monks, Brother Zoltan. Rexus, despite his blindness, reads the Majorcan
Prophesy from the book. According to the prophesy, the group must find Lily
once again to let her read from the book.
Upon arriving in Zitwalla, the
troupe reunites with Lily. At first, she’s reluctant; but after touching the
book and the resultant explosion, she becomes one with the Book of Rule
symbolically and explains that she is destined to be ruler of all. They just
need to take her to Jerosa. Just then, King Forge attacks Zitwalla with a fleet
of Zeppelins. The heroes, with the help of Prince Stig, protect Zitwalla, but
soon discover that Lily has been kidnapped.
The Lionhearts and Stig travel to
the castle of King Forge in hopes of rescuing Lily. Their plot to ransom Stig
fails as he ends up getting his leg blown off and being field -circumcised. However,
they do manage to escape with the Prince in a zeppelin, which they crash into a
nearby desert.
After a bit of cannibalism and lots
of moaning about lack of food and water,
the “heroes” are reunited with Lily and the garden bots. From there they travel
to Jerosa and fulfill the prophesy. Forge is deposed and lots and lots of trees
spring up everywhere.
Armed and Dangerous has nearly an
hour of cut scenes. For a game that takes about three to four hours to
complete, that is incredible. Yet, the game doesn’t hold up without the cut
scenes.
Gameplay
A study of Armed and Dangerous isn’t
possible without addressing the gameplay. The game is an over-the-shoulder
third person shooter. The player begins each level with a main weapon and a
secondary weapon, lots of enemies to kill and an objective to complete. The
main weapons range from a rifle and machine gun to the shark gun. Secondary
usually blow stuff to bits, like the sticky bombs. Enemies aren’t smart, but
they are plentiful. In fact, they are never ending, if you don’t destroy their
spawn points, generally barracks or sirens. Objectives tend to be simple: get
to this point; rescue civilians and take them home; and kill a set number of
special baddies.
This sounds simple and the execution
is simpler. Enemies stand around waiting to be killed or run directly at you.
Snipers never move. Grunts charge. There are gun emplacements that can be
commandeered and used to great effect, but the play is limited. Often, you can’t
reach that annoying sniper with a cannon. He’ll be just out of your range of
motion. When you managed to kill someone, you are instantly rewarded. They drop
loot: ammo and health packs.
Controls are responsive. In fact, the default mouse
settings probably need to be turned down some. You’re limited to shooter
staples: strafe, back and forth and jump. Later on you get a jetpack and that
adds an improved vertical range to the combat.
A Shooter Parody
Shooter fans like their violence
fast and furious or slow and stealthy. This gorges the former. Enemies come at
you in droves to the point of ludicrousness. In your most sated state in Unreal
Tournament, you never dreamed of countless enemies begging for death, but not
letting you just take it. You have to earn it. As I mentioned before, you
instantly rewarded for their death. Every grunt, sniper or air trooper will
drop loot. This feeds the loop. The more you kill, the more able you are to
kill. At times it feels like they’re feeding your fix, but kind of making fun
of you at the same time. This never more apparent than when you defend towns
with gun emplacements. You’re defending the walls and swarms of enemies rush
them. They don’t have a chance against your heavy machine guns and mortar
rounds, but they keep coming.
Movie and Book References
The Star Wars series is possibly the
most parodied of all IP works. The first cut scene starts in a frozen waste
land. A lone igloo, reminiscent of Yoda’s hut, sits in the howling, frigid air.
Q, Rome and Jonesy walk up and a match on action shows them walk in and immediately
begin gagging on the rank air. They’ve come to Rexus, seeking help. Though he
looks like a squinty, grey Yoda, he’s nothing like him. He’s cowardly, smelly and
randomly inept. His reference to Yoda and connection to the Star Wars Trilogy
is heightened at least twice more in the game. When two grunts have the drop on
the Lionhearts, he takes over their minds just as Obie Wan did in Star Wars.
