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Mark Barrowcliffe

Elfish Gene: Dungeons, Dragons and Growing Up Strange Paperback – Bargain Price, November 1, 2009

by Mark Barrowcliffe (Author)

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“Funny . . . [Barrowcliffe’s] gently knowing style makes the pain of identification a pleasure.”—Entertainment Weekly

“Mark Barrowcliffe’s humorous, self-deprecating memoir of his misspent youth, ‘The Elfish Gene,’ is another welcome addition to the growing ‘nerdsploitation’ genre.”—Associated Press

“Hilarious, unbelievably well-remembered . . . begs a movie adaptation. . . . Barrowcliffe writes . . . with uncommon insight.”—The Seattle Times

“In the best tradition of British humor. . . . Laugh-out-loud funny.”—The Christian Science Monitor

“Wonderfully captures the insensitivity, insecurity and selfishness of the adolescent male.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

In the summer of 1976, twelve-year-old Mark Barrowcliffe had a chance to be normal. He blew it. While other teenagers were being coolly rebellious, Mark—and twenty million other boys in the 1970s and ’80s—chose to spend his adolescence pretending to be a warrior, an evil priest, or a dwarf. He had discovered Dungeons & Dragons, and his life would never be the same. No longer would he have to settle for being Mark Barrowcliffe, an ordinary awkward teenager from working-class Coventry, England; he could be Alf the Elf, Foghat the Gnome, or Effilc Worrab, an elven warrior with the head of a mule. This is an hilarious memoir of an adolescence spent entirely in the world of fantasy.

Mark Barrowcliffe worked as a journalist and a stand-up comedian before writing his first hit novel, Girlfriend 44. He has written two other acclaimed comic novels, Lucky Dog and Infidelity for First-Time Fathers. He now lives in Brighton, England.

Print length

288 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Soho Press
Publication date

November 1, 2009
Dimensions

5.51 x 0.79 x 8.67 inches
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Customer reviews

4 out of 5

63 global ratings

5 star		48%
4 star		23%
3 star		17%
2 star		7%
1 star		5%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Well written, and easy to believe

Reviewed in the United States on September 17, 2011

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This book is a well written, funny and compelling look at adolescent obsession.

I've slung more than a few dice in my time, so perhaps I'm biased. Certainly I never encountered behavior anywhere near this extreme in my time. Nor can I remember gaming regularly in an all-male group, which I guess serves to reinforce one of the takeaway lessons of the book.

The author also picks a particularly bad example of trivial gaming arguments. The question is if the acid of a giant ant can be used to melt prison cell bars: the answer is no, because the formic acid produced by ants will dissolve flesh, but will not corrode metals. (I don't know if this is true or not -- I haven't researched it)

But assuming it is true, I can't be alone in thinking that's actually a nice example of the good type of geek argument: a fantasy world question is solved by real-world biology and chemistry factoids. I have a whole library of stuff like this in my head, and people frequently are fooled into thinking I'm smart.

You've got to admit that the people described here fall pretty "normal" on the "screwed up" spectrum. None of these obsessed and addicted gamers end up freezing to death in a gutter, become fathers at seventeen, or locked in institutions, and in fact most if not all of them grow up to be successful enough to get jobs and take care of themselves. Would that more people on the screwed-up side of the spectrum had problems like this.

Despite that, and I suspect despite the intentions of the author, it's actually a good pro-gaming argument. These guys were the bottom-feeders among gamers and I would never have associated with them, yet they turned out all right.

2 people found this helpful

Geek denying his geekdom

Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2010

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Mark Barrowcliffe's memoir caught my eye in the bookstore several months ago, and again during each subsequent visit. I have never been a gamer (of any kind - I don't even like social board games), but my social circle has always been peppered with gamers of all sorts, so I feel a connection to the subject. I went into the book knowing next to nothing about the game, but knowing a bit about gamers, so I was looking forward to a sneak-peak of what my friends were really up to.

Barrowcliffe's memoir delivers just that; he moves through a description of the kind of people attracted to role playing games, how he himself was introduced to the phenomenon, and what really goes on during those 6-10 hour marathons.

I really enjoyed Barrowcliffe's descriptions of other players, and found myself longing to meet some of his awkward and fantastic boyhood friends. I loved the description of the mania that D&D can create, and laughed along with the author as he presented some of the "mainstream" views of D&D (you know, gateway to the occult, Satan's game, that sort of thing).

