Who’s a Geek?
Earlier this week I had the opportunity to be a guest on Debra Dunbar’s blog, and I was fairly pleased with the post and the response to it. So pleased, in fact, that I’m reposting it here. If you’re already read it, my apologies, and if not, I hope you enjoy!
Debra and I both have short stories appearing in Beltane: Ten Tales of Witchcraft and she’ll be my guest in a couple of weeks. In the meantime I’m enjoying the heck out of her UF novel A Demon Bound. I started it a day or so ago and am just loving it.
The first time I went to Debra’s blog, I was scrolling through her older posts and came across one where she self-identified as a geek. Cool, that. Her pride in the term reminded me of my fourteen year old daughter who, a week or so into her first year at a new school, came home as excited as I’ve ever seen her.
“Mom, today I met the geeks! They are SO cool!!!”
If a fourteen year old says it, it is so. Geeks are cool, or at least they’re cooler than they were when I was in high school.
But what IS a geek, exactly? Here’s what Wikipedia says:
The word geek is a slang term for odd or non-mainstream people, with different connotations ranging from “a computer expert or enthusiast” to “a person heavily interested in a hobby”, with a general pejorative meaning of “a peculiar or otherwise dislikable person, esp[ecially] one who is perceived to be overly intellectual”.[1]
Wikipedia goes on to say that the term ‘nerd’ means almost the same thing, so from here on out I’ll use them interchangeably. I read a bunch of different explanations of what it means to be a geek (or nerd), and there seemed to be three common ideas:
· They’re enthusiastic
o Geeks are into all kinds of stuff, and the overarching theme is that they’re passionate about it. Whether it’s techno-toys or computer games or television series, they get into things in a big way. Think about all the elves, Romulans, vampires, Imperial Stormtroopers, and whatnot that show up at conventions. These people live it!
· They’re into details
o It’s the details that keep things interesting to a geek. Here’s a quote from The Mary Sue, a girl-geek’s blog.
§ “Since a feeling of excitement is initially what spurred us to dig deeper, this means that our interests drive us into this wonderful cycle of bliss in which every detail we uncover makes us even more stoked about the thing that got us so stoked in the first place.”
o To get a sense for the importance of details in the geek world, take a look on-line for blog posts on how the new BBC version of Sherlock Holmes is going to work itself out of the pickle it was in at the end of the last episode. Sorry for the spoiler, but Sherlock died…or did he? Here’s a link to what might be the definitive post on the topic – and one that clearly illustrates the way a geek’s mind works.
§ http://eva-christine.tumblr.com/post/27733467733/iou-explanation-53-8-92-grimms-fairy-tales-cipher
· They’re smart
o It takes a bit of intelligence to learn Elvish and keep track of all the season of Dr. Who and build a server to set up your own Minecraft, um, playground (or whatever. All I know about computer games comes from eavesdropping on my kids). The traditional image of a nerd includes thick-rimmed glasses and a pocket protector, and hey, you need that gear for your advanced calculus class, right? Whether it’s choosing the right fabric to construct your 9th century Celtic brat (cloak) for the SCA campout or spending six times as much for your laptop as you did for your car, there’s research involved. Which takes smarts. Which geeks (and nerds) not only possess, but value.
There are geeks I admire, like Joss Whedon and JK Rowlings. Some of my closest friends (both on the internet & in real life) are geeks. And apparently I’m raising a couple of geek children.
Go me!
So to finish off, I’m going to leave you with a mash-up of quotes from young-adult author John Green, who along with his brother Hank is responsible for the Nerdfighters vlog. He pretty much sums up why it’s cool to be a nerd…or a geek.
…because nerds like us are allowed to be unironically enthusiastic about stuff… Nerds are allowed to love stuff, like jump-up-and-down-in-the-chair-can’t-control-yourself love it…Saying ‘I notice you’re a nerd’ is like saying, ‘Hey, I notice that you’d rather be intelligent than be stupid, that you’d rather be thoughtful than be vapid, that you believe that there are things that matter more than the arrest record of Lindsay Lohan. Why is that?’ (VlogBrothers Harry Potter & Nerd Insults)
So for all my geek and nerd friends, you rock! Keep on being your quirky smart funny selves.
Peace,
Liv
