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January 06, 2008
Motherjones Cosplay Photo Essay
As someone who aspired to cosplay in her teenage years more than she every really achieved that goal, and as someone who suffered the continued (and more successful) cosplaying of her friends after she lost interest in the hobby herself, I thought this little photo essay on the Mother Jones website was pretty interesting.
Cosplay is a pretty bizarre phenomenon if considered in the context of mainstream attitudes about fandom, role playing, and fashion. But I think it's a fabulous hobby that keeps languishing fabric outlets afloat and gets a lot of people into deteriorating arts like sewing and costuming. Plus it speaks highly of the anime and manga that inspire cosplay. I do wonder if literature conferences like AWP would be enlivened by such public, personal demonstrations of love for an author's characters and the world they've created. Some serious lit fans might think that would be a bit kitschy or distracting from the process of analysis in favor of "mere" emulation, but with as much delight as I've gotten from running into my favorite Japanese characters at the old Anime Weekend Atlanta convention I always went to as a teen, I wouldn't mind running into a few Owen Meanys, Jane Eyres, or Offreds. Roberta Muldroon from The World According To Garp could be fun. I suppose my lit cosplay fantasy fails beyond the realm of costume dramas of the Masterpiece Theater sort, since it would seem everyone was simply coming as eccentrically dressed non-characters. Which in turn highlights another great aspect of actual anime-inspired cosplay-- just take a look at those photos in the Mother Jones essay and tell me when you get to play high-fashion dress up anymore. Such a transformation is reserved for a small elite group of models and actors, and I'm pretty glad cosplay is out there as another means of tapping into that creativity and otherness for the everyman, or everychick.
| By Spike | 11:44 PM
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