Book Report: Super Mario Bros. 3: Brick by Brick by MovieBob aka Bob Chipman
There is no happy ending in this book. The protagonist, Bob Chipman, is trapped in a world of delusion, escaping the difficulties of life through a virtual haze. This is his story.
The book is described as a “journey through every step of the Super Mario Bros. 3 game” but that is a clever misdirect by the author to shield us from the true story. This book is not about Mario but about the character of Bob Chipman who is named after the author. In it, Chipman describes living in this world with Mario.
Mario and I were “born” the same year, 1981 (I’m about 5 ½ months older,) and as such I don’t really remember a world without him.
The connection between him and Mario can be seen as a one-sided romance that resides in Mario’s world. We never grasp how Mario feels about Chipman but the book makes it very clear how Chipman feels about Mario. The actual image of the 8-bit Mario appears detail-less to us, but to Chipman, he fills in those details and creates an idol out of him.
And there was Mario – chubby, clad in unassuming overalls and his preposterous mustache, looking for all the world like no hero of anything else that I’d ever seen.
The first sight of Mario’s world immediately entrances and consumes him. He says that he was “bad at school”, “zoned-out into daydreams” and “turned in a lot of poor work.” His initial description of Mario’s world is similar to the description of the character himself and he soon found himself “filling page after page of drawing paper with painstaking recreations of […] that wide open world.”
This is where the story begins to take a darker turn. Most children would remember when they received their first video game console. Chipman doesn’t. But what he does remember is that his “young life now had a clear dividing line: pre- and post-NES.” It is here that we begin to see that Mario’s world is an escape for Chipman, a virtual safe haven where he is free to be himself.
But the climactic reveal of SMB3 is burned – no, seared – into my memory the way JFK’s assassination was for my parents’ generation… or the way 9/11 would be for mine a scant 12 years from then…
As he goes deeper and deeper into Mario’s world, we find that his connection to the real world grows weaker and weaker. The only time when he found himself “in sync” with the rest of the world was when “Mario peaked in the popular culture.” Outside forces like Sega with their mascot Sonic the Hedgehog would appear to him as if they were actual threats meant to be fought.
In my memories, the Great Console Wars dragged on like my own private Vietnam, and it didn’t help that I was still constantly in trouble at school and in and out of therapy at the time for anger, attention and authority issues.
The breaking point comes when he realizes the real world manifestation of Mario is no longer meeting his imagination-fueled interpretation of him. When he realizes the game Yoshi’s Island reveals the birthplace of the Mario twins as the Mushroom Kingdom instead of Brooklyn, “the dissonance stuck with [him] for a while.” Real world distractions like the “social-hierarchy” prevented him from fully escaping into his delusion.
For me, this was it. How much sense did it make to be trying to work out the bigger relationships between the characters and the broader scope of their world? […] Why should I put so much of myself into this… when Mario’s masters couldn’t even keep his origins straight?
When both Marios refused to merge into a singular entity for him, he makes the most dramatic change of his life to quit video games. Unfortunately, the side effects of this would not become apparent until years later. By not addressing the root causes of the problem, everyone in his family simply ignored them as he temporarily grew out of it. And soon, it would strike back in a horrific manner.
GBA (and soon enough a DS) was my constant companion, particularly useful for passing time sitting in the car after work, waiting for the rest of the house to go to sleep before heading home. …I promise that last part isn’t actually as sad as it sounds.
Despite being told by his family to not show up while they are awake so they can not see the monster they have created, he does not question why he must do this as he has Mario’s world to escape into. At this point, he values Mario and his world far more than he does his family and will actively sing the praises of it. There is one final leap he must take until the real world is just a distant memory.
I am the man I am for many reasons: because of my parents, my grandparents, my friends and family. But also because of Mario, whose adventures filled my lonelier hours, fueled my dreams, gave me a not-inconsequential sense of stability…
This is where Chipman begins his journey through Super Mario Bros 3. He does this alongside keeping a journal in which he details real world events that occurred before slipping into the delusion world of Mario. The descriptions of each stage are both long and dull, exemplifying how raptured Chipman is about the whole thing while people in the real world grow tired of it.
