A Debate On "Geek Culture"

[lazypadawan]

Accidentally I stumbled upon this post on a blog called Transmythology, which had an interesting essay called "Wake Up Geek Culture, Time To Live." It was a response to another essay by comedian Patton Oswalt called "Wake Up Geek Culture, Time To Die." You can read Transmythology's essay here and find a link to Oswalt's:

http://transmythology.com/2011/01/13/wake-up-geek-culture-time-to-live/

After reading both pieces, I think I see things more Transmythology's way. Given the pop culture touchstones in the "Time To Die" essay, I'm guessing that Oswalt is about my age. Once upon a time, pop culture and rock 'n roll took legwork. By gum, I remember when I had to watch PBS to see "Doctor Who" or "Monty Python's Flying Circus," listen to the low-wattage University of Miami's radio station for my fix of Echo And The Bunnymen, drive to parts of town where parking is impossible because those were the only places where you could find gothy print t-shirts or jewelry imported from London, order Doc Martens from the Blackout catalogue, or pay through the nose for imported CDs because your favorite band hasn't signed with anyone in the U.S. yet. I remember when you had to buy bootleg videotapes at comic book shows if you wanted anime, Chinese sword flicks, or British cult t.v. shows. I had to buy fanzines to read Star Wars fan fiction 15-20 years ago. Now, legwork consists of using a search engine.

Oswalt feels that something special and unique has been lost. I recall around the time TPM came out, I came to the realization that Star Wars fandom as I'd known it through the 1990s--my little lost tribe of Israel that I'd found around '91-'92--was going to change. With the Special Editions it had already started to change; there were people who wrote me worried about whether these new and younger fans were going to value the saga the way they did. I wrote in an editorial for my old fanzine back in '99: "SW fandom became a secret society, a Cosa Nostra of kindred spirits continuing their SW worship away from the public's eye. I used to say you're never sure who a SW fan might be, because you couldn't tell just by looking at somebody. Then he or she pulls out a copy of 'Heir to the Empire' or casually drops a line from the movies into conversation. We were like the early Christians hiding in the catacombs during the Roman Empire, and in a way, it was sort of cool. When you met a SW fan in those days, you knew you were meeting the real thing." Yes, the real thing and not someone who was just hopping the bandwagon at a particular moment in time.

But that genie has long since left the bottle with the horse that left the barn. The internet and home/on-the-go entertainment aren't going anywhere and neither are a bazillion cable channels on 24/7. It is nice to see a few thousand read your fan fics instead of maybe 100 tops and that there are a lot more people who somehow understand your strange fangirl obsessions or even your opinions on things you wouldn't dare voice in public. Now there's a BIG downside to what has happened to Star Wars in particular but on the other hand, you don't feel so alone either. I don't think I want to feel like I did in 1987 or 1988 when I really believed I was the last person on Earth who cared about Star Wars.

Transmythology's piece argues that the concepts of exclusivity and mastery still exist even with the easier access and I have to agree. Star Wars was always mainstream entertainment and the level of fandom has been layered for years, ranging from the kind of person who would see the movie once and buy it on DVD up to someone who can correct obscure Wookieepedia entries. Even the concept of mastery is fluid. Nobody is going to tell you you're not a real Star Wars fan if you haven't read every single book (including children's books) and played every video game and bought every collectible. I think mastery over the film saga's mythos is considered good enough. And even so, you can make the distinction between a co-worker who watches the movies occasionally and someone who can wax poetic on the tragic romance between Anakin and Padmé, or someone who can name the director and lead cast versus someone who can recognize Nick Gillard or the Clone Wars voice actors on sight.

Because there are more geeks than ever before, people are pretty understanding of your lifestyle in a way they weren't years ago. Everybody at my job knows I'm a Star Wars fan and I go to Comic Con every year. It's not a big deal. Moreover, when I run into someone who's not necessarily a Star Wars fan but loves anime, Twilight, Star Trek, Harry Potter, superheroes, or whatever, there's still that knowing wink and nod Oswalt talks about. It's even that way with sports fans sometimes, the original otakus.

Oswalt claims with so much available, pop culture gets mired in one big mashup and that hurts creativity. I think that's ridiculous. Everybody is inspired by something that already existed. As the Transmythology piece pointed out, the guy who is making The Shining-As-A-Comedy trailer today might be making Hollywood's blockbusters tomorrow. There are people who wrote fan fiction and graduated to getting their own books published.

It is what it is. Adjust and move on.

Comments

[krpalmer.livejournal.com]

I noticed someone else referring to Oswalt's article alone a little while ago, and she seemed a little suspicious of its viewpoint; that may (or may not) have started seeding a bit of suspicion in my own mind even before I looked at at last along with the Transmythology article. I suppose how we first experience content does affect how we react to it; I can wonder about someone who went to lengths to be mailed videotapes of a foreign program and saw it as a crowning cultural achievement, someone who bought it on DVD years later and made it part of a collection, and someone who just downloaded videos of it, watched it, and went on to the next similar thing... Still, I may not be as concerned as others about that content having to be "exclusive" or "worked for," and might even wonder if there's a bit of "if people aren't doing it my way, they're doing it wrong" somewhere.

So far as all of this applies to Star Wars, though, I do wonder a little about how some people go to lengths to identify influences on George Lucas, and how some of those foreign movies might have been "hard to see" back when he was in film school in the 1960s. It seems to tie into "putting things together..."

[a-blue-moon-cat.livejournal.com]

I liked the old days and old ways of doing things, but the new ways and days have their advantages, and might outweigh the old ones.

However, I do miss the days of fanfiction fanzines. Granted, they might have been available only at cons and through snail mail order, but they usually had some good artwork, stories that were at the very least copyedited, and some non-fiction info as well. :)

I don't read at fanfiction.net, for example. I do like that many fic writers use betas for their longer works, but if the beta can't spell or doesn't understand grammar or doesn't know the fic universe well enough to catch basic mistakes, then they are not of much help, alas. :( I tend to stick with good writers that have either been rec'ed to me or that I have been lucky enough to discover on my own, and I do try and rec good writers. :)

The one major problem that both fanzines and fic on-line have in common are the WIPs. There are too many WIPs out there that are good that have never been completed. That makes me (and other readers) unhappy. I realize that there are many reasons, good, bad, and indifferent, for why WIPs don't get completed, but it's still somewhat frustrating, esp. if the storyline is awesome. If there's a multi-part fic on tap, I like to hear that the writer is done with it before she starts posting. I do realize that this is not always possible, of course, but such trusted authors make for happier readers. That being said, I did once post a WIP, so never again.

As for bad fics, there's always the back button. :)

[lazypadawan.livejournal.com]

Whenever I do my rare multi-parter, nobody sees it until it is completed. It's better that way.