Archive for the ‘geek mystique’ Category
22.07.04 not that there’s anything wrong with that
“When she found the Dungeons and Dragons books, I tried to tell her they were somebody else’s, but she didn’t believe me. I told her I bought them for the articles.”
27.05.04 fearful symmetry
On the very day I left my job at the Big Corporation, Gord, one of my best friends who is frequently mistaken for my brother, joined it.
Today he writes me:
I have now completely gone over to the dark side!
I am presently sitting in a 100% cube shaped cubicle on the 11th floor of a glass tower that is surrounded by other glass towers. I am wearing a tailored white shirt with an appropriately conservative silk tie. I now shave every day, vs. only when I have to meet clients. I am working in a high-tech firm, yet instead of being surrounded by hippy-nerds talking about B5 hair clip ships, why Glamdring didn’t glow, or why Nathalie Portman should only wear leather, I am surrounded by other cubites who don’t talk at all!
Yet, tonight I play D&D (Elven Bard with a sentient blade), this weekend I practice the ancient art of the sword of Kuen Wu Mountain, & next June I go to a seminar to work on development of Tsan Si Jing (Silk Reeling Energy)!
I feel like ‘Mr. Anderson’.
To which I reply:
“Despair not, Darth Gordius, for… there is another.
Just as you succumbed to the dark side, your secret twin sister escaped its clutches and joined the rebels.
Gone are the power suits; I’ve been wearing denim, anime hair (or Leia buns) and my Emily shirt with the pink skull buttons. Why, just yesterday we had a meeting in which we decided NOT to have the character’s limbs get cut off, but instead, to have blood and guts spray to cover the camera lens… because it’s Nicer That Way. I took a paycut, but I’m surrounded with figurines, posters, and the neatest toys.
There is A New Hope.”
In other words, I’m really happy!
03.11.03 this just in my inbox…
From: Dr. Wank
Subject: Dorkdom is safe after all
A few days ago I mentioned a Salon article about how geeks might lose their creative energy because they are becoming accepted and thus might miss out on the resentment and solitude that has fuelled their efforts in the past.
Salon readers responded to the article with a chorus of “bullshit!” An excerpt:
“I’m speaking as a 33-year-old dork veteran here, not a quasi-hip “dork”; and I say, don’t worry about the creative dorks of the world disappearing. The fact is, it’s not really cool to be a dork. It’s just cool to look like a Tommy Hilfiger model and wear dorky glasses. Big difference.”
“Real dorks still don’t get laid. Cheerleaders do not attend prom with the best computer science student in school; they just use them for homework help; and that alone will guarantee the dork fire of creativity for generations to come.”
Just thought you’d like to know; we’re safe, for now…
Chuck.
I tend to agree with the guy. At least in my line of work, it’s not exactly hip to be square. This summer, a client asked me what my five favorite movies of all time were. The fact that I enthusiastically responded without even taking time to think, indicating that this is something I had devoted some thought to, made everyone else at the table look at me funny. (plus the response was The Fellowship of the Ring, Chasing Amy, Blade Runner, The Matrix and The Empire Strikes Back). Jokes abounded about how my coolness was but a thin veneer, and I admit I did feel like kind of a loser for a moment. I mean, these were sys admins, MALE sys admins, marvelling (negatively) at how much of a dork I’d just revealed myself to be.
Of course geekdom is contextual. I love Sci-Fi and Tolkien, but consider myself less geeky than people who play RPG’s more than once a week. And I’m queen cool of the universe compared to LARP-ers (Live-Action Role-Playing). As the Brunching Shuttlecocks put it, Sci-Fi TV fans think they’re cooler than Trekkies, who think they’re cooler than Trekkies who speak Klingon, who think they’re cooler than Trekkies who get married in Klingon garb.
What do you think? In your experience, is it still generally chic to be geek? Was it ever? And bonus question: what the geekiest class of geek?