Right off the bat there’s a space where you can swim straight down to a hidden Question Block, but since the Power-Up turns out to be a Flower I don’t take it – I like being a Frog too much, and the added swim-control makes it that much easier to cope with the Bloopers (squids, making their first post-SMB1 appearance) waiting up ahead.
He relays the events between the real world and Mario’s world concurrently as if he wants them to converge. His normal routines also begin to show signs of delusion, for example, doing “a 3000 cal routine at the gym today thanks to the welcome distraction of a DVD full of old Transformers cartoons.” While a one-off line like this may seem innocuous, outsiders are watching an obese man watching children’s cartoons in public without a care in the world.
We begin to see how far he is taking this entry into Mario’s world when we hear that his grandmother was hospitalized. While he realizes that he is “coping with this and other uneasy aspects of my present-day life [by] playing a video-game,” he does not do anything about it. He lets it wash over him while the memories of his real life fade away as he talks more about the world of Mario 3.
I woke up to a phone message from my mother informing me that [my grandmother] appeared to be in a “fading” state, and that people were advised to stop by and say… well, you get the idea. […] I needed to get outside “the grid” of my familiar areas, and I needed to “happy up” (or at least clear my head) after that, and took the first course of action that entered my mind in that regard: My brother had raved recently about a retro-style video arcade…
The world of Mario is not the only place he escapes to. As mentioned previously, Transformers is another childhood relic that he seems to hold onto and retro games also produce the same effect. All these things either allow him to escape the real world or ignore his immediate surroundings. It is only when his grandmother passes that he can no longer escape.
I will miss her terribly. […] All I’m sure of now is that for the first time since I started this project (maybe for the first time ever) I just don’t feel much like playing “Super Mario Bros 3.”
Unfortunately, like before, this effect is only temporary and he immediately regresses back to escaping inside the world of Mario 3. He “just [wants] to deal with it, get through it, grieve in [his] own way, and get back to living. […] Part of which involves getting right back on the horse with this book.” It is only now that we realize that writing the book is only an excuse for him to go right back into playing Mario 3.
In any case, fate provided a solution: on top of everything else, the air-conditioner in our home […] finally gave up the ghost after years of erratic functionality. So, while the rest of the family was off to share grief in the manner of psychologically-healthy human beings, I was off to buy, set up and install a new AC. If nothing else, when we were all (inevitably) still sad later on, at least we weren’t also miserably hot and sweaty.
Again, despite making the point that he is aware that his behavior is not normal, he chooses to do nothing about it. Soon, he finally finishes the game and so the epilogue begins. This is where the story becomes ambiguous as to where Chipman will end up. Will he grow up and escape the virtual world that has plagued him throughout his life, or will he fully commit to it and suffer for eternity?
On July 1st of 2012, I officially moved out of the home I’d lived in for 31 years of my life.
This appears to be a positive move for Chipman. He no longer has a reliance on his family and can progress towards independence. However, one could interpret this as a sign of regression, a need to no longer be around humans and live by himself without any opposition towards his escape into Mario’s world. The final words leave the reader with a sense of dread.
Other boxes yielded more treasures: the SNES, the Nintendo 64, a Dreamcast, the controllers and hookups for all of them, and, yes, my original copy of “Super Mario Bros 3.” […] The machine still works. The game – in every sense of the word – still works. I am, at last, home.
I do not recommend reading this book.
0/10
I will remove any comment with online links to the book. Please do not post them.
Good. No one should endure reading this.
http://www.fangamer.net/produc.....k-by-brick
Well okay, that one is alright. Again, highly recommend not reading it or paying money to read it. It should be the other way around, people should be paid to read it.
You mean this isn’t fake? A man like this actually exists?
It’s like the onion article about Schwarzenegger getting elected as governor of California. It only used actual facts, yet is probably the most ridiculous article on the site.
