Last week’s column caused quite the stir around the interwebs, forcing me to do something I’ve as yet not had to do: write a Counterpoint column to the reaction of my own Counterpoint. But to be honest, this piece has been a long time coming. I’ve been trying to find a way to broach the topic for quite a while, and it appears that many of your reactions have provided me the opportunity. There is a real problem in geekdom right now. You see, there was a culture clash and we won. No one saw that coming. We were the underdogs; we always have been. Go back 25 years and see what pop-culture’s portrayal of a “geek” or “nerd” was. They liked Lord of the Rings; they read comic books; they played video games and Dungeons & Dragons; they attended science fiction conventions; they spent too much time on their computers and got excited about new technology.
Sound familiar? We live in a world in which everyone knows who Frodo is; most everyone can name the founding members of the Justice League; video game releases are major events and Dungeons & Dragons books make the NY Times Bestsellers list; San Diego Comic Con has grown so large that there is constant talk of moving its location to accommodate its exponential growth; and everyone uses computers. Everyone. There has been a growing frustration in the geek community as they’ve seen everything they felt was special to them instead co-opted by the mainstream. After all, how can playing video games be considered “geeky” when YouTube is overflowing with videos of thuggish, muscle heads having their gaming systems destroyed by their incredibly hot (and neglected) girlfriends? How is your comic book knowledge a defining factor of your personality when football jocks, stoners and emo kids all read the same comics you do? How do you prove your geek worth amid all this competition?
Well, the answer has sadly become all too clear. People think they need to buy their way in.
A reader, identifying herself only as KW, wrote in response to last week’s column: It’s obvious that this reviewer has no concept of how devoted fans are to this series. This reviewer is NOT a fan, he is a person that believes that because he has read the books or seen the movies, he’s a geek and is therefore a fan. A fan is someone who knows every battle, character, spoken word, poem, has collected every book in numerous editions and tried to learn at least one of languages. You can like something, but that is not the equivalent to be a fan. The word fan was adopted from the word fanatic. So please, don’t assume that you know what it is like to spend money that you have worked hard for on things like this. You don’t have to pay for it so you don’t know what it’s like to be ripped off time and time again. I think that if anything, you should grow up and understand the notion of buying your own movies because god knows that not everyone is in the positions to get things free. For me, $60 means that I have to reconstruct my budget again or at least save up to buy this. Spitting on us because we think that paying hard earned cash on something we love is stupid, just shows your arrogance.
Now, I’m not going to pretend that this is in any way representative of the entire audience that disagrees with me, but she does illustrate the underlying point of my argument. When she talks about every battle, character, spoken word, poem…and tried to learn at least one of languages, I’m right there with her. THAT is fan. THAT is a geek. But there was one little thing she tried to slip in there that goes a step too far: has collected every book in numerous editions. Okay, I’ve known my share of bibliophiles in my day, so I’ll give you a certain amount of cred for collecting something people don’t normally collect – book editions – but EVERYONE has a movie collection these days. And no, owning every edition of Lord of the Rings on VHS, DVD & Blu-ray DOES NOT make you a geek. It means you have too much money. And if you, like KW above, feel the physical need to buy something you don’t want (for example, the theatrical cuts of LotR) with money you don’t have to prove your geek-cred, you’re not a geek; you are someone with a very real problem who needs to speak with a professional. Seriously. That’s not a joke. Seek help, because that is not normal behavior. It is an unhealthy obsession.But she’s not alone in her opinion, as evidenced by so many responses last week involving the phrase “making us buy multiple editions of a film” that if I turned it into a drinking game, I WOULD BE DEAD.
When did geekdom become about keeping up with the Joneses? When did we begin to become defined by the stuff we own? When did we become the geek versions of our parents, trading up our immense DVD collections for Blu-Ray like some people trade up luxury cars? I’ll tell you when: when the studios realized that you geeks are the best free viral marketers in the world; when they realized that many of you will buy the same movie over and over again to prove your love. SPOILER WARNING: you don’t have to buy it; and yes, they will be putting out another version as soon as they can get away with it. It is what they do. What shocks me isn’t their behavior; it’s that people still seem surprised by it enough to get angry. That’s what angers me; that’s what depresses me. Many of you are being tricked into keeping up with the Geek Joneses and you are buying into it to prove yourself. As if what you own is what makes you a geek.
All I can say is that if you feel you have to prove it, you probably aren’t one.