But here's why can't rate this book higher than 3 stars out of 5: I can't stand the adult Barrowcliffe. Spaz? He's an overly-enthusiastic, mildly obnoxious, and completely obsessed teenage boy who discovers the world he's always dreamed of in a role playing game. He has the same personality flaws as 75% of all teenagers, and while I may not seek his company in real life, he's a perfectly enjoyable character in the memoir. However, Barrowcliffe? He's a bit of a prick when it comes to gamers. His criticism and observations are frequently true, and often add to the narrative itself, but every other chapter or two he takes it a bit far and is just unnecessarily nasty.

This shift from teenage-gamer to adult author has left Barrowcliffe feeling exposed. While he desperately wants to write about his boyhood obsession, he's afraid of the labels and classifications that come with it. In an attempt to distance himself from such a distinctive label he mercilessly condemns all gamers.

But let's be honest: who is going to pick up a book with "Dungeons and Dragons" in the title? Gamers, ex-gamers, or individuals like myself who feel very kindly towards gamers. The kind of bashing that slips in and out of the narrative just doesn't suit the actual audience.

So, it all comes down to this: 4.5 out of five stars for entertainment, but minus 1.5 stars for insulting the audience.

Still, if you have any kind of relationship to D&D - even a very distant one - I would recommend this book.

10 people found this helpful

4 Stars If You Played the Original Game

Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2011

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Although I played D&D in America during the first half of the 80s, and the author played the game in Britain during the latter part of the 70s, his references to D&D and fantasy stories brought back a lot of memories. Therefore, I am forced to conclude that most likely, the book will mean more to people who actually played the original game than to those that did not. However, although knowledge of the original game will enrich the experience of reading the book, it is not needed to enjoy it. Barrowcliffe is very humorous, in a typically British style- and most people who like that style of humor will find themselves laughing out loud at several points in the book, as I did. ...I was not obsessed with the game to the extent that he was (or as socially inept- I suppose that is the advantage of attending schools with girls in them), but I did identify with his use of the game to escape the boredom of reality, and being directionless as a youth.

While I can understand all of his points, or at least why he wrote them, I thought he was too harsh on the game. I do not see my time with D&D as a waste like he did. The original game, which was NOT played with computers, required a lot of imagination, visualization, intelligence, determination, industriousness, mapping skills, literacy skills, mathematic skills, and face-to-face group cooperation skills. As a teacher, I often observe students who lack one or more of the above mentioned attributes. After all, they have a computer, cellular phone, and applications that perform all those attributes for them. I find modern students' dependency on technology a lot more sad and alarming than anything Barrowcliffe wrote about himself or his friends in his book. I think that with some modifications, traditional role playing games should actually be incorporated in to modern curriculums... for in my opinion the attributes I mentioned matter just as much- if not more- than when he or I played the game...especially when I consider the lack of face-to-face interaction society is increasingly experiencing....

PS: the people that blasted this book with 1 or 2 stars are missing the point- this is not a history of the game...or a history of nerds... or some sort of autobiography- it is a memoir about playing D&D and growing up strange (as is indicated by the cover). They also do not seem to have a clue about British humor.

One person found this helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Jadziya

An enjoyable read, but limited to the adolescent male experience by its own first-person perspective

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 24, 2016

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Engaging story of adolescence and D&D. Easy to read, well-crafted casual-sounding dialogue and narrative style which brings you into the mind of the main character (the author as a teeanger). Offers insights into the author's world of working-class 70s England.

It is sprinkled with rather profound snippets of wisdom about life, and the author comes across as self-reflective (both about himself as well as his society).

However, it does that through the lens of a protagonist (the author's putative teenage self) who is - with apologies to the author - not the most lovable main character. Throughout the book, I sympathized with the protagonist, emphathized with him, and tried to rationalise some of his poorer life decisions - but, at the same time, I can't say I ever came to fully like the main character, to the point where I'd actually want to be in the same room with him. (I'm also curious to get another man's view on the book to ask if some aspects of the author's adolescence are normal and part of some aspects of the journey to manhood that I am unaware of.)

I am sorry if this sounds blunt because it's autobiographical but some other reviewers have mentioned something similar. Given that the author is a professional writer, I can assume that this choice of characterization was intentional!

