Never Weird? Almost…
Felicia Day just released a memoir. Who is she? Felicia Day is creator and star of The Guild, and co-creator of the Geek and Sundry site, packed full of web series. She also is a founder of Vaginal Fantasy, an online book club for romance books. Oh yeah, and she has appeared in Eureka, Supernatural, and Dr. Horrible!
You’re Never Weird on the Internet (almost) is Felicia Day’s love story with the internet. (Although, they did break up that one time.) It is a story most of us are familiar with. The people you know in real life don’t want to talk about your video game poetry obsession. It is also a story about when we had to walk uphill both ways to get anything done online. For instance, funding and promoting a show before there was Kickstarter or social media, or anyone even knew what a web series was. It is an inspirational tale for people just starting to share their internet weirdness. It is a map of the potential pitfalls to creativity and sanity.
Felicia Day’s word choice is perfectly ridiculous. “Stay Puft Marshmallow of Doom!” She writes a beautiful comedy that made me laugh a bit too much to seem normal in public. What does the public know, though? With their books that don’t make them laugh hysterically?
Felicia has met some of the weirdest people, and you get to meet them too! She has such a relaxed writing style, that it feels like you’d hear all these stories drinking with your friend. Probably with some “THAT CAN’T HAVE HAPPENED!” thrown in. No really, did all of that really happen?
I realized halfway through the book that I actually met Kim Evey, producer of The Guild, at SDCC last year. She came over to say hello to my friend Tabz. I said something nervously like “Hi” or “Nice to meet you.” Now that I know how hard creating The Guild was, I need a time machine to go back and fix that. I didn’t realize there was DVD shipping hell! I’m thankful that everyone involved in The Guild stuck it out so Tinkerballa could inspire me. I always think of her when boys are giving me a tough time for being a gamer. Tinkerballa doesn’t put up with that, also can you go mine some gold for her?
Never Weird also delves into some serious drama that we all experience to some degree, when people on the internet decide you shouldn’t be allowed a viewpoint because of your sex, age, race, orientation, etc. Also, with a bit of, I’m going to have a very strong opinion about someone I didn’t even bother to google.
Felicia poses a problem in her book, that we, the internet can absolutely solve. She describes how the hateful and awful comments stick with her, but the nice comments don’t. Now having too often read the comments, I can tell you, the good comments are often all the same and not very vivid. They are often similar to “I love you!”, “Love your show!”,”You’re great!” etc. These aren’t as eye catching as hateful ones. I feel like some of our passion is lost. Let’s all take some time to make sure we write nice comments that she’ll never forget! Word choice and passion! We can do this!
Felicia Day, you’re a fiery badass Pixie of Nerdom! (Pixies of Nerdom have comic book wings, obviously.)
If you love The Guild, read this book. If you love Felicia, read this book. If you need a funny guide to starting your own internet work and promoting it, read it. Also, internet nerds, female gamers, female nerds, this is a book about us. READ IT!
FIVE STARS 