I Am Groot
“I Am GROOT”
For The Newnan Times-Herald
Title confuses you? Me, too. Mostly likely, if you live in a world over forty years of age, you’ve never heard of it. I hadn’t. You might have if you are a fan of fantasy no matter what your age but I am not. As an English teacher, I love words. Characters’ names in sci-fi or fantasy are just too non-Anglican for me to grab hold and remember who they are from page to page.
Supposing to be well read, you’ll hardly catch me reading that genre. I’ll admit to some Ray Bradbury or Kurt Vonnegut. But I’m not a fan of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones. Names from these stories just confuse me.
Here are some from Harry: Godric Gryffindor, Mafalda Hopkirk, or Salazar Slytherin. In Lord of the Rings you’ll find: Meriadoc, Eowyn, plus Denethor and more; while in Games of Thrones there are: Daenerys Targaryen, Tormund Giantsbane, or Missandei. Once names like this popped up, I was trying my best to keep up. I gave Godric the name Gordy or Meriadoc’s name was Merridy, and Missandei was now Missy. I don’t know if these characters were male or female but I made an attempt to read these novels until about page ten.
I’m sorry. No, wait, no I am not, unless those of you reading this have those names as your given names. It’s not your fault if you do. Sure there was Beowulf and Grendel in British Lit. But I didn’t stay in the 10th & 11th century all that long either. I did teach it for the people who like that sort of reading. Beowulf, set in Scandanavia, was written by an anonymous Anglo-Saxon. Those popular books mentioned I think are full of fantasy about their origins. I like history – therefore non-fiction – and being absolute is something I can count on.
So, when I saw the word GROOT and an image in the bottom corner of a video I recorded on my FB page, I was puzzled. There was this little guy rather hard to describe he was so small but I did see he had golden hair, he was smiling, had a hand in the air like he was waving, wore a burgundy coat and pants, and the word GROOT written by his head with streaks of fire or either something that looks like veins protruding from the word. Not only WHAT was it, but who put it there? I didn’t know anything about such a thing.
I did what I always do. Just like in the three novels I mentioned above where I didn’t remember any of the book’s characters for this essay, I researched. I didn’t even know GROOT was a name yet. People my age who saw it on-line were asking me the same question as I was asking myself, “What is that?” Then I find that young people, (Lordy, when I start calling youthful people “young people” like my parents used to) know exactly who GROOT is. GROOT is a fictional superhero. He first appeared in Marvel Comics’ GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY’s Tales of Astonish #13 (November 1960) as an extraterrestrial, sentient tree-like creature who was an invader that intended to capture humans for experimentation.
The character was reintroduced in 2006 as a heroic, noble being and now has become a pop culture icon and internet meme with his repeated line, “I am GROOT”. But what does this all have to do with me? I never read these comic books nor saw THE GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY movies. I’m only telling you because as life-long learners, I suppose this is something we are supposed to know. I don’t know WHY I need to know about it, but somebody thought I should and added it to my video and I CAN’T GET IT OFF!
BTW – I know you know what a meme is, right?
For The Newnan Times-Herald
Title confuses you? Me, too. Mostly likely, if you live in a world over forty years of age, you’ve never heard of it. I hadn’t. You might have if you are a fan of fantasy no matter what your age but I am not. As an English teacher, I love words. Characters’ names in sci-fi or fantasy are just too non-Anglican for me to grab hold and remember who they are from page to page.
Supposing to be well read, you’ll hardly catch me reading that genre. I’ll admit to some Ray Bradbury or Kurt Vonnegut. But I’m not a fan of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, and Game of Thrones. Names from these stories just confuse me.
Here are some from Harry: Godric Gryffindor, Mafalda Hopkirk, or Salazar Slytherin. In Lord of the Rings you’ll find: Meriadoc, Eowyn, plus Denethor and more; while in Games of Thrones there are: Daenerys Targaryen, Tormund Giantsbane, or Missandei. Once names like this popped up, I was trying my best to keep up. I gave Godric the name Gordy or Meriadoc’s name was Merridy, and Missandei was now Missy. I don’t know if these characters were male or female but I made an attempt to read these novels until about page ten.
I’m sorry. No, wait, no I am not, unless those of you reading this have those names as your given names. It’s not your fault if you do. Sure there was Beowulf and Grendel in British Lit. But I didn’t stay in the 10th & 11th century all that long either. I did teach it for the people who like that sort of reading. Beowulf, set in Scandanavia, was written by an anonymous Anglo-Saxon. Those popular books mentioned I think are full of fantasy about their origins. I like history – therefore non-fiction – and being absolute is something I can count on.
So, when I saw the word GROOT and an image in the bottom corner of a video I recorded on my FB page, I was puzzled. There was this little guy rather hard to describe he was so small but I did see he had golden hair, he was smiling, had a hand in the air like he was waving, wore a burgundy coat and pants, and the word GROOT written by his head with streaks of fire or either something that looks like veins protruding from the word. Not only WHAT was it, but who put it there? I didn’t know anything about such a thing.
I did what I always do. Just like in the three novels I mentioned above where I didn’t remember any of the book’s characters for this essay, I researched. I didn’t even know GROOT was a name yet. People my age who saw it on-line were asking me the same question as I was asking myself, “What is that?” Then I find that young people, (Lordy, when I start calling youthful people “young people” like my parents used to) know exactly who GROOT is. GROOT is a fictional superhero. He first appeared in Marvel Comics’ GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY’s Tales of Astonish #13 (November 1960) as an extraterrestrial, sentient tree-like creature who was an invader that intended to capture humans for experimentation.
The character was reintroduced in 2006 as a heroic, noble being and now has become a pop culture icon and internet meme with his repeated line, “I am GROOT”. But what does this all have to do with me? I never read these comic books nor saw THE GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY movies. I’m only telling you because as life-long learners, I suppose this is something we are supposed to know. I don’t know WHY I need to know about it, but somebody thought I should and added it to my video and I CAN’T GET IT OFF!
BTW – I know you know what a meme is, right?
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