Instead of doing something clever with them, he can’t think of anything and
asks the others for help. “Quick! What should I say to them? I’m running out of
power.” The grunts turn to the Lionhearts and ask, “Quick! What should he say
to us? He’s running out of power.” The second time finds Rexus trying to use
his power to snatch a gun out of Prince Stig’s hands, telekinetically. However,
he throws a table at the Lionhearts, who have to duck. The table is followed by
a chair, a baby and the clothes of the baby’s mother, who is left only in a negligée
and garters.
Q is a rarified tea pot, turned robot, a parody of
C3PO. Instead of a large walking carpet, like Chewbacca, Jonesy is a small moleman.
Rome seems to vacillate between Han and Luke. The parody of the Star Wars
franchise goes from the sublime to the crude at times. One scene finds Rexus
freezing to death. Q cradles him and takes him to the carcass of a great beast.
Rome explains to Jonesy that he’s seen this kind of thing done before. “He’ll
split open the dead beast’s stomach and stick Rexus twixt the warm entrails.”
However, Q shoves the cold, old man in the beast’s backside. If that wasn’t bad
enough, the beast wasn’t dead, jumps up and runs off with Rexus swishing back
and forth, dangling from its butt cheeks.
The parodies go beyond Star Wars. There is a Lady of
the Pond, instead of a Lady of the Lake from Arthurian legends. The monks of
Wild Wood Abbey look a lot like the archetypical death with long flowing robes
and a hood that obscures their faces like death in The Seventh Seal. The monk shown in the story is named Ingmar. There
is even a parody of a tendency in film. When Zoltan connects many of the plots
points together and tells the Lionhearts what they must do next, we expect him
to die, if the plot follows classical Hollywood traditions. The big moment comes and bam. He’s struck
through the head with an arrow, fulfilling the tradition and reaffirming our…
wait. He doesn’t die. Zoltan stands there as if nothing happened, as if there
isn’t a huge arrow sticking out of his temples. When he reappears later, the
arrow is still firmly in place.
Comparison
Both are aimed at geeks. Another
Fine Myth is aimed at science fiction/fantasy geeks, people who’ve read Leiber,
Tolkien and Howard. Armed and Dangerous is for Star Wars geeks, familiar with
standards in sci/fi.
Another Fine Myth is by far the more subtle of the
two. You aren’t hit over the head repeatedly with parody like you are with Armed
and Dangerous. While not necessarily a bad thing, it can take you out of the
story at times. Asprin uses a deft touch. Even if you are familiar with high
fantasy, the story stands on its own. The same can’t be said of Armed and
Dangerous.
When Another pokes fun at racism, the reader
internalizes the daftness of racist, perhaps changing their own view. When Jonesy
beams the Lady of the Pond between the eyes with a rock, you’ll laugh.
Armed and Dangerous is funnier than
Another Fine Myth, but it’s harder to sustain humor in a book. The relentless
parodies keep you laughing in Armed and Dangerous and the same can’t be said of
Another Fine Myth. Subtlety has its price. It has to be pointed out that if you
are not intimately familiar with Star Wars cannon, chances are you will miss
much of the humor in the game.
With that said, parody has a much
greater impact on Armed and Dangerous. I didn’t have to do half the research
for Armed and Dangerous that I did for Another Fine Myth. The failings of Armed
are easier to see than Another: the game play and graphics. While initially fun
and always funny, the game play doesn’t live up to the script. It may seem like
an unfair comparison when placed up against a book, but it’s an inescapable part
of the medium. A video game must first and foremost be fun to play. When just
the stories are compared, Armed holds its own. Still from a non-fanboi point of
view, there’s not much there for a person not steeped in the specific mythos’s
parodied. Another offers a new mythos to enjoy that has undertones of parody.
The tradeoff of subtlety is unless you
read the text specifically looking for it, you’ll probably miss it. Another is
guilty of this. Sure there is a hint here and there and the chapters begin with
a fun ironic quote, but it still requires broader knowledge to enjoy. When
taking that into account, Armed and Dangerous is the better parody. People don’t
want to read volumes of books to get the hidden meaning in a story. However, it
bears mentioning that Another Fine Myth is a better book than Armed and
Dangerous is a video game. Both are entertaining, but you will more than likely
finish reading Another, while you probably will not finish Armed.
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