I could not believe this book was actually written. At least, by someone not named Ulillillia.
Let us not forget that one hour on a treadmill or exercise bike, at moderate speed, burns 300-500 calories.
To burn 3000 calories, he was most likely sitting in the gym watching Transformers for SIX HOURS.
I guess that explains why he’s so healthy and muscular.
Fangamer usually sells some top notch stuff. This is… a definite exception.
I bought it on the suggestion of a friend. That person is no longer amongst the living.
Totally unrelated to suggesting the book to me, but at the same time, perhaps a sign that God does exist after all.
What a terrible report. It didn’t make sense and its just hating on Bob.
“It didn’t make sense.”
Just like Bob’s book!
BAZOMBA!!
so we are in agreement that this review didn’t make sense. great.
Moviebob sucks, deal with it
Excellent review. In Moviebob’s own words, “ANYTHING in culture that is dominated/controlled by white/straight/cis/men sucks.” This especially includes video game-influenced auto-biographies written by people that have spent at least 30 years of their life living in their mom’s basement; a field made up of exactly one person, a cis white straight man named Bob Chipman.
Not sure if the reviewer is trolling or just retarded..
thank jack i cum on cat she hiss at penis
What? You don’t like video games anymore? You can’t buy a book about them? Oy vey, yet another case of gamer entitlement.
I’ve read the book and agree with a lot of this, but I don’t understand why the review and comments are so malicious (at least, I’m reading them as being malicious. I don’t know). I think there’s a lot of sadness underlying the book, but why does that inspire spite in you? It just seems like an odd reaction to me.
This is a parody website. Something along the lines of Kotaku. You shouldn’t take it seriously.
“This is a parody website”
The professional management of Play4Real (Jack included) take offense at such a smearing accusation. P4R brings you only the most hard-hitting, professional news every day, and rises sky high above those other websites of a parodical nature such as Kotaku, Polygon, and the former PAR (not to be confused with us, P4R).
Tis but a joke.
But no seriously Bob should never write another book in his life.
To the writer of this review. you sir are now in leauge with seanbaby and his mark discordia story
this was funny as shit.
One of the best book reports I have read in a while.
When did a book making you feel feelings become a bad thing? Just because the feelings aren’t happy doesn’t make the book bad. In fact, it was such a compelling read that you felt the need to write a detailed synopsis. It seems like this book had a profound effect on you which is more than most authors could ever dream of. Poor show for hating on a book for making you feel something.
Well, considering how that feeling was both hatred for wasting time, as well as pity for the author of what basically amounts to an autobiography (which isn’t even sold as an autobiography), I’d say JACK has a pretty valid reason to hate.
I mean, Bob’s mario fetish is disturbing. And this is a real person, not some fictional character.
Sounds like the reviewer is an angry little turd.
Sounds like MovieBob is a literal angry shit
A literal 0 out of 10?
This seems closer to fanrage than a legitimate review.
Seriously, 0 out of 10 means illegible, you do realize this, right?
And just to piss that one guy off. http://www.fangamer.net/produc.....k-by-brick
“Seriously, 0 out of 10 means illegible, you do realize this, right?”
Have you read the book? Shit is an illegible mess.
“Seriously, 0 out of 10 means illegible, you do realize this, right?”
I must have missed the meeting where we all got together and decided that, because I could have sworn it means the book is shit, and was written by a guy who looks like Bluto from Popeye if he had Downs Syndrome.
Laughed my ass off the entire time, fantastic book report.
Shithead, the book never has any thing which depicts him ‘inside’ the universe, is there? Or am I wrong?
Also, this is a satire site, shithead. Bitches, this ain’t a bad book.
You’re right, it isn’t a bad book.
It is a HORRIBLE book written by a manchild who thinks moving out of his parent’s house after age 30 is an accomplishment.
11/10 would never read… even after a year!
10/10 would read again
topkek m8
If this book can be published, so can this review of this book, right? Because I had a much more enjoyable time reading this than seeing the shit Movieboob “Mario” Cisman puts out.