A Few Thoughts On Geek Pride
A few days ago Nick Mamatas posted Let us put an end to Geek Pride on his Livejournal. I’m not saying I agree or disagree with him and I’m not saying anything about the merits of his post. But it got me thinking that maybe it is time to put an end to Geek Pride.
And replace it with something better. Geek Enthusiasm.
The thing about pride as it pertains to a subculture, or the perception of a subculture, is that it’s separating. It starts with a default position of “I’m different and different is good.” And pretty soon, if you don’t watch it, it turns into “I’m different and different is better than you.”
I’m not saying don’t be proud of your accomplishments, or the things you enjoy, or even that you’re a geek of whatever flavor. Fuck no. But don’t take that pride and turn it into your own personal jingoism. All that’s going to do is alienate you from other people and that shit stops flying once your balls drop.
I went to high school with two guys big into death metal. Remember how in high school music was a Big Fucking Deal? Well, one of these guys was an asshole. You know the kind of guy I’m talking about. He’d go off on your choice in music and tell you you were an idiot for liking whatever band wasn’t his.
But the other one? He didn’t give a flying fuck, it was all cool. He just wanted to share what he liked with you and he wanted you to share what you liked with him. If it wasn’t your thing, okay. But you get him talking about some band and by the end of the conversation you wanted to be a fucking roadie.
The difference, besides one guy being an asshole and the other one not, was his enthusiasm. He was passionate about what he loved and that passion was infectious.
I mean, mostly. I’m still not a fan of death metal.
Anyway, my point is that you can hole up in your basement and scowl at the world or you can take your passions and share them with everybody else.
There’s this thing called Geek And Sundry that started a couple weeks ago. One of the shows is Tabletop, where Wil Wheaton sits down with a handful of gamers and, well, plays a game.
I don’t know who half these people are, so it’s kind of like watching Celebrity Poker with a bunch of happy hobos they pulled off the street. I’m not, as they say, “plugged in”.
But this is like the guy in high school who could talk your ear off about some death metal band and make you want to go on tour for three years in the hopes that you can watch them make it big in Belgium.
Then there’s this thing by Penn Jillette that’s been floating around.
It’s a quote from an interview at Gameinformer from a few years back where he talks about an episode of Bullshit! where they examined video game violence.
Excellent point that. It’s easy to dismiss the things you don’t know just because you don’t know them. Folks who do that? They’re the asshole in high school who shits all over your taste in music.
So you have a choice. Whether it’s about your passion for video games, role playing games, obscure crime novels, knitting, jai alai, vintage spanking porn or whatever, you can push everyone away and wear it as a badge of honor that, frankly, nobody gives a fuck about.
Or you can let your enthusiasm shine through and share it. If it’s not somebody else’s bag that’s fine. It doesn’t have to be. But maybe it is and they just don’t know it, yet.
So, yeah, I think it’s time to set aside Geek Pride. Replace it with Geek Enthusiasm. It’s more useful.
I invite you to try it. What are the things you’re passionate about? What gets your engine revving?
Let your geek flag fly in the comments below.
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I was a hardcore nerd in school- played D&D, started the Coin Collector’s Club… but I also listened to metal, punk, classic rock and Frank Zappa, and was friendly with the arties and the smarties and the burnouts and everyone but the jocks, except the pals from the track team (I threw shotput). As I aged, I went to Starlog conventions in NYC and met fellow nerds, including bitter ones who loved to “freak the mundanes,” as in go wander the hotel in the costumes and then shout weird shit whenever someone asked what the fuck they were wearing a spacesuit for.
Those people drove me away from the nerd side for a decade or two, and now that I’ve embraced my old enthusiasms, I find it has degraded into a consumer subculture. Are gamers really “nerds” when they fund a multibillion dollar industry? Not to be a nerd elitist, but when nerds are proud that the President reads Conan comics and Colbert is a huge Tolkien nerd… it doesn’t mean we have taken over the world.
It means the world has absorbed us, like the music and fashion industry swallowed the hippies and Hot Topic put the tombstone on punk. It is not a subculture, or a counterculture. It is just another part of the monoculture, and it is time to stop defining yourself for liking the obscure. It’s about as meaningful as Liking something on Facebook, and serves the same purpose.
(And if you fly the geek flag in defiance for high school shunning and bullying… We didn’t get beat up for liking nerdy things, you know. We got beat up for being good targets.)
Thomas Pluck
April 16, 2012
I agree with this post.
Nick Mamatas
April 16, 2012
This is exactly why I started Speak Out with your Geek Out last year and why it’s been a community thing. The minute folks started to define geek, or obsess about specific definitions or words used, the mood went sour fast. Just being happy for whatever your flavor is, should be enough for the community as a whole. It’s not, and I hope that’ll change.
http://speakoutwithyourgeekout.com/
Monica
April 16, 2012
YES! When I was growing up I was a massive Star Trek nut. And Star Wars. I felt the need to closet that then because it got me made fun of even more than being fatter than Chunk from the Goonies. In high school, I was in band, choir and drama. Yeah. DORK! In college, though, I found people that praised my geekdoms. The fact that I can OWN you at a 6 degrees game? Trivia games? Hells yes. Honored by my loved ones. I’m even more of a geek now. I’ve blossomed in my nerddom. D&D, gaming, sf/f books and tv, comics.
I am a geek.
And damn proud of it.
Jamie Wyman
April 16, 2012
oh, and Tommy, we played a similar game to “Freak The Mundanes”. Just called it, “Scare the Straights”.
Jamie Wyman
April 16, 2012
I like this because I had interests across all of the nerd spectrum but never was really obsessive about any of it. I read comics and science fiction and played a little RPG, but I also watched a lot of musicals, and read a bunch of plays, and learned a lot about blues guitarists. I have no geek pride, I have Bryon pride, which entails many geeky things. I like that I’m comfortable chatting at a comic con, sci-fi con, mystery con, wine tasting, or Broadway opening.
Bryon Quertermous.
April 16, 2012
The thing about pride is that people seem to think having it means broadcasting it. You can be proud of who you are without having to put down other people’s interests; otherwise “pride” becomes just another expression of insecurity, doesn’t it?
Sarah
April 16, 2012
Monica, I totally forgot to mention Speak Out With Your Geek Out in this post until I’d already posted it. Are you doing it again this year?
Sarah, I think that’s the root of the problem. Instead of celebrating one’s interests it can be driven by anxieties to turn it into emotional armor. And the more insular one gets, and more of a dick about it, the more people get pushed away.
So, you know, mission accomplished. Unfortunately.
Stephen Blackmoore
April 16, 2012
[...] To which some people have responded with really negative remarks (here) and less negative remarks (here). [...]
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