One thing that was left hanging for me was in the part where the author's "friend" kicks him out of a Dungeons & Dragons game; I was wondering if that was because the "friend" felt the author was too obsessed over it, but I wasn't sure.

As a memoir, it succeeds; however, that choice of perspective also limits it solely to the characterization of fantasy/D&D as an adolescent male obsession as a means of escaping unideal circumstances, the dreariness of everyday life, and - on a deeper level - the reality of being born into the working class. It treats these as adolescent concerns, and concludes with the protagonist growing up.

However, it doesn't really admit to the possibility of people being interested in these things as adults (rather than as an adolescent rite of passage for the socially awkward male), or as things other than obsessions to cope with a sense of meaninglessness.

Additionally, being written from the perspective of a teenage boy attending a boys' school, it almost entirely leaves women out (although there is some brief discussion about why women were more or less excluded from this subculture). I was taken aback by some generalizations about women which I feel are untrue (for instance, men are obsessed with things and women are obsessed with relationships - no we aren't, we're obsessed with all sorts of things just like males), and I wasn't sure if they were the adult author's own comments or else his attempt to express what his teenage boy self would have thought.

In any case, an enjoyable read!

2 people found this helpful

Friedland

Buy it...Enjoy it!!!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 16, 2015

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As someone who played a lot of Role Playing Games as a kid this book stood out for me. However, it's much more than that. It's about the reality of growing up as a teenage boy in the 1970's and from that perspective reveals all the insecurities and agonies most of us had to go through. Mark's descriptions of his inner turmoil regarding his peer group, the way he sees himself and relates to the world are very raw and honest. I'd picked up on some comments here that Mark comes across as mean and bitter. What some reviewers fail to grasp (or refuse to admit) is that young male teenagers tend to be like that. I certainly remember my own group of friends (including myself) could be particularly unmerciful when dealing with each other - but in a strange sort of way it also created close bonds between us. That's not excusing some of the things we did and said, but as Mark accurately points out, it suggested a lot about our own raging insecurities and concepts of masculinity.
As for Mark's addiction to Dungeons and Dragons I found it easy to relate to, but could easily have been about any sort of teenage obsession. Like many have mentioned, obsessions tend to seem much more intense when you're a kid. It's just that when you get older you understand that real life bumps up against you. That doesn't mean you have to abandon everything, only that you may have to put down the GM's Handbook in order to put the kids to bed.
I must say, my heavy analysis aside, there were plenty of times it had me laughing out loud. Two stand out moments for me were when Mark and Billy decide to create "real fireballs" using balloons and lighter fuel (with disastrous consequences), and Mark's insistence on describing D&D to his Nan.

2 people found this helpful

Auroracub

D and D research

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 2, 2018

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Found this book when researching an essay on dungeons and dragons it was incredibly helpful and a very interesting insight into the first inception of d and d in the UK but also a fun story to read about what feels like a totally different time.

Jonathan

Exploring adolescence... with a vorpal sword

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 16, 2009

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This is a very curious book. It's essentially an autobiography. Strangely, it tells us next to nothing about the author's family, early childhood etc and even less about his adult life. It's an autobiography of Mark Barrowcliffe's adolescence, growing up in Coventry in the 1970s. I've got to admire the author's pluck: just remembering adolescence is difficult and squirm-inducing; writing about it must have been an ordeal in mortification.

Strangely, though, the book isn't just autobiographical: it's also an unflinching psychological examination of fantasy roleplaying and the teenage culture that grew up around these games in the '70s and '80s. In particular, it explores the impact Dungeons & Dragons had on the author's social and emotional development (a pretty disastrous one, if he's to be believed)... and by implication, a study into nerd-ishness in general.

Fortunately, it's often very funny. Not laugh-out-loud funny, but that sort of cringing comedy-of-humilation funny that we Brits enjoy. It helps, I guess, if you've had some experience with D&D in your youth, but Barrowcliffe is a lucid writer and makes light work of all the exposition so even outsiders should get the gist (even if they don't quite get the point...).

