Well, well, well. The spring of '99 has certainly seen a lot of attention focused on what are commonly called "Geeks." Rev. Kinesis wrote an article, Mr. John$on responded, the sit-com "Jesse" did an episode on Dungeons & Dragons, and most of all, we have the widespread coverage of Star Wars and the people who love it. This article might have been called "Geeks In The Spotlight," except for the fact that most of the attention being focused on geek culture is less than loving.As some people may be marginally aware, May saw the release of the somewhat-anticipated "Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace", a quaint little low-tech thriller about a boy, a girl and a galaxy. Reportedly, it makes the heart go "gush." Word also has it that some people spent dozens to hundreds of hours in line to get tickets. For the people in line, it was just something fun to do. It was a little like camping out, and you were with other people who were as into Star Wars as you were. The camping out made the news in many cities. The news reports were kind, for the most part, but the entertainment media was not. This is where the most exposure was given to geeks recently, and it wasn't good. "Geeks" came across, yet again, as the unlikable and unliked loner. The weirdo clinging to un-cool fantasies.
How are geeks known this way? Thanks partly to the Jay Leno, who spent many nights in May portraying sci-fi fans as deranged, foul-smelling and perpetually virginous freaks of society. [Exhibit A - "Han Solo Condoms: Lifetime Supply!", a box with one condom in it.] There were several editorial cartoons that were particularly vicious. Besides which, it's an old stereotype that gained wide distribution in the "Revenge of the Nerds" movies.
Am I angry? Not really. To me, the hyper-uncool geek is an old joke. To some degree I even realize it's applicable to a percentage of "geek society." Is the exposure a reason to be proud? Does it mean geeks have attained an "unassailable niche in the larger culture?" I don't think so. For the most part, unless you are a geek, you're largely unaware there are geeks. Rev. Kinesis had it right, but in a narrower way than he probably meant: we have each other (but precious little else.)
Most people know about the programmer "subculture", and maybe about Trekkies, but rarely does your average person seriously consider the existence of a true geek subculture "behind it all". I suspect most "normals" would be surprised that there are events like Dragon*Con, where one can find 18,000 people who all have something geeky in common.
It does seem true that most geeks have at least one or two things in common with each other: comics, role-playing games, MUDding, anime, Star Trek or Xena - it's a fairly safe bet that if you bump into someone interested in one of those things, that person is probably into one of the others as well. There seem to be certain activities common to geeks, some things we all have some exposure to. Sometimes these interests even overlap slightly with the "normal world."
It does not mean we have "come of age," as a sub-culture. Not as far as the rest of the world cares. We're just a little more aware of each other, largely thanks to the internet. The "normals" pay us about as much attention as they do the Hell's Angels or the New York S&M Undergound, and Hell's Angels pay us even less attention. An episode of Jesse is quickly forgotten, and so what if a town has a lot of game stores? The people who don't shop there probably ignore their existence just like they do all the other dozens of shops they drive by every day. If someone needs their network fixed, they call what they think of as a programmer, or "one of the technology guys."
As for "geeks", that's all us. We've got a name for ourselves. We're into things other people aren't. There's nothing wrong with that, but on the other hand, it doesn't really do us any good, either.
We're just a bunch of Geeks.
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