I've been avoiding this thread. Please take this as an opinion piece.
I hate the damn things (pocket monsters) and have banned them from my
house. I'll tell you why:
It's not because of the cards or the games or the rules or anything like
that, but because of how the things were presented here (Australia). First,
pokemon was released on video, then on the television, then on trading
cards. I drew the line after about a month of the television show being
aired because of the organising narrative themes: domination of nature;
crude, "red in tooth and claw", darwinism, gladatorialism, and
anthropocentrism. These are overt in the tv series and not values I want my
children exposed to. So I banned the tv show.
The first I knew of the cards, many months after I'd censored the
television show, was that children had begun stealing them from others at
my kids' school. Older children then began scamming the younger children
for more "valuable" (ie more scarce) cards. Then came the black market: one
kid, whose parents are fairly well off, had a huge collection that he was
offering for sale at $400.00, a hefty amount for any grade 4 child. This
offer was made to grade 1-7 children. The computer game is out for christmas.
They may well create an interesting community of interest for children of
all ages, and perhaps I am wrong to impose values on my children (ha!). But
pokemon "masters" and libertarians alike will have to work damned hard to
show me that, whatever the hell that configuration of discourses is, it's
anything but unhealthy and insidious (albeit well-planned and strategic)
marketing.
Phil
Phil Graham
p.graham@qut.edu.au
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Palms/8314/index.html
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