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In Defense of Nerds
Apr. 20th, 2012 01:35 pmhttp://www.canada.com/entertainment/defence+fanboys+girls/6479630/story.html
Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope comes out today, and with it, the usual spate of stories talking about the film's brave defense of geeks, humanizing them to seem like regular people, save for the odd sad moments when a middle-aged man is shown running too excited and paying too much for an action figure. There's often the 'tut-tut'ing of serious writers at people who have abdicated adult responsibilities to remain perpetual children.
In other words, we're getting a metric ton of unrefined crap dished out yet again by clueless people who seek to align their own value systems in a way to understand nerds and fandom, and the people who come out looking sad and uneducated are themselves.
When will the larger media learn that you don't need to 'defend' fan culture? The reason being that we won. Years ago. The entertainment industry, which churns out the thoughtfully artistic pieces that make selective reviewers all aquiver is owned body and soul by the geeks. With the rare exception of Titanic, the only other film in the top 30 grossing films of all time that isn't sci-fi, fantasy, animated or based off a children's concept is Inception at 29. Which happened to be written and filmed by the guy who made his bones on comic book adaptions. The video game industry, owned body and soul by the geek culture surpassed movies three years ago in annual revenue. The top sitcom in the world right now is about geek culture.
Nothing makes it as clear as the internet itself, despite all efforts, is still driven and largely controlled by subgroups out of the nerd, geek and dork tribes. You beat us up in high school but now you work for us, sparky.
It amazes me that a film that features the sublime and supremely talented costume and model maker Holly Conrad can be looked at as a sad enterprise. Conrad is an artist, and an exceptionally talented one. Counterparts at ILM have stated publically that her work is as good or better than any major special effects production studio can put out today. And yet, she's just some kind of poor woman who instead of obsessing about her looks, guzzling back martinis while reading Cosmo, focusing her income on an expensive car, trophy boyfriend and night out dancing, she's 'wasting' her life by spending hundreds of hours on a supremely difficult and male-dominated creative industrial field and earning accolades for her work. Yeah, real sad.
The thing that entertains me most is the contrast in the entertainment section, which breathlessly talks about some new Kardasian brouhaha in the sidebar, why successful men who buy $100,000 cars don't cheat, and ways to get rid of those wrinkles, and the nerds are the superficial culture? In a world where people riot, causing millions of dollars of property damage if their sports team doesn't win (or in some cases does), the sad person is the forty year old man spending a couple hundred bucks for a toy? But the guy who drops $84K on a meal and wine in New York is a cultured gourmet, and not a laughable clown with way too much money?
So, yeah, we don't need to be defended any more, especially by the people that we consider to be the children; obsessed with their looks and image, in keeping up with the Jones, in focusing on an 'adult' world that you find increasingly joyless. We're happy to leave you with your TMZ and your NFL. Because we already judged you.
Comic-Con Episode IV: A Fan's Hope comes out today, and with it, the usual spate of stories talking about the film's brave defense of geeks, humanizing them to seem like regular people, save for the odd sad moments when a middle-aged man is shown running too excited and paying too much for an action figure. There's often the 'tut-tut'ing of serious writers at people who have abdicated adult responsibilities to remain perpetual children.
In other words, we're getting a metric ton of unrefined crap dished out yet again by clueless people who seek to align their own value systems in a way to understand nerds and fandom, and the people who come out looking sad and uneducated are themselves.
When will the larger media learn that you don't need to 'defend' fan culture? The reason being that we won. Years ago. The entertainment industry, which churns out the thoughtfully artistic pieces that make selective reviewers all aquiver is owned body and soul by the geeks. With the rare exception of Titanic, the only other film in the top 30 grossing films of all time that isn't sci-fi, fantasy, animated or based off a children's concept is Inception at 29. Which happened to be written and filmed by the guy who made his bones on comic book adaptions. The video game industry, owned body and soul by the geek culture surpassed movies three years ago in annual revenue. The top sitcom in the world right now is about geek culture.
Nothing makes it as clear as the internet itself, despite all efforts, is still driven and largely controlled by subgroups out of the nerd, geek and dork tribes. You beat us up in high school but now you work for us, sparky.
It amazes me that a film that features the sublime and supremely talented costume and model maker Holly Conrad can be looked at as a sad enterprise. Conrad is an artist, and an exceptionally talented one. Counterparts at ILM have stated publically that her work is as good or better than any major special effects production studio can put out today. And yet, she's just some kind of poor woman who instead of obsessing about her looks, guzzling back martinis while reading Cosmo, focusing her income on an expensive car, trophy boyfriend and night out dancing, she's 'wasting' her life by spending hundreds of hours on a supremely difficult and male-dominated creative industrial field and earning accolades for her work. Yeah, real sad.
The thing that entertains me most is the contrast in the entertainment section, which breathlessly talks about some new Kardasian brouhaha in the sidebar, why successful men who buy $100,000 cars don't cheat, and ways to get rid of those wrinkles, and the nerds are the superficial culture? In a world where people riot, causing millions of dollars of property damage if their sports team doesn't win (or in some cases does), the sad person is the forty year old man spending a couple hundred bucks for a toy? But the guy who drops $84K on a meal and wine in New York is a cultured gourmet, and not a laughable clown with way too much money?
So, yeah, we don't need to be defended any more, especially by the people that we consider to be the children; obsessed with their looks and image, in keeping up with the Jones, in focusing on an 'adult' world that you find increasingly joyless. We're happy to leave you with your TMZ and your NFL. Because we already judged you.
