Best dorm floor ever

[brainofck]

I can't help feeling like 80% of the appeal of Avengers fic is how much it calls back to living in the co-op. Not that I lived with spies and super-soldiers or what not. But the freedom and independence; the exchange of ideas; the stress of research and the 1000s of pages of reading; being surrounded by 20-somethings and the beauty of youth; the sense of a common cause - sort of. The crazy math PhD wandering into your room muttering to himself; and the retiring physicist across the hall; and falling in love with the historian; and having a weird half-crush on the most-likely gay guy down the hall who always thinks you are drinking beer, but then feels like an idiot when it turns out to be Reed's Ginger Brew. And pizza and communal meals and weird sleeping schedules. Grad school = Avengers Tower.

Comments

[princessofgeeks]

you know, I hated that lifestyle and did everything I could to avoid it! so that was lost on me in the movie.

i agree that it does seem a little weird to me to have them all living together in the Mansion or the Tower or wherever, but convenient....

[brainofck]

I hated that lifestyle

What about the lifestyle? Living in the dorm? Well, techincally, I was not in a dorm. And probaly 60% of the students at the co-op were grad students and I'd say 25% were international. And it was a co-op, so. Very different from the undergrad freshman/sophomore dorm vibe.

[princessofgeeks]

Clearly I have no idea what I'm talking about! But any sort of communal living would be so not my thing. Then again, maybe I had rotten roommates when I was in my twenties and living in dorms and rambling old houses a block from campus. :)

[brainofck]

There is definitely something to be said for quality of housemates. And the chef who worked there told me a couple of times after I had moved out that our house was awesome and that other ones sucked. So maybe I was just especially lucky because of the group of people I was with. It was a weird building, since it was as big as a dorm, but it was self-governed with a comprehensive set of rules and officers to enforce them. Most of us had our own rooms, but we had a big cafeteria type thing in the basement. I wonder how much it was like being in a big frat or sorority, because of the meals being inhouse and the fact that we paid rent to a larger entity. But we really didn't do big drinking parties, or anything like that, though we would bring in a boat load of pizza after the work holidays, and there may have been kegs at those, and I served box-o-wine at the summer cookout I did when I was chef.

The co-op.

Also, it is possible that for a person who is somewhat shy and socially awkward, I am possibly a born joiner. I stood in as chef for a summer, and I was work manager for three terms, so I knew all the 90 or so members, plus I was dating someone in the other side, and I ate over there often, so I knew a lot of them, too. One of the things I really liked was that people mostly just filled in the tables in the dining room as they arrived, sitting with whoever was in front and behind them in line, only a few people actually specifically separating out to sit with specific other people, so you really got to hang out with everyone and get to know people. I am feeling all nostalgic now. I suppose you could hardly tell... :D

[princessofgeeks]

Sounds like it was an amazing experience.

[bluemeridian]

I hadn't specifically thought of it that way before, and haven't lived in a co-op myself per se, but I definitely feel drawn to that aspect as well. I'm a loner by nature, but end up getting to know people and/or socializing significantly more in group housing situations (5 of us renting an apartment together, for example). It's particularly nice because it allows me to interact with other humans within my own comfort zone and I do mourn that kind of situation. That the Avengers have all the benefits of a high end apartment (Tony Stark specials) with the common thread of their work life to make co-mingling easy - it would be an ideal situation for me.

tl;dr: I didn't think of that, but yes! :D

[brainofck]

*points up* (I waxed nostalgic about living with 90 people.)

And there would be SO MANY ADVANTAGES to just living in a bazillionaire's building... :D