As an autobiography, then, this is pretty powerful stuff. Barrowcliffe does not spare the lashes in his depiction of '70s Midlands as a dump - riven by class divides, steeped in casual racism and kneejerk fascism, empty and limiting and soulless and bleak. The author is aware of this cultural context and it's intriguing to see this alternative social history (in brief, what happened to Seventies lads who _didn't_ embrace punk) being painted so meticulously. Growing up in this environment did a lot to provoke emotional thuggery, screaming inferiority complexes and narcissistic fantasies and Mark Barrowcliffe is as quick to diagnose them in himself as he is relentless in depicting them in the stunted teenagers he grew up around. At times, the honesty is quite distressing... Although the author doesn't draw explicit conclusions, you can't help feeling grateful that modern children have digital TV and the internet to broaden their lives just a little - and it paints a pretty grim picture of what 11+ testing and selective schooling does to bright but immature young boys who miss out on going to grammar schools.

Of course, among all the gloom there are very touching details for people like me who remember what homes, fashions, attitudes, schools and music were like in the Seventies. I think readers of a different generation will find the book a treat if for no other reason than its vivid portrait of 'Seventies Boyhood' and some of the distinctive life choices that generation had to make.

In fact, the focus on the imaginative world of swords & sorcery is a pretty effective way in to the inner life of an adolescent. The approach reminded me of another autobiographical study of young manhood, C S Lewis' Surprised by Joy , which also focuses on the imagination as the key to understanding our formative experiences.

Which gets me on to Dungeons & Dragons at last. Or rather, fantasy roleplaying in general, because Barrowcliffe touchingly references lots of long lost names... Empire of the Petal Throne ... Traveller ... Gamma World ... we will not forget you... And frankly the author is very very good here at getting under the skin of this strange hobby and probing its impulses and reflexes. Yes, the strangely amateurish art and images, the slightly sado-masochistic imagery and aesthetic, the catechisms of lists, terms, rules and powers to be poured over and learned and shared and invoked. He pretty much nails it. The sense of having entered into a secret world, of initiation. Yes, that's what it was like.

Except, no, it wasn't quite like that. My experience of growing up with dragons and dungeons, for example, simply wasn't as claustrophobic and conflicted. My gaming group quite liked each other and they all had other interests outside of fantasy. I don't think anybody got particularly retarded and I've certainly stayed involved with the hobby, on and off, through the years. But then I grew up in middle class Edinburgh...

That's the only problem with Barrowcliffe's book, which is perhaps too keen to blame fantasy for the author's shortcomings and disappointments; indeed, you get the impression that writing the book has been some sort of exorcism for Mark Barrowcliffe, that some sort of catharsis was reached. He certainly concludes that roleplaying games played a big part in making him into a jerk for much of his life. However, readers might suspect that Mark was doomed to spend a good chunk of his youth and young manhood as a jerk regardless of what hobby he took up; indeed, the smug and vitriolic tone, when not directed at making you laugh, leaves you with an impression that an amount of jerkishness may be an indelible part of the author's personality.

So, a funny book, a nostalgia trip for roleplaying fanatics of a certain age and a very thought-provoking study of adolescence in that grim decade, the 1970s. But the author's rancour perhaps obscures what, for most people who played it, D&D was Really All About.

21 people found this helpful

Rachel Green (author)

Porter was a mate of mine...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 11, 2009

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When Mark Barrowcliffe tires of his weekly wargaming club he is enticed by the magical and mystical game of Dungeons and Dragons. Armed with a basic rulebook and a few polyhedral dice, he persuades other boys to join him in a game. Far from being a replacement for the Friday night wargame, roleplaying becomes an all-encompassing obsession for the teenager. He spends all his money and all his spare time on the game, and it dominates his conversation to the point of interrogating his gran on the relative merits of succubae and harpies.

The memoir explores the social mores of teenage boys in the seventies and provides several wry observations on the outlook of the British Working Class of the 1970s. This was my era and I remember it well - I even lived only a few miles away from Coventry and remember several of the places he mentions.

I enjoyed this book immensely for both the memorabilia of the background and the memories of Dungeons and Dragons (though I didn't get into RPGs until I met some boys who played AD&D in the eighties.) I even nodded in amusement at the authors scathing criticisms of the game's illustrations.

I give this book a 4 out of 5 stars, but if you've never grown up in 70's Britain, or never been in a room until the early hours of the morning because you didn't trust your friends not to kill off your character, you won't enjoy is as much.

2 people found this helpful

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