Geek Is Dead; Long Live Geek!

Patton Oswald has had it with "geek" culture. Drop a nuclear bomb on it and start over!

Great article, if a little high on the entitled nerdrage. There's more than a bit of whining about not feeling special anymore because anyone can be a nerd now. (Of course, I'd maintain that most people have always had a few things they'd geek out about, they just didn't always have the opportunity or the social space to express it the way they have today.) "In my day, we were outcasts, maaaaaaaaaaaaaaan! You had to suffer for your nerdiness, you had to work for it! Now all these kids today with the Tweeters and the NewTubes and whatnot can instantly connect with the two other people in the world obsessed with the third Jem from the right and order ironic T-shirts all day long while playing their Beethoven/Keyboard Cat mashups! Where's the secret thrill of knowing you and your friend are the only ones who can quote Ski Patrol II at each other? Where's the fun in not being a shunned weirdo? Where's the feeling that you're better than those jock jerks because you have a mint Han Solo doll supposed to come from? Now EVERYONE likes the stuff I like, and it's just no fuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnn!"

He also touches on something I've long maintained: "And yes, I know that a lot of what I’m listing here seems like it’s outside of the “nerd world” and part of the wider pop culture. Well, I’ve got news for you—pop culture is nerd culture. The fans of Real Housewives of Hoboken watch, discuss, and absorb their show the same way a geek watched Dark Shadows or obsessed over his eighth-level half-elf ranger character in Dungeons & Dragons. It’s the method of consumption, not what’s on the plate." It's ever been thus. What's different is the level of social acceptance of the obsession. Sports is socially acceptable, even all-American; Japanese No theater is weird. Another reason why I believe almost everyone is a "nerd" about something: they just happen to be into something society says is okay to be really into.

BTW, despite the fact that he claims to have no affinity for the terms "nerd or "geek," the fact that he prefers the term "otaku" is just about the goddamn nerdiest thing ever.

(Via Movieline)